The Stella Adler and Harold Clurman papers consist of typescript and handwritten manuscripts, notes, lecture transcripts, annotated texts of plays, class schedules, clippings, proofs, photographs, slides, negatives, correspondence, legal and financial papers, datebooks, certificates, brochures, and theater programs, all ranging in date from 1898 to 2003. The material is organized in five series: I. Stella Adler, 1906-2003; II. Stella Adler Conservatory, 1958-2003; III. Russian Theater, 1898-1968; IV. Yiddish Theater, 1900-2000; and V. Harold Clurman, 1919-1989. The Stella Adler series is further arranged into four subseries: A. Teaching Material, 1950-1990; B. Works by Adler, 1960-2001; C. Career-Related and Personal Material, 1906-2001; and D. Works by Others, 1933-2003. The Harold Clurman series is divided into two subseries: A. Works, 1919-1980; and B. Career-Related and Personal Material, 1926-1989.
Adler's teaching material makes up a large portion of the archive. Teaching notes and lecture transcripts, along with class outlines, schedules, and similar items from courses in Characterization, Script Interpretation, Staging, Technique, and other areas, date from 1950 to 1990. Because Adler continuously reworked her lectures, many of the notes and transcripts date from one period but have handwritten revisions made for later classes. Of particular note are materials relating to numerous Script Interpretation courses analyzing plays by Anton Chekhov, Noel Coward, Henrik Ibsen, William Inge, Arthur Miller, Clifford Odets, William Saroyan, George Bernard Shaw, August Strindberg, Thornton Wilder, Tennessee Williams, and other playwrights. Transcripts of scene critiques, in which Adler commented upon student acting, and her annotated playscripts and excerpts from scripts, are also present, as are notes on breakdowns and blocking for various plays. Class notes are compiled by Adler, colleagues Elizabeth "Betsy" Parrish and Jeffrey Horowitz, and others. Character and Technique class materials also include lists of assignments, and Character classes are also represented by photographs taken during classes held in the 1980s. Slides used in teaching, particularly in Character classes, include European art and sights.
Over one thousand video and audio recordings of Adler's classes have been removed from the papers and cataloged separately.
Works by Adler in subseries B. include proofs of her books The Art of Acting and Stella Adler on Ibsen, Strindberg and Chekhov, in addition to typescripts and tearsheets of various essays. Of particular note is a typescript titled "How I Met Stanislavski."
Within the career-related and personal material in subseries C., correspondence includes personal letters as well as letters from students and fans dating from 1938 to 1992. While most of the correspondence is incoming, some copies and drafts of Adler's outgoing letters are present, as are letters received by her daughter, Ellen Adler, after Adler's death. Legal and financial materials include publishing agreements, royalty statements, and Adler's will, among other items. Production photographs and film stills from Adler's acting career, studio photographs, and photographs of Adler teaching and traveling are present, as are photographs of Jacob Adler, Sara Adler, Harold Clurman, and other family members, friends, and colleagues. Adler's address books, Christmas list, datebooks, honorary degrees, and lists of books are some of the other personal materials found in the archive.
Works by Others, subseries D., includes works about Adler as well as typescripts by Lionel Abel, Saul Bellow, E. L. Doctorow, Christopher Fry, Tennessee Williams, and others. Notes of lectures by Sanford Meisner, taken by Mark Bailey, date from 1959 to 1960. Also of interest is Pavel Antokolskii's handwritten manuscript of entries from E. B. Vakhtangov's diaries.
Series II., The Stella Adler Conservatory, is represented by business papers, including legal documents, an operations manual, student rules, correspondence, brochures, class rosters, and other material.
The Russian theater series includes transcripts of lectures by Richard Boleslavksy, photographs of Stanislavsky, material relating to Adler's visit to Russia, and notes, correspondence, and broadcasts of transcripts from the 1964 "Seminars in Drama" featuring members of the Moscow Art Theatre in discussion with their American colleagues, including Adler.
Yiddish theater material in series IV. consists of articles and other material relating to the Adler family, Sara Adler's Yiddish memoir and autobiographical playscript, and Yiddish works by other authors, many unidentified.
Series V., the Harold Clurman series, includes original and photocopy material gathered by Marjorie Loggia, who edited The Collected Works of Harold Clurman with Glenn Young. Many of these items are accompanied by notes made by Loggia. Of particular interest are a handwritten draft of The Fervent Years, a photocopy typescript of "Plans for a First Studio," handwritten and typescript drafts of Lies Like Truth, and an edited typescript of Reminiscences: An Oral History. Tearsheets and clippings of numerous reviews and essays by Clurman are also present. Among other noteworthy Clurman material are his correspondence with Stella Adler and others, contracts and royalties, a diary, and theater programs he collected from 1926 to 1930.
A subject index listing manuscripts relating to particular plays and playwrights is located at the end of the finding aid. An index of correspondents is forthcoming.
| Stella Adler and Harold Clurman Papers Finding Aid | ||||
| Title Page | Biographical Sketches |
Scope and Contents |
Folder List | Index of Plays and Playwrights |
Reference queries to: performingarts@hrc.utexas.edu