New Theatre League, New York

The New Theatre League was a group of theatre professionals working in New York City. A successor to the League of Workers' Theatres (of the U.S.A.), the New Theatre League existed between 1935 and 1942. It published New Theatre, which was renamed Theatre and Film and then New Theatre News.

New Theatre magazine, October 1936 issue

History

The New Theatre League had its genesis in the workers' theatre movement,[1] whose umbrella organisation was in the mid-1930s the League of Workers' Theatres[2] (of U.S.A.).[3]

The New Theatre League was a left-wing federation of little theatres and amateur theatrical groups, whose productions were aimed at addressing political issues of the day. It ran the New Theatre School and Theatre Workshop, a training school that used the Stanislavsky Method for educating actors, theatre directors, playwrights, and stage managers.[1]

New Theatre League productions included Irwin Shaw's Bury the Dead, and Marc Blitzstein's The Cradle Will Rock.[1]

Artists

Theatre professionals who worked with the League included:[1]

Publications

Workers Theatre[4] had been published irregularly since April 1931, originally by the International Workers Dramatic Union and the League of Workers Theatres of the U.S.A., until around 1933.[5]

Not to be confused with New Theatre Quarterly.

Its history is complicated,[3] but New Theatre began in 1934, was then published by the New Theatre League. It was renamed Theatre and Film to reflect a broadened focus, effective with the start of volume 4 in March 1937.[6] Sometime before November 1939 it became New Theatre News.[7] New Theatre was also the official organ of the Workers Dance League and Workers Film and Photo League for at least some of its life.[3]

References
  1. "New Theatre League records". New York Public Library: Archives and Manuscripts. Retrieved November 19, 2022.
  2. Burrell, J. (2019). The Civil Rights Theatre Movement in New York, 1939–1966: Staging Freedom. Palgrave Studies in Theatre and Performance History. Springer International Publishing. p. 56. ISBN 978-3-030-12188-4. Retrieved November 20, 2022.
  3. "New theatre (New York, N.Y.)" (catalogue entry for journal). Bibliothèque Famille Bleviss. Retrieved November 20, 2022. Organ of: the Workers Theatres of U.S.A. and Workers Dance League and Workers Film and Photo League, Sept./Oct. 1933- ; League of Workers Theatres and National Film League, -June 1934; League of Workers Theatres, Film and Photo League, and Workers Dance League, July/Aug. 1934-Jan. 1935; New Theatre League, National Film and Photo and Workers Dance League, Feb. 1935; New Theatre League and Workers Dance League, Mar. 1935
  4. Workers Theatre, OCLC WorldCat, OCLC No. 5012730.
  5. "Workers theatre" (catalogue entry). UCLA Library. Retrieved November 20, 2022. New York : League of Workers Theatres. V. 1-5, no. 7/8; April 1931-July/Aug. 1933. Sept./Oct. 1932 and Jan./Feb. 1933, v.3, Nr. 1-2 are published by the International Workers Dramatic Union.
  6. New Theatre, Princeton University Library.
  7. "New Theatre League records: Detailed Description: Series IX. Publications of the New Theatre League 1934-1941". New York Public Library: Archives and Manuscripts. Retrieved November 21, 2022. Series contains runs of New Theatre (incomplete), Theatre and Film, and New Theatre News (incomplete)... New Theatre, June, 1934 - Nov. 1936; Theatre and Film, April, 1937; New Theatre News Nov. 1939 - April, 1941

Further reading
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