Stella Adler Studio of Acting Announces 5th Annual Harold Clurman Festival Lineup

The Stella Adler Studio of Acting will hold its 5th annual Harold Clurman Festival of the Arts this fall, bringing artists and activists together to discuss the relationship between art and social activism. Events will take place beginning on September 20th and end on October 1st.

This year's festival will include symposiums, theater and dance performances, and panel discussions. Participating artists and activists will include Margie Gillis, Betsy Parrish, Israel Horovitz, Don K. Williams, Alexandra Wells and many more.

"Our 5th Annual Harold Clurman Festival of the Arts serves to explore the question posed by Israel Horovitz in his play Lebensraum, "what can art do"? My grandparents Harold Clurman and Stella Adler lived their lives in response to this question. The Studio aims to provoke a response from today's artists," stated Tom Oppenheim, Director of the Stella Adler Studio of Acting. "As a nonprofit organization, we believe that art can transform lives and that theater aims to serve humanity. All proceeds from these events will go towards our Outreach Division which was established from the philosophy that growth as an actor and growth as a human being are synonymous."

Over the years, the Harold Clurman Festival has brought together such great artists as Alvin Epstein, Edward Albee, Melissa Fitzgerald, Whoopi Goldberg, Bill T. Jones, Frances Lucerna, Winter Miller, Rosie Perez, Phylicia Rashad, Roy Scheider, Jonathan Demme, Anna Deavere Smith, Mira Sorvino and Jeffrey Wright.

All events will take place at the Stella Adler Studio of Acting (31 West 27th Street, New York, NY) with the exception of the MAD Spirit event to honor Alexandra Wells, which will be at the Manhattan Movement Arts Center (248 West 60th Street, New York, NY 10023). For more information and tickets go to:

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS INCLUDE:
September 22 - October 1, Various Times
Lebensraum
Israel Horovitz' wildly imaginative play in which a contemporary German Chancellor implements a Holocaust reparations plan that sets off a chain of visceral responses that have a global affect. Three actors play over fifty roles. Runs on September 22, 23, 24, 26, 28, 29, 30 and October 1 at 7:30pm; September 19 and 26 at 2pm and on September 27 at 6:30pm.

September 27, 7:30pm
Symposium: What Can Art Do? What Can't Art Do? And Why We Can't Live Without It.
Colin Greer, Margie Gillis and Israel Horovitz discuss the potential and affect of art in our life, lives and time.

September 28 and 29, 7pm
MAD presents Two Short Works with Margie Gillis
Bloom, Margie Gillis' solo performance work set to Molly Bloom's soliloquy from Ulysses as performed by Betsy Parrish. A New Work created and performed by Margie Gillis and Adam Barruch.

September 30, October 2, 7pm
Betsy Parrish Cabaret
The Stella Adler Studio of Acting presents "Life: A Work in Progress" with Betsy Parrish and Alice Evans. Not to be missed!

September 30, 7:30pm
MAD Honors Alexandra Wells
The Stella Adler Studio of Acting and the Harold Clurman Center for New York in Movement and Dance Theater honor Alexandra Wells. The evening features performances by four choreographers. Margie Gillis will present the MAD Spirit Award to Alexandra Wells.

About Harold Clurman
Harold Clurman (1901-1980) remains one of the most influential figures in American Theater. His extraordinary commitment to great art and social progress made him a unique and highly sensitive producer, director and drama critic. Clurman co-founded New York City's Group Theater along with Lee Strasberg and Cheryl Crawford and directed over forty Broadway productions including Eugene O'Neil's Touch of the Poet and Arthur Miller's Incident at Vichy. The Harold Clurman Festival is fundraiser for the Stella Adler Studio and its Outreach Division, which provides free theater education to New York City public school students. For more information on events, visit www.stellaadler.com.

About The Stella Adler Studio of Acting
Established in 1949 by Stella Adler, the Stella Adler Studio of Acting was founded upon Adler's belief in the supreme seriousness of her art, and has, for the last five decades, enriched every part of the American theater and film arts. Adler's philosophies kept many well-known members of the theater coming back for her intelligent and passionate advice and the school has since trained many of the brilliant actors of our time, including Marlon Brando, Robert DeNiro, Elaine Stritch, Benicio del Toro and Salma Hayek. The Stella Adler Studio of Acting is a nonprofit organization, which trains over 500 actors annually and also presents world-class lectures, poetry readings, jazz, classical music, theater, and dance theater events. www.stellaadler.com