Year(s)1966-67
Medium / GenreWorkshop
Production / Project / ActivityJerome Robbins’ American Theater Lab
Name of Theatre / Venue / VehicleVarious venues
CityNYC
RoleActor/Singer/Dancer
Important PeopleJerome Robbins, Jay Harnick, Anna Sokolow, Marian Rich
DirectorJerome Robbins
Notes / Anecdotes

The National Endowment for the Arts gave Jerome Robbins a $300,000 grant to establish an experimental theater group which wound up being called "The American Theatre Lab". While auditioning for this project, none of us knew that his one condition was that he didn't have to produce anything for the public to see (Book: Dance with Demons by Greg Lawrence - page 361). Everyone in the theatre community wanted to audition for what was described to be, a prestigious theatre company. My agent was able to book an audition and I was called in to be interviewed by Jerry who after the interview, asked me to come back the following week, with two songs of my choice (I sang "She Loves Me" & "All The Things You Are") and to prepare a monologue or scene. I chose to do a scene with Neils Miller from a play (With Ah, Bright Wings!) we had just done at a small theater in the Village. The following day I was called back to do a dance audition given by Jimmy Moore at the Broadway Theater, with Jerry watching from the audience. He had no idea that I had dance training and was surprised that I was able to jeté and pirouette. A week later, I was part of the company and doing a table read of Brecht's "The Measures Taken” playing the role of the young comrade.

Being part of an acting company that included: Cathryn “Skipper” Damon, Leonard Frey, Cliff Gorman, Erin Martin, Julia Migines, James Mitchell, James Moore, Barry Primus and Jerry Ragni, I felt like I had “arrived”.
We worked five days a week (and sometimes six) from 10:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. with teachers: Anna Sokolow (movement), Marian Rich (speech/elecution), Jay Harnick (Shakespeare scenes), Nabuko (aspects of the Noh Theatre) doing improvs and working on The Brecht play as well as the Japanese Noh drama (Taniko) that it was taken from. We also explored aspects of The Kennedy Assassination, Lee Harvey Oswald's Diary and revelled in a "Happening" constructed by a young Robert Wilson; which was done in a totally darkened blacked out room, using Saran Wrap, Day-Glow paint and portable radios (wIth invited visitors including Leonard Bernstein and George Tabori observing).

We were like a "group of traveling players" in that we started out working at The Ballet Theater School on West 57th St. moved to The Astor Place Library (now The Public Theater) for a couple of weeks and finally The Bohemian Hall (formerly Stage 73 Theater) on East 73rd Street. We worked on improv after improv after improv and amidst all of this we became a "family" knowing instinctively what each other was going to say or do within each one of them.
Everyone supported & cared for each other throughout our daily exercises & classes . Jerry likened us to "a finely tuned violin". In one respect it was frustrating because we never had a performance. The project took the form of an unending rehearsal, however, ultimately everyone benefitted by using our talents and the doing the work. Twelve years later, when I was cast in “Pacific Overtures”, I was able to use the Noh drama techniques I had learned from Nobuko, as well as bits and pieces from our improvs. Who knew ???
More information about our work can be found in Greg Lawrence’s book Dance With Demons: The Life of Jerome Robbins.
Photo below: Barry Primus, Jerry Robbins, James Dybas - American Theatre Lab.

Upload memorabilia / files
Link (1)abebooks.com
Link (2)abouttheartists.com
Additional Notes

Link # 1 - Book - Dance With Demons: The Life of Jerome Robbins by Greg Lawrence

Link # 2 - Actors & Creatives

Permission and WaiverYes

Add an Entry