If you're thinking that a one-man show called "Let It Be Art!" sounds a bit highfalutin, think again.
Harold Clurman, the focus of actor Ronald Rand's re-creation opening Thursday at the Invisible Theatre, is a man whom renowned method actor Eli Wallach once called "the Knute Rockne of the theater." Not just a drama coach, in other words, but a hard-charging trainer who could inspire his students by stomping on the floor and yelling: "This is real! Don't give me any of your arty-farty ideas!"
As Rand explained in a phone interview from New York, the key to his approach is revealed by the show's subtitle: "Harold Clurman's Life of Passion."
Born in 1901 on New York's Lower East Side, Clurman was no anti-intellectual — he had a degree in letters from the Sorbonne. But what made him special was his unquenchable enthusiasm for every aspect of human activity.
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Rand became involved with Clurman almost by chance. Rand, who grew up in Florida, began acting early, eventually appearing in more than 250 plays with a professional children's theater. But his greatest dream was to go to New York and study with acting teacher Stella Adler, the only American actor to be instructed by Konstantin Stanislavski himself.
Rand finally made it to the Big Apple in the '70s and was accepted as a student by Adler, with whom he studied for five years. As Rand remembers it, she was then at the peak of her form and eager to share everything she had learned from Stanislavski. But Clurman seemed almost as important to her.
"She talked about Harold all the time," Rand recalls. Finally, he took one of Clurman's classes to see for himself.
"He was a whirlwind of passion," Rand recalls. "You came out of his class walking on air, imbued with his terrific belief in human goodness and his zeal for the theater."
A director with more than 40 great Broadway plays to his credit, from Clifford Odets' "Golden Boy" through "Member of the Wedding" and "Bus Stop" to Arthur Miller's "Incident at Vichy," Clurman was also a prominent critic, teacher and writer, a bon vivant and a recipient of the French Legion of Honor.
When Clurman's memoirs of the Group Theatre were reissued in 1982, Adler wrote in her introduction that she was afraid Clurman's legacy would be lost because he had no heir. It was a challenge Rand couldn't resist — he wrote to Adler and said he wanted to bring Clurman to life in a play. Adler gave her blessing a little uneasily, because — as she wrote back — "Who could play Harold?"
The answer was supplied by Rand himself, an actor whose credits span a distinguished range of stage, TV and movie roles.
Clurman's words and Rand's playwriting skills have combined to make, fittingly, a "Life of Passion" a theatrical event.
● Let It Be Art! Harold Clurman's Life of Passion
Playwright and star: Ronald Rand.
Director: Gregory Abels.
When: 7:30 p.m. Thursday; 8 p.m. Nov. 11; and 2 p.m. Nov. 12.
Where: Invisible Theatre, 1400 N. First Ave.
Tickets: $25.
Information: 882-9721.
Cast: Ronald Rand.
Running time: 85 minutes, with no intermission.
Online: Information about the Invisible Theatre and "Let It Be Art!" is posted at www.invisibletheatre.com.
