An oral history interview with Morris Carnovsky and Phoebe Brand Carnovsky / conducted for the Kurt Weill Foundation for Music by John Mucci, Pine Brook Lodge, Connecticut, 1987 September 14 : recording and transcript.

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An oral history interview with Morris Carnovsky and Phoebe Brand Carnovsky / conducted for the Kurt Weill Foundation for Music by John Mucci, Pine Brook Lodge, Connecticut, 1987 September 14 : recording and transcript.

The Carnovskys recall the original production of Kurt Weill and Paul Green's Johnny Johnson on Broadway in 1936. They discuss the preparations for the show, the reasons it was not a success, and the difficulties of the Group Theatre at that time, with particular reference to Cheryl Crawford, Lee Strasberg, and Clifford Odets. They detail the preparations the Group made during the summer of 1936, and Weill's role in coaching them. They also recount what it was like to see The eternal road, which ran on Broadway in the first months of 1937. Finally, they discuss the special features of Weill's song style and Lotte Lenya's mastery of them.

1 transcript (33 p.) ; 28 cm.1 sound cassette (ca. 90 min.) : analog, 1 5/16 ips., stereo.

Related Entities

There are 10 Entities related to this resource.

Group Theatre (U.S.)

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

Mucci, John

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w60z7xbs (person)

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

Carnovsky, Morris

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w62f8gpq (person)

Actor. From the description of Reminiscences of Morris Carnovsky : oral history, [196-?]. (Columbia University In the City of New York). WorldCat record id: 122608344 American actors and members of the Group Theatre. From the description of An oral history interview with Morris Carnovsky and Phoebe Brand Carnovsky / conducted for the Kurt Weill Foundation for Music by John Mucci, Pine Brook Lodge, Connecticut, 1987 September 14 : recording and transcript. (Paul, ...

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...