1902-1986

Cheryl Crawford influential female Broadway producers. Crawford brought “Brigadoon,” “Porgy and Bess,” “One Touch of Venus,” “Paint Your Wagon” and others to Broadway. Started directing plays in her family’s home in Akron, Ohio. Majored in drama at Smith College where she was briefly expelled for smoking.

Moved to New York City, enrolled at the Theatre Guild. Worked as assistant to a director for the Theatre Guild’s stock company in upper New York. Also played poker and bottled bathtub gin to supplement her income.

By 1931, Crawford creating her own company with Lee Strasberg, The Group Theatre. In 1933, the Group had its first commercial success, “Men in White,” which won the Pulitzer Prize.

In 1936 Crawford resigned from the company. As she recalled in her autobiography One Naked Individual: My Fifty Years in the Theatre (Indianapolis and New York: The Bobbs-Merrill Co., 1977), “I felt exhilarated, even cocky, to be on my own. I was going to do great things, bring to audiences distinguished plays, quality entertainment” (p. 103).

Crawford was instrumental in the careers of such actors as Helen Hayes, Bojangles Robinson , Ethel Barrymore, Ingrid Bergman, Tallulah Bankhead, Paul Robeson...

In 1946, she set the American Repertory that included Eli Wallach, Efrem Zimbalist Jr., William Windom...

In 1947 she, Elia Kazan and Robert Lewis created The Actor's Studio Lee Strasberg joined in 1951.

source :Ohio Humanities Council article on Cheryl Crawford