To honor the radical critical legacies of Noël Coward and HB Studio founders Herbert Berghof and Uta Hagen, HB Studio and the Noël Coward Foundation have collaborated to offer a unique pair of Spring 2025 courses, Witness to History: The Testimony Project. These two classes – Frank Wood‘s Testimony: Theater as Witness to Our Times and Christopher Burney and Fran Kirmser‘s American Scoreboard: How Did We Get Here? – explore the use of courtroom testimony and verbatim transcript within the theater. Coward’s well-known reputation for humor is underpinned by his role as a serious social critic and provocateur who persistently challenged convention during the politically repressive 1950s and 1960s. We hope these workshops help connect a new generation of actors to Coward and his inquisitive spirit, as well as show how testimony continues to be used effectively in our current tumultuous era. These workshops will also feature educational activities including scene study, podcasts, and live public events (save the dates: Testimony showcase on April 22 and American Scoreboard showcase on May 19).
In the first class, Testimony: Theater as Witness to Our Times, Tony Award-winning actor Frank Wood will explore Heinar Kipphardt’s In the Matter of J. Robert Oppenheimer and additional texts that use testimony to observe the structures and systems of our times. Wood will explore how Kipphardt’s work uses the notion of “testimony” as an artistic tool, examining the structures and rhetoric of authority, in conflict with a singular creative mind and independent moral voice.
Kipphardt’s text is an especially appropriate choice as Berghof acted in an early production of the play in 1969 at Lincoln Center. Berghof’s experience as a refugee – a rising theater artist who had experienced the repression and shutdown of theaters in Europe – shaped his artistic priorities and his teaching. He fostered a rich sense of community and sanctuary within HB Studio while also challenging his students on deep artistic and moral levels. We want to honour that history by bringing Berghof’s legacy and Kipphardt’s timely, important work to a new generation of theatre artists.
Other texts we may explore include Bertolt Brecht’s testimony before the U.S. House Un-American Activities Committee and excerpts from Milly Barranger’s book on the theater women who gave testimony to HUAC, Unfriendly Witnesses, as well as (through scenes or conversations) – Saul Levitt’s The Andersonville Trial, Moisés Kaufman’s Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde, Tina Satter’s Is This a Room? and Mojisola Adebayo’s The Interrogation of Sandra Bland.
With the second workshop, American Scoreboard: How Did We Get Here?, we will revisit our partnership with American Scoreboard, led by Tony-nominated director Christopher Burney and Tony-winning producer Fran Kirmser. Through the exploration of historic transcripts and documents, participants will uncover the legacy of the nation—bringing pivotal moments, influential voices, and untold stories to life on stage. Participants will engage in hands-on exercises to craft compelling narratives, shape authentic character voices, and construct dramatic scenes rooted in history. This workshop culminates in a collaborative staged reading, showcasing the power of documentary theater to illuminate the past and provoke meaningful dialogue about the present.
A cornerstone of HB’s curriculum is the cultivation of the historical imagination–our ability to place ourselves with immediacy, urgency, and compassion, in the specific circumstances of another time. Through study of seminal works in The Theatre of Fact, and the use of transcripts to create new theater, participants will apply these skills to illuminate connections between past and present.
“It’s discouraging to think how many people are shocked by honesty and how few by deceit.” — Noël Coward, Blithe Spirit
This project is made possible by the leadership support of the Noël Coward Foundation. HB Studio and its founders enjoy a special relationship with Noël Coward and the Noël Coward Foundation. In 1983, Uta Hagen wrote: “My brother acted in the summers, and somehow, when I’d turned fifteen, he convinced the other actors at the University of Wisconsin to let me play his sister in Hay Fever. I’m not so sure what Noël Coward would have said, but with the local people there, we had a great success. I started to believe, perhaps I was an actress.” A few years later, after Uta had made her Broadway debut as Nina in The Seagull with the Lunts, the production toured to Washington, D.C., where Noël Coward saw the play. “I was so excited I could hardly breathe,” Uta told her father. “I was ready to go home when Lynn Fontanne called me into her dressing room. Noël Coward was there and told me things that made my head three times as big: I was a born actress with every correct instinct, had a fabulous rubber stage face that could look like everything and anything, a good voice (on which however I would have to work); and that I moved well. He said he had never been so impressed by a young actress and that I should work like a swine just so I would become even greater in my art. I felt like a million bucks.” Eight years later, with her then husband José Ferrer, Uta appeared in Design for Living. In 1943, Herbert Berghof played Ernest in a production of Design for Living which featured Kitty Carlisle as Gilda.
Since 2015, the Noël Coward Foundation has supported numerous projects at HB Studio related to Noël Coward; the Uta Hagen Centennial; and the history of Greenwich Village theater, including a performance focusing on four Village icons: Djuna Barnes, María Irene Fornés, Susan Glaspel, and Lorraine Hansberry.
