Collaborators

At the height of America's anti-Communist Red Scare, playwright Arthur Miller traveled to Hollywood to work on a screenplay with Elia Kazan, the most important director in Hollywood and on Broadway in the 1950s. Kazan introduced Miller to Marilyn Monroe, then a minor actress and Kazan's lover. Miller and Monroe instantly fell in love; however, Miller was married. Subsequently, the artistic collaboration between Miller and Kazan shattered after Kazan "named names" of ex-Communists before Congress. Miller then wrote THE CRUCIBLE, which condemns informing; Kazan directed ON THE WATERFRONT, which celebrates testifying as heroic, and Monroe went on to become a major movie star and an enduring sex symbol. COLLABORATORS presents the story of the complex relationships among these towering figures from 1950s popular culture.