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The final date of completion is noted on the last page of Gershwin's manuscript: September 2, 1935. The first version was ambitious in the extreme- it would run at least four and a half hours in actual production. No one at the Theatre Guild seemed daunted, however, and production plans were started in grandiose manner. As director, Rouben Mamoulian was called from Hollywood, Serge Soudekeine was asked to do the set, Alexander Smallens was assigned as conductor. The problems of getting together was amounted to practically an all-Negro cast were enormous. But, the roles began to fill in. A music teacher from Howard University, Todd Duncan, was found to sing the role of Porgy. Gershwin discovered the ideal Bess, Anne Brown, himself. A remarkable Sportin' Life was found in the "non-singing" dancer John Bubbles, one-half of the team of Buck and Bubbles. Ruby Elzy was cast as Serena, Ford Buck as Mingo, Abbie Mitchell as Clara, Georgette Harvey as Maria, Helen Dowdy as Lily, Edward Matthews as Jake, Warren Coleman as Crown, J. Rosamund Johnson as Frazier and the Eva Jessye Choir was hired for the choral sections. Rehearsal began and Gershwin, knowing in the ways of theatre, began cutting his magnificent score ruthlessly and wisely. 

He showed little reagrd now for music on which he had labored with intensity and love, music which he told friends he knew was the greatest he would ever compose. The whole production took shape with almost miraculous quickness and the much-shortened final version of the score was a masterpiece of incisiveness and effective theatricality. 

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