Stage For Action

Stage For Action was a mobile agitprop theater group founded in 1943. Depending on which narrative of the Popular Front you subscribe to, it was

A. A group of progressive actors, directors and writers who had come together to promote progressive causes social and cultural equality.

B. A propaganda effort created and financed by the Communist Party.

C.An effort supported by CIO unions to promote a working class culture.

Stage For Action performed one act plays at union halls, churches and community centers and on the radio. Among its most popular presentations were improvisations on current events. A brief New York Times article on February 27, announcing the group's upcoming Carnegie Hall show, identified Stage For Action as a two year-old "non-profit, volunteer association of professional theatre people " originally formed "for the purpose of using the medium of drama to sustain public support of the war effort." The article stated that the group planned a "vast expansion" of its "dramatic public instruction on the vital issues of the day." It was subsidized by several CIO-affiliated unions including the National Maritime Union and the United Electrical Workers, two unions with strong ties to the Communist Party. The group shared New York offices with People's Songs, which was made up mostly of Communists and fellow travelers. Like most Popular Front groups of the day, Stage for Action most likely had more fellow travelers than actual Communists among its members. It emphasized plays about the "common man" who was confronted with the issues of the day. In most cases it seems this group was preaching to the choir rather than having a significant impact on a wider audience.

Amateur mobile troupes that performed agitprop on street corners, in flatbed trucks. at factory gates and loading docks and ethnic fraternal halls were a familiar part of Popular Front/union culture since the 1930s.Their productions generally involved a lot of slogan chanting and broadly drawn stereotyped characters much like medieval street theater and emphasized propaganda over production values. Stage For Action, on the other hand, prided itself in the high level of professionalism and entertainment value of its productions. The executive director was Gene Frankel, who would become a notable figure in the New York theater. Most of the writers, directors and actors involved also worked in the commercial theater, movies or radio. The writers included Arthur Miller, Ben Hecht, Studs Terkel, Arthur Laurents and Norman Corwin. Eleanor Roosevelt wrote approvingly in her daily newspaper column of a Stage For Action production she had attended in 1944.

In the first half of 1946 The Times took note of two Stage For Action productions in New York. “A Hero Comes Homes” by Jean Karsavina was presented at the Humphrey-Weidman dance studio on West 16^th Street. Written at the behest of the Anti-Defamation League, the play dealt with an Army hero who faced Antisemitism and “fascist persecution” when he returned home from the War. The brief article said it would be presented before an audience of civic and community leaders, union officials and organization heads. Charles Dubin, who later had a succesful career in television despite three years on the blacklist, directed.

The March 31 Carnegie Hall show was a variety program. It included a 20-minute play,“Dream Job,” by Arnold Perl, best known today for his stage adaptations of Sholom Aleichem stories. The play attacked racial discrimination and was a revision of a piece, "The Glass," that Perl had written as an Army writer for the "Assignment Home” radio series. As The Times noted, the Army had banned “The Glass” from the air after Perl refused to rewrite it. Martha Scott, appearing on Broadway in “Voice of the Turtle,” headed a cast that also included Howard da Silva, the original Jud Fry in "Oklahoma" appearing on screen at this time as the bartender in the Oscar-winning "The Lost Weekend," Gordon Heath, star of the Broadway hit "Deep Are the Roots" and Lloyd Gough, also appearing in "Deep Are the Roots." As an outspoken supporter of left wing causes ,da Silva would be a major HUAC target but eventually resumed a successful career as a character actor. Gough also was blacklisted while Heath, who was African American and gay, chose to live in Europe. Peter Frye directed.

Stage For Action was exploring the infant medium of television in 1946. On February 2, Billboard reviewed a televised Stage For Action production on WBKB in Chicago of Laurents' "Walk with Me," a half-hour drama about the psychological difficulties endured by a disabled war veteran returning to civilian life.