Alice Lewisohn

Alice Lewisohn (1883–1972) was the founder of the Neighborhood Playhouse with her sister Irene Lewisohn. Alice was also an actress.[1]

Alice Lewisohn Crowley
1922 passport photo
Born1883
Manhattan, New York City
Died1972
Zurich
SpouseHerbert E. Crowley
ParentLeonard Lewisohn
Relatives

Biography

She was the daughter of Rosalie Jacobs and Leonard Lewisohn.[1][2][3] In 1905 she and her sister, Irene Lewisohn, began classes and club work at the Henry Street Settlement House in New York. They produced performances with both dance and drama. In 1915, they opened the Neighborhood Playhouse on the corner of Grand and Pitt Streets.[4] There they offered training in both dance and drama to children and teenagers. Irene was in charge of the dance training and production, with the assistance of Blanche Talmud. Alice Lewisohn was in charge of the dramatic arts.[5] In 1924 she married artist, cartoonist and designer Herbert E. Crowley.[6] Her father is of Jewish background.

She resided in Zurich, Switzerland for many years and was part of the Carl Jung inner circle,[7] along with Crowley.[8] The notion of a hermaphroditic God, drawn from Kabbalah, was suggested to Jung by Alice Lewisohn, and commented on by Jung in a dream analysis seminar.[9]

In 1927 Lewisohn closed the Neighborhood Playhouse after a dozen years of success, including landmark productions such as 1925's The Dybbuk.

After the First World War, Lewisohn settled in Zurich with her husband.[10] She died in Zurich 1972 as Alice Lewisohn Crowley.[11][12]

Publications

Broadway
  • Gertrude Kingston and a Visiting Company - The Queen's Enemies, performer: Alice Lewisohn as The Queen (1916)
  • Back to Methuselah, Part II (The Gospel of the Brothers Barnabas), staged by Alice Lewisohn (1922)
  • The Dybbuk, staged in association with Alice Lewisohn (1925-1926)
  • Pinwheel, directed by Alice Lewisohn (1927)

References
  1. "Miss Alice Lewisohn is Now an Actress. Member of Well-Known Family on the Stage as Eleanora Leigh. She Denies That She Is Stage Struck, and Says Her Purpose Is to Educate Herself". The New York Times. November 14, 1906. Retrieved 2008-12-16.
  2. "He Succumbed to Pneumonia in London After a Three Days' Illness. Was Fifty-four Years Old" (PDF). The New York Times. March 6, 1902. Retrieved 2008-12-15.
  3. "Leonard Lewisohn Left $12,000,000" (PDF). The New York Times. March 6, 1902. Retrieved 2008-12-15.
  4. "Historical note". New York Public Library. Archived from the original on 2016-03-03. Retrieved 2008-12-16. In 1914, the Lewisohns bought a lot on the corner of Grand and Pitt Streets and donated it to the Settlement as the site of a new theater that would provide better performance space and teaching facilities. The Neighborhood Playhouse opened in 1915, showing both motion pictures and theatrical performances.
  5. "Guide to the Neighborhood Playhouse. Scenarios, 1914-1931". New York Public Library. Retrieved 2008-12-16.
  6. Angels in the American Theater: Patrons, Patronage, and Philanthropy edited by Robert A Schanke. SIU Press. 2007. ISBN 9780809327478. Retrieved 2013-10-19.
  7. The Life of the Neighborhood Playhouse on Grand Street By John P. Harrington. Syracuse Univ Pr (Sd). 30 December 2007. ISBN 9780815631552. Retrieved 2013-10-19.
  8. "Dan Nadel brings the secret history of comics to Cinefamily on May 30". herocomplex.latimes.com. Retrieved 2013-10-19.
  9. "Routes of Wholeness: Jungian and Post-Jungian Dialogues with the Western Esoteric Tree of Life Lloyd Kenton Keane A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Centre for Psychoanalytic Studies University of Essex, 2007 (pp. 89)". scribd.com. Archived from the original on 2013-10-22. Retrieved 2013-10-19.
  10. "Broadway Photographs: Alice Lewisohn". broadway.cas.sc.edu. Retrieved 2013-10-19.
  11. "Miss Alice Crowley Formed Playhouse". The New York Times. January 12, 1972. Retrieved 2008-12-16. Mrs. Alice Lewisohn Crowley, a daughter of Leonard Lewisohn, who founded a major copper mining concern with his younger brother, Adolph, died in Zurich last ...
  12. "Alice Lewisohn Crowley". The New York Times. January 7, 1972. The Board of Directors, Administrative Staff and Students of the Playhouse School of the Theatre, sadly mark; the passing of Alice Lewisohn Crowley, ...
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