The Pioneers of Bertolt Brecht In America

Abstract

Now THAT BERTOLT BRECHT IS SAFELY "in," at least in advanced American theatrical circles, it is only natural that a host of courageous pioneers in the cause of Brecht will be proclaimed. For instance, in a recent article in the New York Times Magazine, Mark Harris asserted that the San Francisco Actor's Workshop and its former directors—Jules Irving and Herbert Blau—"pioneered Brecht . . . before America had heard of him." In basing this claim on a 1956 production of Mother Courage in San Francisco, Mr. Harris was almost a quarter of a century off. The Actor's Workshop may have introduced Mother Courage to the American stage, but America had heard of Brecht many years before that.