The Fervent Years is written somewhat dryly, it appeals to those who care about the subject matter. Written by Harold Clurman, the book reveals what it was like during one of the most influential times of American theater. Clurman has directed a plethora of plays including those by Arthur Miller and Eugene O'Neill.
For a gifted member of the theater society, Clurman is absurdly wordy. The man can really stretch out a subject. Despite some exaggerations and hypocritical tendencies, he works to stress what is important and delivers his message efficiently enough. The quality of confusion that ensues following a reading almost reflects what sorting out an approach to theater may have also possessed.
The difficulty in following Clurman's thoughts may also pertain to the reflective aspect of the piece. Yes, there is plenty of historical background information. But there is also the development of his friendship with the Lee Strasberg and Sanford Meisner. Clurman divulges into the process of his career. All of his personal growths, as well as those in the field, are clearly important pieces to his viewpoint of how theater should be.
That viewpoint is that theater should be valuable to people because it connects to them and opens their eyes to new or different things in life. Clurman consistently comes back to this idea. Without a solid purpose for revealing everything about his life, nothing he goes into such detail about would be so fascinating. Even his relationship with his love-interest, another big name, Stella Adler, plays into the development of Group Theater and its influence of a changed perspective.
An important part of how Clurman explains his process is his connection to the relationship between actor and director. In the first chapter, Clurman explains a lesson learned from Strasberg that how a play is portrayed is just as important as what is written in the play. Later, when developing their own shows, each director chose their own actors, in order to be sure they fit the show. So while some ideas may conflict with one another, there are consistencies in Clurman's actions.
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