The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-05-19
The GrOWth of.
Workers Theatres
During the Crisis
By BEN BLAKE


tablished themselves as the most
vital force in the American theatre
today When in 1880 the workers
theatre launched the slogan, The
atre is a weapon in the class strug-
gle" the number Of workers dra-
matte groups performing reyolu-
tionary plays in English in this
country could be counted on tne
fingers Of one hand. But as the
first "agitprop troupes"-the Ger
man-speaking Prolet- Buehne and
the Workers Laboratory Theatre Of
New York-began to make them
selves heard from the platforms Of
workers halls, and as the magazine
Workers Theatre" (sinCe become
New Theatre') made its appear
ance, the idea Of 2 consciously poll
teal workers theatre spread from
city TO city and town to town.
Everywhere agitprop troupes spr2ng
up, mobile theatres Of agitation anG
propaganda, using very little scenery
and props, able to travel all around
town performing on the barest plat
form, and thus bringing the revolu-
tionary message of militancy, or
ganization, and class power to the
Negro and white workers of Amer
lea, most of whom had never been
inside a regular theatre in their life.
AS THE workers theatre, lusty and
"a crude and dynamic, continued to
grow, a small but increasing num-
Der Of craftsmen in the crisis
smitten bourgeois theatre, attracted
by the creative vigor and social in
spiration Of what they recognized
was to be the new theatre of the
future, sought to aid in the advance
of this theatre. At the same time,
the new working class audience be-
gan to demand better productions,
and the leaders Of the workers the
atre (organized as the League of
Workers Theatres Of the U. S. A.
themselves understood that without
serious work to improve the artistic
quality of their productions, with
out serious efforts to master the best
elements Of stage technique, there
could be no further growth. Thea
tire training classes were estab-
lished. Radicalized professional thea
tire workers were welcomed and en-
listed as teachers, The "agitprop
theatre" became the theatre of ac-
tion," broadening the scope and
quality of its work.
This whole later phase of develop
ment has taken place within the
past two years. But the relation
ship between the workers theatre
and the radicalzed craftsmen in
the bourgeois theatre has not been
limited to training. For in this very
same period, another very import
ant development has taken place
the growth Of a number of revolu-
tionary stationary theatres" pro-
fessional and semi professional, pro-
ducing mainly full-length plays
along the traditional more or less
elaborate lines of the present-day
theatre, performing on standard
stages, and involving large num-
bers Of people from the bourgeois
commercial and little art" thea
tres. These artists and intellectuals
have felt themselves stifled, crea-
lively and economically, in the
bourgeois theatre.
REVOLUTIONARY stationary the
N aires producing in English al
ready include the Rebel Players Of
Los Angeles, the New Theatre Of
Hollywood, the Workers Theatre Of
Chicago, the Theatre Collective and
the Unity Theatre of New York,
and, of course. the Theatre Union,
whose successful production of
Peace on Earth" and "Stevedore"
on an all-professional basis has es-
tablished it as the leading revolu-
tionary stationary theatre in the
United States.
Around the magazine New The
atre," the official organ Of the
League Of Workers Theatres, a
group of contributing editors has
been crystallized which includes not
only some of the best artists in the
revolutionary movement, but also
some of the best creative forces that
have grown up in the bourgeois
theatre Sidney Howard, Mordecai
Gorelik, Lee Strasberg, Alfred
Kreymborg, Virgil Geddes, and
Halle Flanagan are among them,
as are Mike Gold, Joseph Freeman,
Michael Blankfor' Paul Peters,
Paul and Claire Sifton, John
Howard Lawson, and host Of
others.