The Transcendent Years: The Story of a Theater - Circle Rep

For the first time since Harold Clurman’s classic The Fervent Years, a great theater comes to life along with the tumultuous age that engendered it. Founding Artistic Director Marshall W. Mason (winner of the Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement) dramatically reveals the inside story of the creation of Circle Repertory Company, arguably the most important American theater since The Group of the 1930s. The Transcendent Years takes a theater lover backstage to witness the discovery of some of the foremost actors of our time (William Hurt, Kathy Bates, Christopher Reeve, Jeff Daniels, Judd Hirsch, Swoosie Kurtz, Nancy Snyder, Jonathan Hogan, Trish Hawkins and Tanya Berezin were members of the Company). The story shares the process of how Circle Rep playwrights Lanford Wilson, Sam Shepard, Marsha Norman, David Mamet, Jules Feiffer, Paula Vogel, Craig Lucas, William Mastrosimone, Larry Kramer and William M. Hoffman wrote plays for the actors to perform. Meticulously documented, The Transcendent Years puts the birth of Circle Rep into the context of the world-shaking changes of the 1960s, the evolutionary era that became the foundation of the 21st century and that provided an impetus for creating timeless art.