The Actors' Laboratory Theatre was a politically active theatre company and acting school founded in January 1941 by Roman Bohnen, Jules Dassin, Dick Flake, Lloyd Bridges, Danny Mann, Jeff Corey, Mary Virginia Farmer and J. Edward Bromberg.
[1] During the Second World War, the Actors' Lab made multiple performances for servicemen, in association with the Hollywood Victory Committee.
[2] The Actors' Lab was originally above Sharkey's Bar at the corner of Franklin and Bronson Avenues in Hollywood.
[1][3] The Actors' Lab brought the ideas and acting techniques of New York's Group Theatre to California, and "prided itself on having opened its doors to students of all races.
Bohnen and other principals of the theater were called before a California Senate committee and declined to disclose if they were Communists.