THE CIRCLE REPERTORY COMPANY: THE FIRST FIFTEEN YEARS (NEW YORK CITY).
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Title
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THE CIRCLE REPERTORY COMPANY: THE FIRST FIFTEEN YEARS (NEW YORK CITY).
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Identifier
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AAI8611378
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identifier
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8611378
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Creator
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RYZUK, MARY S.
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Contributor
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Vera Mowry Roberts
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Date
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1986
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Theater
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Abstract
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This history traces the evolution of the Circle Repertory Company, co-founded by Marshall W. Mason, Rob Thirkield, Lanford Wilson and Tanya Berezin, from its innocuous beginnings in an uptown loft in 1969, to its fifteenth anniversary year as a critically acclaimed Off-Broadway theatrical institution in 1984. It attempts not only to place the CRC within the context of Off-Off Broadway where it was born, the Off-Broadway milieu in which it came to full fruition, and contemporary American theatre in general, but also to place it within the broad, ever-changing sociological environment it so clearly reflects. This is done by chronicling the adventure of the company's development from its inception as a dedicated, idealistic group of young hippie-like artists in the tumultuous, war-torn, drug-laden climate of the 1960s--reached its artistic turing point during the me-generation atmosphere of the 1970s--and finally became institutionalized and part of the establishment during the conservative aura of the 1980s. It shall be shown that although the company is best known for lyric realism, categorizing lyric realism as the identifiable style of the CRC is, in fact, not accurate.;The following patterns will be traced: (1) CRC's philosophy, which began as a company created by and dedicated to the artists, with the primary focus on the actor; (2) The astonishing specific that the CRC was the only company that insisted on performing in the realistic genre during the extreme avant-garde impetus of the nineteen-sixties; (3) The fact that CRC is not only one of the few companies in existence--a distinguishing feature--but the only one that concentrates on new American plays; (4) CRC's process for discovery in which the developmental pursuit itself is more important than the "success" of the end product; (5) How critical enthusiasm changed the emphasis from the actor to an extensive concentration on new plays and new playwrights; (6) How, in this context, critics play a significant role in determining the direction in which a company will grow, not only by demanding new plays, but also by laying the foundation for future finding--the essence of survival. (7) How success, in a sense, can spoil the very process that creates success; no longer permitted to fail, experimentation is greatly reduced and "hits" are sought, thereby forcing the non-profit CRC into the same flop-hit syndrome of commerical theatre. (Abstract shortened with permission of author.).
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
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Program
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Theatre
