An oral history interview with Robert ("Bobby") Lewis / conducted by Peggy Meyer Sherry for The Kurt Weill Foundation for Music, Weill-Lenya Research Center, New York City, 1991 May 29 : recording and transcript.

ArchivalResource

An oral history interview with Robert ("Bobby") Lewis / conducted by Peggy Meyer Sherry for The Kurt Weill Foundation for Music, Weill-Lenya Research Center, New York City, 1991 May 29 : recording and transcript.

Lewis recalls Kurt Weill's lectures on "Sprechstimme" to Group Theatre members at their summer retreat in Nichols, Conn., in 1936; discusses the Group Theatre's theory and practice (and their collisions); criticizes Lee Strasberg's direction of Johnny Johnson; evaluates the relative merits of the book and score of the musical; and examines Brecht's influence on Weill's American period and on later Broadway composers. Discussion relates to Phoebe Brand, Bertolt Brecht, Robert Brustein, Harold Clurman, Russell Collins, Cheryl Crawford, Agnes de Mille, Lehman Engel, Paul Green, Lotte Lenya, Sandy Meisner, Lee Strasberg, Clifford Odets, and Kurt Weill.

1 transcript (23 p.) ; 28 cm.1 sound cassette (ca. 75 min.): analog, 1 5/16 ips., stereo.

Related Entities

There are 17 Entities related to this resource.

Group Theatre (U.S.)

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w63z8xrg (corporateBody)

Sherry, Peggy Meyer.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6bz686v (person)

Brustein, Robert Sanford, 1927-....

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6wm27b7 (person)

Director. From the description of Reminiscences of Robert Sanford Brustein : oral history, 1967. (Columbia University In the City of New York). WorldCat record id: 122569433 ...

Strasberg, Lee

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6377kv2 (person)

Theatrical producer director. From the description of Reminiscences of Lee Strasberg : oral history, 1980. (Columbia University In the City of New York). WorldCat record id: 309735059 ...

Clurman, Harold, 1901-1980

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6dn4mj7 (person)

Harold Clurman, director, author, teacher, critic, and occasional actor, was born Harold Edgar Clurman on September 18, 1901, in New York City, son of Samuel M. and Bertha (Saphir) Clurman. Mr. Clurman was co-founder of the Group Theatre (1931) and was made executive consultant of the Repertory Theatre of Lincoln Center. He became theater critic for "The Nation" in 1953 and also wrote for the "London Observer", "New Republic" and "Tomorrow Magazine". He married Stella Adler in 1943, he later mar...

Meisner, Sanford

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w66q9gbm (person)

Collins, Russell, 1897-1965

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6qv70pk (person)

Engel, Lehman, 1910-1982

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6p84n1m (person)

Composer, conductor, author. From the description of Reminiscences of Lehman Engel : oral history, 1979. (Columbia University In the City of New York). WorldCat record id: 122597833 ...

Brecht, Bertolt, 1898-1956

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w67082kg (person)

Brecht was a German dramatist and poet. Karl Korsch was a Marxist theoretician. From the description of Correspondence with Karl Korsch, 1934-ca.1954. (Harvard University). WorldCat record id: 122556373 From the guide to the Bertolt Brecht correspondence with Karl Korsch, ca. 1934-1954., (Houghton Library, Harvard College Library, Harvard University) Reyersbach was a pediatrician with special training in endocrinology and rheumatic diseases; she came to the U.S. in ...

Weill, Kurt

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6rr1x51 (person)

As a result of the success of his Broadway musical Lady in the dark in 1941, German-born composer Kurt Weill and his wife, the singing actress Lotte Lenya, were able to buy "Brook House," in Rockland County, New York, moving there during their sixth year in the United States. From Brook House, and a couple of addresses in Los Angeles during his trips there, Weill kept in touch, until a month before his death, with his parents, who had emigrated to Israel in 1935. From the description...

Green, Paul, 1894-1981

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6v98b53 (person)

Paul Eliot Green(1894-1981) was a Southern playwright, poet, and novelist. Born in Lillington, North Carolina, Green lived in the state all of his life and tried to capture in his writings the culture and heritage of the American South, concentrating on the experiences of tenant farmers, mill workers, Native Americans and African Americans. Green studied at the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill under folk dramatist Frederick Koch of the Carolina Playmakers. After an interruption of his ...

Lenya, Lotte

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w68g8mvt (person)

Born in Austria, Lenya became an actress in Zürich, then moved to Berlin where she met and married Kurt Weill. They emigrated to the U.S. in 1935, where Lenya lived until her death a few months after this interview was recorded. From the description of An oral history interview with Lotte Lenya / conducted for the Kurt Weill Foundation for Music by Alan Rich, New City, N.Y., 1981 : recording and transcript. (Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison). WorldCat record id: 12258368...

Odets, Clifford, 1906-1963

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6dr2x59 (person)

Playwright; New York, N.Y. From the description of Clifford Odets sketches. (New York Public Library). WorldCat record id: 42743828 Clifford Odets was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1906. He left school at age fourteen and worked as an actor in local New York theater groups and traveling stock companies until 1930. That same year the Group Theatre was formed. As one of the founding members, Odets continued acting, but found new release for his creativity in writing pl...

Carnovsky, Phoebe Brand.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w61k04vv (person)

Crawford, Cheryl, 1902-1986

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6pn9q5x (person)

Producer/director Cheryl Crawford (1902-1986) was a founding member of the Group Theatre in 1931, and of the Actors Studio in 1947. Born in Akron, Ohio, Crawford became involved with the Theatre Guild in the 1920s, first as secretary, later as actress and stage manager, and ultimately as casting director. With Lee Strasberg she co-directed the Group Theatre's first production, THE HOUSE OF CONNELLY, in 1931, and went on to direct and/or produce many plays in the decades ...

Lewis, Robert, 1909-1997

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6qg2zvq (person)

American actor. From the description of An oral history interview with Robert ("Bobby") Lewis / conducted by Peggy Meyer Sherry for The Kurt Weill Foundation for Music, Weill-Lenya Research Center, New York City, 1991 May 29 : recording and transcript. (Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison). WorldCat record id: 122536427 Theatrical director. From the description of Reminiscences of Robert Lewis : oral history, 1959. (Columbia University In the City of New...

De Mille, Agnes

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6f47qfd (person)

American dancer and choreographer. From the description of An oral history interview with Agnes de Mille / conducted by Peggy Sherry for the Kurt Weill Foundation for Music, Weill-Lenya Research Center, 1991 Aug. 9 : recording and transcript. (Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison). WorldCat record id: 122537807 Agnes de Mille (b. 1909-d. 1993) was an American choreographer, dancer, and author. From the description of Papers, 1918-1972. (Unknown). WorldCat...