Elliot Norton Interviews; Elia Kazan

WGBH Educational Foundation · May 8, 1963

Elia Kazan, artistic director of the repertory company of New York City's Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, reviews what he is doing and what he hopes to do with the repertory company. He details his plans to train young talents and to present dramatic classics as well as the commissioned work of modern playwrights. He talks about his casting methods and gives his opinions of other repertory companies (L'Opera Comique, the Berliner Ensemble). A director and teacher, Mr. Kazan expresses his concern with the development of young acting talent and the future of the theater in which they will perform. He lists the restrictions of present day New York theater, the economic necessity of pleasing the public; he contrasts the problems of the actor on Broadway with those of the actor in Hollywood. He warns of the need to nurture talent because "like certain types of food, it spoils quickly." Elia Kazan's parents belongs to a Greek community in Turkey. Kazan was born in Istanbul in 1909, but his family emigrated to the United States when he was only five. He grew up in New Rochelle, New York, attended Williams College and later the Yale Drama School. For the past 25 years he has been directing some of the most controversial movies and plays yet produced in the United States. Kazan has handled the work of some of America's leading dramatists -- Thornton Wilder, Arthur Miller, Tennessee Williams, Archibald MacLeish, and William Inge. As co-founder of Actor's Studio, he has been responsible for training some of the nation's leading actors. As artistic director of the Lincoln Center Repertory Theater, he will continue in that role. He began his work in the theater in 1932 with a New York repertory company, the Group Theater, where he was a well-known actor. His role as a director, however, has made him famous in the theater. For the Broadway theater he directed, among others, "The Skin of Our Teeth," "All My Sons," "Death of a Salesman," "A Streetcar Named Desire," "Tea and Sympathy," "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof," and "JB." For "JB" he received the Antoinette Perry Award for direction in 1958. He directed among others, these motion pictures: "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn," "Gentlemen's Agreement" (for which he won the Academy Award for best director in 1947), "A Streetcar Named Desire," "Pinky," "Viva Zapata," "On the Waterfront" (for which he won the Academy Award for best director in 1954), "East of Eden," "Baby Doll," and "Splendor in the Grass." Mr. Kazan's film version of his recent book, America, America, is to be released toward the end of 1963. Elliot Norton is the well-known drama critic of the Boston Record-American and Sunday Advertiser. He is a frequent contributor to a number of other publications. Elia Kazan with Elliot Norton is a production of WGBH-TV in Boston. This program was produced in 1961. (Description adapted from documents in the NET Microfiche) Elliot Norton Interviews brings together nine interviews conducted by Boston drama critic Elliot Norton for the National Educational Television audience.