Foundation

If the nineteenth century was a century of star actors, then much of the twentieth century has been a century of groups. The lead in artistic innovation was taken over by a new communitarianism in theatrical organization that featured, at its center, a circle of collaborators who shared a vision of theatre and of society. Often at the center of the circle was a playwright or a nucleus of several playwrights, who generated, like the proton in the atom, the energy that drove the organization. Many factors fed this group movement in theatre, but most prominent were the influences of Marxist social philosophy, with its emphasis on egalitarianism and social identity (as opposed to hierarchical structures and personalism), and an older tradition of social cooperation, from which Marx borrowed, that is best observed in monastic and other Utopian societies dating into the ancient past at least as far as the Essenes of ancient Israel and that could be observed in nineteenth-century America in such places as Oneida, New York; New Harmony, Indiana; and Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. The twentieth-century theatre groups that contributed so mightily to theatrical and dramatic innovation tended to combine, usually unconsciously, the Marxist and monastic-utopian visions of communitarian creativity. This vision is problematic in American culture, conflicting with American ideals of individualism, competition, and personal accomplishment. Part of the story of the group experience in twentieth-century American theatre is the inevitable tension between group identity and the drives toward personal fame and fortune.