American National Theater and Academy

The American National Theater and Academy (ANTA) presented one of the earliest American productions of Federico García Lorca’s The House of Bernarda Alba. Opening in January 1951 at the ANTA Theater, the production ran for seventeen performances, with Katrina Paxinou playing Bernarda Alba. It brought Lorca’s drama of a closely controlled household and the women confined within it to an American stage less than a decade after the play’s first performance.

Production

The 1951 staging was among the earliest American productions of the play. Its run at the ANTA Theater lasted seventeen performances, and Paxinou took the central role of Bernarda Alba. The available account records the venue, duration, and leading casting, but gives no director, other cast members, design details, or critical response for this production.

Place in the Play’s Reception

The ANTA production belongs to the early American reception of a work completed in 1936 but not performed until 1945. Later American presentations included a television production in 1960 and a well-received Actors’ Workshop staging in San Francisco in 1963. The 1951 run therefore forms an early point in the play’s stage history in the United States; the evidence does not establish a direct connection between ANTA and those later productions.