A LASTING LEGACY : STARS PAY HOMAGE TO GROUP THEATER

Joanne Woodward, Paul Newman, Ellen Burstyn, Shelley Winters, Barbara Baxley and other stage, screen and television stars gathered in this sleepy college town over the weekend for a tribute to a 50-year-old, little-known institution that they said had left a lasting legacy to all American actors--the Group Theater of the 1930s.

“We are all descendants,” said Woodward, host of the event that was held here Sunday at the Williamstown Theater Festival, a 33-year-old summer theater company based on the campus of Williams College.

The three-hour program included reminiscences of the Group Theater years, recorded interviews with original members of the Group and film clips from plays produced by the Group. Throughout, the standing-room-only audience of several hundred in the Williams-town auditorium remained riveted to a rich history that included legendary names and plays that, they were continuously reminded from the speakers, were little known to the current generation.

Among those in the audience were theater buffs both from the local community and from New York and many of the well-known actors who are members of the current company at Williamstown. Among those performing here this season are Rob Lowe, Kate Burton, Stockard Channing, Stephen Collins, John Heard, Edward Herrmann, Amy Irving, Christopher Reeve, Christopher Walken, Jerry Stiller, Julie Hagerty, Jim Belushi and Joan Van Ark.

Also at Williamstown this summer is Margaret Baker, one of the few original members of the Group who is still active as an actress.

The Group Theater consisted of an ensemble of New York producers, directors, designers and actors who adapted the Stanislavsky method of acting, previously associated with the Moscow Art Theater, to American acting technique. Founded by the late Lee Strasberg, Harold Clurman and Cheryl Crawford, the Group formally existed from 1931 to 1941 and produced such ground-breaking plays as Clifford Odets’ “Awake and Sing,” “Waiting for Lefty” and “Paradise Lost.”

The Group led to the 1947 formation of the Actors Studio. But it was the direction and instruction of disciples of the Group, such as Elia Kazan, Robert Lewis, Sanford Meisner and Stella Adler, that have influenced actors of subsequent generations.

“It was the most exciting theater that has existed in this country,” playwright Sidney Kingsley said Sunday. Kingsley, whose 1933 Pulitzer Prize-winning play “Men in White” was produced by the Group, was one of the few original members of the Group to participate in the event.

Winters received the most enthusiastic response of the day when she noted near the end of her remarks that she was trying to teach young actors today “to rediscover the social significance of what the theater and actors are all about.”

Aside from artistic experimentation, the Group was known for its controversial point of view, which grew out of the political and social ferment of the late 1920s and early ‘30s. Many of the original Group members, including Nelson, subsequently became victims of the blacklist that spread through the entertainment industry during the McCarthy anti-communist fervor of the 1950s.

“Listening to all of this today, I cannot help think what a tragedy it was that the Group wasn’t named the National Theater of the United States,” Burstyn said. “With all the talent, aspiration, ideals, intellect and moral commitment, it’s a pity that it didn’t last longer than eight or nine years. On the other hand, if it had, the teachers and directors who came out of it wouldn’t have gone on to benefit all of us.”

During an earlier interview, Woodward, who initiated the idea of Sunday’s event as part of a plan to produce a 90-minute documentary for public television that she started planning three years ago, expressed similar sentiments about the “enormous influence” of the Group, its members and its disciples.

“Everything will remain on the back burner until I have this project completed,” Woodward said of the documentary project. “I’ll hock my soul if I have to.”

The documentary is being produced at New York’s WNET on a budget of $735,000, she said, but she has found few sources to fund the project. Beyond some money from the National Endowment for the Arts and a few individuals, Woodward said that most of the funds to date have come from Newman’s Own, the food-products company created by Newman to help finance the couple’s various charitable activities. However, she said that between $200,000 and $300,000 still is needed to complete the documentary.

In addition to 18 hours of completed interviews with members of the Group, Woodward plans to film portions of a 50th-anniversary production of Odets’ “Golden Boy” that is being staged here this summer, under her direction.

“I would love to see the major (film) studios and (theatrical talent) agencies contribute to the project,” Woodward said. “Obviously, they are the direct beneficiaries of the Group’s continuing influence.”