Journeys in the Night: Creating a New American Theatre with Circle in the Square: A Memoir

by Theodore Mann

Overview

(Applause Books). This is Theodore Mann's account of his own and the Circle's remarkable history. At times it's difficult to tell where the two diverge, so integral to the company has he been. From Thornton Wilder to Al Pacino, it seems as if every great actor and playwright of the past fifty years has had his or her best work at Circle. As befits a story about theatre, it is at times comic and at times tragic. If you ever wondered how Off-Broadway ever came to be (and how it ever managed to survive), this is the tale to read. DVD BONUS: As a special bonus, An American Theatre Revolution includes a DVD of the 1977 CBS-TV Camera Three program "Twenty Five Years of Circle in the Square." It features Dustin Hoffman, George C. Scott, Vanessa Redgrave, Colleen Dewhurst, James Earl Jones, and Mann himself talking about their experiences at the theatre and includes excerpts of such noted Circle in the Square productions as Death of a Salesman, Mourning Becomes Electra , and The Lady from the Sea .

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781557836458
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	09/01/2007
Series:	Applause Books
Edition description:	BK & DVD
Pages:	418
Product dimensions:	6.31(w) x 9.22(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Theodore Mann (New York City) grew up in Brooklyn, New York, spent WWII as a sergeant in Carmel, California, helped his father operate a few nightspots on New York's famed 52nd Street and elsewhere, but mostly has spent his entire career devoted to the Circle in the Square Theatre. His wife was the renowned opera star Patricia Brooks. He resides in New York but never seems to alight anywhere for long and is still actively overseeing both Circle in the Square Theatre and its celebrated Theatre School, as well as directing plays and opera.

Editorial Reviews

Producer and director Mann was the muse behind the creation, survival, and triumph of the Circle in the Square theater; its first hit production (1952) has been acknowledged as "the birth of off-Broadway." The Circle played a significant role in revitalizing the work of various playwrights, most significantly Eugene O'Neill, and Mann dedicates major portions of his memoir to O'Neill's plays and the relationship between the Circle and O'Neill's widow, Carlotta Monterey O'Neill. The theater's commitment was "to present...great classic plays that were rarely if ever seen on Broadway," as well as new plays. The list of once unknown actors who were successfully launched by the Circle reads like a who's who of Broadway and Hollywood. This memoir is roughly chronological with frequent flashbacks and side trips. Mann does tend to ramble, but for the most part this is a delightful insider's view of the development of off-Broadway and regional theater; it leaves the reader thoroughly impressed that Mann and his colleagues managed to stay afloat at all, let alone thrive. Highly recommended for theater history and biography collections. (DVD not seen.)
—Laura A. Ewald

Library Journal