In Germany, in 1933, by decree of Joseph Goebbels under a newly created agency called Die Reichskulturkammer (DKK), Jewish actors were, among other things, prohibited from performing on German stage.
Stock company objective
The main objective of The Continental Players was to help newly arrived European actors and actresses warm-up to American audiences and hone their performing skills in the English language. A sub-objective was to cultivate employment opportunities by producing showcase productions – somewhat akin to a baseball farm team – for newly arrived talent. William Dieterle, who conceived the idea, was president. The board included powerful industry luminaries Harry Warner, Charlotte Hagenbruch (wife of William Dieterle), A. Ronald Button, Leopold Jessner, and Walter Wanger, who, at the time, was President of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Wanger financed the project. Only a few of the 60 initial members were Jewish exiles. Most members, nonetheless, faced challenges as actors and actresses in America. Of those who had already assimilated and established themselves, participation elevated the comradery and esprit de corps for the cause. The Continental Players had two notable sponsoring organizations: (i) the American Guild for German Cultural Freedom(de) – Thomas Mann, President, and (ii) the German-American League for Culture, Los Angeles (a nationwide anti-Hitler league; not to be confused with its nemesis, the German-American Bund).
In May and June 1939, The Continental Players produced William Tell.Leopold Jessner directed it for the sixth and last time in his career. The play had been controversial on German stage, partly due to a 1919 production directed by Jessner at the Stadttheater Berlin, wherein, instead of mounting a traditional repertory version with conservative themes, Jessner decided on a complete German expressionistic recast – replete with discordant speech and scenic experimentation designed by Emil Pirchan(de). The set was cubistic with platforms, runways, and steps. Jessner's 1919 production angered right-wing conservatives and fascists.
The 1939 production failed, financially, due partly to actors struggling in English and partly to the version being non-traditional. The loss, about $30,000, was an impetus for shuttering the erstwhile popular production venue, The Players Dinner Theater. Yet, the effort was chronicled favorably as altruistic.
^Eva Hyde(néeEva Heymann; 1910–1953), a Munich-born actress who was exiled in 1937, was the third wife of composer Werner R. Heymann, her first husband whom she divorced in 1940. She was a distant cousin of Werner Heymann. In 1952, she married artist Klaus Brill (1913–2007).
