HB Studio was founded in 1945 by the Broadway actor and director Herbert Berghof. Born in Austria, Berghof was a protégé of the German realist director Max Reinhardt. He fled to New York in 1939 as a refugee of Adolf Hitler’s Nazi regime, where he soon joined a community of immigrant artists and then-outsiders interested in bringing the classical training of the European theatrical tradition into practice in the still burgeoning American theater scene.
Berghof was accustomed to a state theater system in which the artist was constantly engaged in practice and performance. He conceived HB Studio as a place where artists at all stages of their careers could continue to work and practice between jobs with the support and challenges of their more experienced colleagues in a space free from pressures related to commercial success.
In 1947, Berghof met the celebrated actress Uta Hagen on a production of The Whole World Over, directed by Harold Clurman, and invited her to join him in teaching at the studio. The two artists married 10 years later. Hagen, author of the seminal acting texts Respect for Acting and A Challenge for the Actor, became one of the most renowned and respected acting teachers of the 20th century. Together, Hagen and Berghof trained some of the most noted actors of the American theater.
Their students, colleagues, and a new generation of accomplished artists continue that tradition today in the original buildings and theater space in the heart of Greenwich Village.
HB Playwrights Foundation (1964–2013)
For many theatres, economic constraints have increasingly diminished the time available for the very important work of developing and rehearsing a play. However, the HB Playwrights Foundation & Theatre is dedicated to preserving and extending the development process. The most vital theatre is created when all the artists involved – playwrights, actors, directors, and designers – are given the time and opportunity to do it right, to do it as they feel it should be done. The HB Playwrights Theatre is committed to supporting the long-term development of original productions, primarily of new plays. Occasionally, however, the production of a classic play or important work from the twentieth century is presented.
The HB Playwrights Foundation and Theatre is able to maintain this commitment to artistic freedom by relying on minimal budgets; the generosity of artists who donate their labor; by charging no admission to our performances; and by requesting that productions in our theatre not be reviewed. If a work is ready, it should move on to another venue to become accessible to a wider public.
The HB Studio was already a thriving fixture in the New York City cultural landscape when in 1965 Herbert Berghof and Uta Hagen realized their dream of establishing a theatre. From his work on the film Cleopatra, Berghof earned the money to purchase the one-story garage that was converted into an 80-seat performance space. That building, along with the adjacent brownstone at 122 Bank Street, was renovated with the help of many unpaid friends who did everything from painting walls to scouring floors. An anonymous donor provided professional lighting and sound systems.
For over fifty years, dedicated volunteers have made it possible for the HB Theatre to present over 250 full productions, countless staged readings and many other theatrical events. Professional actors, directors and designers of the highest caliber donate their time and talents for the productions. They do so because at the HB Theatre they have both artistic freedom and the luxury of allowing the work to evolve at whatever pace is necessary for the play. Actors’ Equity Association, recognizing the importance of this work, has granted HBPF a special agreement to support this extended process.
Among the more than 130 playwrights who have found a home at HB Playwrights Theatre are Neena Beber, Saul Bellow, Eric Bentley, Bertolt Brecht, Vincent Canby, Laura Shaine Cunningham, Donna de Matteo, Horton Foote, Marjorie Kellogg, Pavel Kohout, Romulus Linney, Kenneth Lonergan, Mark Medoff, Ed Napier, James Purdy, James Ryan, Willam Saroyan, Martin Sherman, Michael Straight, William Styron, Kathleen Tolan, Thornton Wilder, Tennessee Williams, Sherman Yellen.