Featured Artist Ronald Rand discusses Harold Clurman, the importance of being an artist and his quarterly newspaper
By Chad Fasca
Four times a year, Ronald Rand encourages actors to forget 'show business' for a moment and, instead, indulge themselves in artistic discourse. It's not that Rand, the publisher of "The Soul of the American Actor", has anything against the business side of acting; it's a necessary part of the actor's survival. He just wants the theatrical community to examine both the art and business side of theatre through a more artistic lens.
The Accidental Publisher
"Actors sometimes forget about being artists and think they are commodities," says Rand, an actor and playwright with more than 30 years' experience to his credit. To draw attention back to the art form itself, he founded "The Soul of the American Actor" four years ago. A quarterly newspaper, it provides its readers with access to the thoughts and recounted experiences of theatre's leading artists.
Of course, Rand had no idea he would become a publisher. It happened quite by chance. His first two passions grew organically out of his experiences. He knew at an early age that he was going to be an actor. He started pursuing the craft at age 6. Close to thirty years later, he discovered an interest in writing plays. He has since written three plays and several one acts as well as scenes, monologues and poetry. But his transformation into a newspaper publisher required an unlikely chain of events.
In early 1998, after a staged reading of his first play "The Group!", Rand was approached by Silvanna Vienne, the director of the Alternative Theatre Company for an interview to run in her newsletter, "The Alternative Theatre News". He agreed. Titled "The Time Has Come for a New American Theatre", the interview ran on the newsletter’s front page. Inside the publication, a piece written by Rand himself, "It is up to us", appeared as well. Fortunately for Rand, Vienne called two months later to tell him that she would be discontinuing the newsletter and that she had a credit with the printer that he was welcome to use for publicizing his play.
"I began thinking that I could use this for something else, something to talk about the form and craft of the actor, because I thought there was an overemphasis on the business. And I thought, "I will use this credit to make a newspaper."
So he jotted down his ideas, then showed them to a friend, Doug Barron, who took the outline and showed him what it could look like as a newspaper.
Thus, "The Soul of the American Actor", a quarterly newspaper devoted to celebrating the art and craft of the actor and the art of the theatre, was born.
The Clurman Effect
Attempting to publish a newspaper comprised only of articles about the art of acting and of interviews with theatre artists, Rand needed a jumpstart. His answer was Harold Clurman, his teacher and the principal subject of his own writings. He needed permission to use Harold Clurman's writings in the paper. If he secured permission, he reasoned, his paper would attain immediate relevance. A student of Clurman (as well as Stella Adler, Joseph Chaikin, Bobby Lewis, John Strasberg and Richard Schechner), Rand felt that the inclusion of his writings would make it important enough for the theatrical community to read. He received permission and the first step to his publishing "career" was made.
In addition to making it relevant, he wanted to keep it pure--a newspaper without advertising--but later relented on the advice of friends. His first paper, which totaled eight pages, included some advertising, but only ads of services that "nourish the artist", a philosophy that he remains committed to today.
With Clurman's writings as artistic insurance, Rand started interviewing some of theatre's other luminaries, collecting their insights and plumbing the depths of their experiences. Initially, he began with interviews of Maureen Stapleton, Tom Oppenheim and Phoebe Brand. After that, he interviewed Eli Wallach and Anne Jackson, followed by Julie Harris and Al Hirschfeld, and the paper began to gain momentum.
Four Years and Counting
Four years later, the 8-page paper, initially printed on a credit, has grown to 24 pages. And with it, the quarterly collection of interviews, essays and book excerpts also has expanded beyond theatre to leading lights in the performing arts, especially dance (recent issues featured reprints of articles written by Isadora Duncan, Martha Graham, Ruth St. Denis and Merce Cunningham). But while what influences Rand and "The Soul of the American Actor" has extended its scope, the paper's attention remains largely on the American actor. And it continues to thrill Rand to provide actors with access to people they may not be able to meet and to books they may not be able to read. Rand recently received permission from Eugenio Barba, famed director of Odin Teatret, to include his writings in each issue of the paper.
"Can you imaging Stanislavsky saying 'Yeah, you can have one of my writings in each of your issues'," Rand says.
Still a Working Actor
Publishing a quarterly newspaper has not stopped Rand from pursuing his true passion, he remains an actor with a full-time acting career. He has appeared in a number of roles off-Broadway, in films, on television.
At 17, Rand appeared in a production of "Julius Caesar" at BAM, which starred Richard Dreyfuss, Austin Pendleton, and George Rose. This was followed by an international tour of "King Lear" and a lengthy stint in "Perfect Crime," first as an understudy, then in the three main roles.
"I was doing a dozen or more plays a year at that point. It was easier to do more plays then, than it is today," he says.
Once he began accepting more film and television work, Rand was able to make the leap to full-time actor. "I've been a working actor ever since then," he says.
He has also taught at the Stella Adler Conservatory, New York Arts Program and at GATE (Gregory Abels Training Ensemble).
An Early Start
Rand began acting at age 6.
"For some reason my father thought that I had a bent that way and I was taken to an acting teacher that had a stage in her home. We recited poems, and got on stage and did improvisations," Rand says.
"The improvisation of doing something that I did not do was so real and so alarming, it was scarier than real life. I thought, 'this is something that I want to do.'"
His youth instructor also produced children's plays. So his passion for the acting was easily feed. By the 7th grade, he already knew he wanted to study with Stella Adler. He also became part of professional children's theatre. He would do 300 shows by the end of high school.
"Even though I lived in Florida, I never went to the beach," he says, "because I was always acting."
Rand has benefited through the years from extraordinary teachers. His first teacher sparked his interest in theatre, but it was his Coral Gables high school drama teacher, David Feldman, who ignited Rand's fire.
"David Feldman was the equivalent of an off Broadway director. He would show us films like "A Streetcar Named Desire," "The Last Angry Man" (with my favorite actor, Paul Muni), and "East of Eden." And he'd have us read Boleslavsky and Stanislavsky, which most people are not exposed to until college. Here we were doing Boleslavsky exercises in high school," Rand says.
Feldman had a powerful influence on his students. Another one of Feldman's pupils, Peter Jensen, went on to a career in the theatre as well. Currently he heads an actor-training program at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. It was also through Feldman's influence that Rand began a lifelong obsession with the Group Theatre. Rand began reading about the Group Theatre while in school.
The Group
While acting is his passion, Rand's obsession is the Group Theatre. Rand has written two plays that both deal with the famous American theatre company: "The Group!" and "Clurman," a new solo performance piece directed Gregory Abels.
"The Group!" began in 1995 with 28 stage actors and a four-hour reading. He has since performed fourteen staged readings of the play, held at the York theatre's new play festival, Cherry Lane theatre's new play festival, the Actors Studio, the Harold Clurman theatre and the Neighborhood Playhouse (where "Tea and Sympathy" playwright Robert Anderson gave him two pages of notes) among other venues. He trimmed the pages from 190 down to 90 and the parts down from 28 to 13. Right now, a director in California is considering the play. He is also collaborating with Doug Barron again, this time on a play, a second one about the Group Theatre entitled "group". A theatre company in New York is already interested in this play.
The Spirit of Clurman
Of course, writing a play about the Group Theatre was not his initial instinct. Rand actually began writing the Clurman piece first, in 1990; however, a trip to the Performing Arts Library provided a fateful turn.
While listening to tapes in the library, researching the Group Theatre for his solo piece on Clurman, Rand felt drawn to write about the Group Theatre itself.
Some fifteen years later, he has finished his initial task. "Clurman" will have four workshop presentations at an off-Broadway theatre later this year as Rand seeks backers for a national tour. He is also seeking grants for his solo piece, which would tour colleges and schools throughout the country.
The Clurman play focuses on the passion of this theatre legend called "the elder statesman of the American theatre" who inspired the life of many actors, directors and playwrights. It takes place when he was 78 years old. He is talking to a young actress who is his assistant, then starts talking about his life, the Group Theatre, his experiences such as directing Marlon Brando in his first play and working with Jacqueline Kennedy (Onassis) on the building of the Kennedy Center.
"When I perform the play his spirit takes me over. I don't know if I am channeling him. But I am not acting Harold Clurman. Harold Clurman is acting me."
