Theatre Communications Group Publishes AN IDEAL THEATER: FOUNDING VISIONS

Theatre Communications Group (TCG) is pleased to announce the publication of An Ideal Theater: Founding Visions for a New American Art, a wide-ranging, inspiring documentary history of the American theatre movement as told by the visionaries who goaded it into being. This anthology collects over forty essays, manifestos, letters and speeches that are each introduced and placed in historical context by the noted writer and arts commentator, Todd London, who spent nearly a decade assembling this collection. This celebration of the artists who came before is an exhilarating look backward, as well as toward the future, and includes contributions from:

Jane Addams, William Ball, Julian Beck, Herbert Blau Angus Bowmer, Bernard Bragg, Maurice Browne, Robert Brustein, Alison Carey, Joseph Chaikin, Harold Clurman, Dudley Cocke, Alice Lewisohn Crowley, Gordon Davidson, R. G. Davis, Doris Derby, W. E. B. Du Bois, Zelda Fichandler, Hallie Flanagan, Eva Le Gallienne, Robert E. Gard, Susan Glaspell, André Gregory, Tyrone Guthrie, John Houseman, Jules Irving, Margo Jones, Frederick H. Koch, Lawrence Langner, W. McNeil Lowry, Charles Ludlam, Judith Malina, Theodore Mann, Gilbert Moses, Michaela O'Harra, John O'Neal, Joseph Papp, Robert Porterfield, José Quintero, Bill Rauch, Bernard Sahlins, Richard Schechner, Peter Schumann, Maurice Schwartz, Gary Sinise, Ellen Stewart, Lee Strasberg, Luis Miguel Valdez, Nina Vance, Douglas Turner Ward

As well as the founding visions of theatres from across the country:

The Actors Studio, The Actor's Workshop, Alley Theatre, American Conservatory Theater, American Repertory Theater Arena Stage, Barter Theatre, Bread and Puppet Theater, Carolina Playmakers, Chicago Little Theater, Circle in the Square Theatre, Civic Repertory Theatre, Cornerstone Theater Company, Federal Theatre Project, Ford Foundation Program in Humanities and the Arts, Group Theatre, Hull-House Dramatic Association, KRIGWA Players, Living Theatre, La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club, Mark Taper Forum • Mercury Theatre, Minnesota Theater Company (Guthrie Theater), National Theatre of the Deaf, Negro Ensemble Company, Negro Theatre Project, Federal Theatre Project, Neighborhood Playhouse, New Dramatists, New York Shakespeare Festival, Open Theater, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Performance Group,Provincetown Players, Repertory Theater of Lincoln Center Ridiculous Theatrical Company, Roadside Theater, San Francisco Mime Troupe, Second City, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Theater '47, Theatre Guild, Theatre of the Living Arts, Washington Square Players, Wisconsin Idea Theater, Yale Repertory Theatre, Yiddish Art Theatre

Todd London is artistic director of New Dramatists in New York, the nation's oldest laboratory for playwrights. A George Jean Nathan Award-winning essayist, he's the author of numerous books, including Outrageous Fortune: The Life and Times of the New American Play (with Ben Pesner); The Artistic Home (TCG); The World's Room, a novel; and his collected essays, The Importance of Staying Earnest (NoPassport Press). In 2009 Todd became the first recipient of TCG's Visionary Leadership Award for "an individual who has gone above and beyond the call of duty to advance the theatre field as a whole, nationally and/or internationally."

For over 50 years, Theatre Communications Group (TCG), the national organization for the American theatre, has existed to strengthen, nurture and promote the professional not-for-profit American theatre. TCG's constituency has grown from a handful of groundbreaking theatres to nearly 700 member theatres and affiliate organizations and more than 12,000 individuals nationwide. TCG offers its members networking and knowledge-building opportunities through conferences, events, research and communications; awards grants, approximately $2 million per year, to theatre companies and individual artists; advocates on the federal level; and serves as the U.S. Center of the International Theatre Institute, connecting its constituents to the global theatre community. TCG is North America's largest independent trade publisher of dramatic literature, with 12 Pulitzer Prizes for Best Play on the TCG booklist. It also publishes the award-winning AMERICAN THEATRE magazine and ARTSEARCH, the essential source for a career in the arts. In all of its endeavors, TCG seeks to increase the organizational efficiency of its member theatres, cultivate and celebrate the artistic talent and achievements of the field and promote a larger public understanding of, and appreciation for, the theatre. www.tcg.org