Living theatre productions

The Living Theatre

American theatre company

The Living Theatre is an American theatre company founded in and based in New York City. It is the oldest experimental theatre group in the United States.[1][2] For most of its history it was led by its founders, actress Judith Malina and painter/poet Julian Beck.

After Beck's death in , company member Hanon Reznikov became co-director with Malina;[3] the two were married in [4] After Malina's death in , her responsibilities were taken over by her son Garrick Maxwell Beck, Tom Walker and Brad Burgess. The Living Theatre and its founders were the subject of the documentary Signals Through the Flames.

History

In the s, the group was among the first in the U.S. to produce the work of influential European playwrights such as Bertolt Brecht (In The Jungle of Cities in New York, ) and Jean Cocteau, as well as modernist poets such as T. S. Eliot and Gertrude Stein. One of their first major productions was Pablo Picasso's Desire Caught By the Tail; other early productions were Many Loves by William Carlos Williams and Luigi Pirandello'sTonight We Improvise.[5]

Based in a variety of small New York locations which were frequently closed due to financial problems or conflicts with city authorities, they helped to originate off-off-Broadway and off-Broadway as significant forces in U.S.

theater. Their work during this period shared some aspects of style and content with Beat generation writers. Also during the s, the American composer Alan Hovhaness worked closely with the Living Theatre, composing music for its productions. In , their production of The Connection attracted national attention for its harsh portrayal of drug addiction and its equally harsh language.

In the early s the Living Theatre was host to avant-garde minimalist performances by artists including Simone Forti and Robert Morris.[6]

The Brig (), an anti-authoritarian look at conditions in a Marine prison, was their last major production in New York before a tax dispute led to the closure of the theatre space and the brief imprisonment of Beck and Malina.[7] Judith defended Julian at the IRS hearing dressed like Portia from The Merchant of Venice.[5] For the rest of the s, the group toured chiefly in Europe.

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    • They produced more politically and formally radical work carrying an anarchist and pacifist message, with the company members creating plays collectively and often living together. Major works from this period included the adaptations Antigone, Frankenstein, and Paradise Now, which became their best-known play.[8]Paradise Now, a semi-improvisational piece involving audience participation, was notorious for a scene in which actors recited a list of social taboos that included nudity, while disrobing; this led to multiple arrests for indecent exposure.

    The group returned to the U.S. in to tour Paradise Now, Antigone, Mysteries and Smaller Pieces, and Frankenstein. "That madman who inspires us all, Artaud, does have some advice," Beck said in an informal address at Yale University after his return, "and I think he is the philosopher, for those of us who work in theatre, whom we can reach toward most quickly, of whom we can say, yes, here is one man since Rousseau who does uphold the idea of the non-civilized man."[9] He added: "Our work had always striven to stress the sacredness of life."[10] In they toured in Brazil, where they were imprisoned for several months, then deported.

    The Living Theatre has toured extensively throughout the world, often in non-traditional venues such as streets and prisons.

    Paradise now living theatre He was 18 and she was Julian was the son of well to do second generation Jewish parents. His father was the successful owner of an automobile parts business. His mother had been a teacher. They lived in a large apartment on West End Avenue.

    It has greatly influenced other American experimental theatre companies, notably The Open Theater (founded by former Living Theatre member Joseph Chaikin) and Bread and Puppet Theater.[11] The Living Theatre's productions have won four Obie Awards: The Connection (), The Brig ( and ), and Frankenstein ().

    In , The Living Theatre signed a year lease on the 3,square-foot (&#;m2) basement of a new residential building under construction at 21 Clinton Street, between Houston and Stanton Streets on Manhattan's Lower East Side.

    The Clinton Street theater is the company's first permanent home since the closing of The Living Theatre on Third Street at Avenue C in The company moved into the completed space in early and opened in April with a revival of The Brig by Kenneth H. Brown,[12] first presented at The Living Theatre at 14th Street and Sixth Avenue in The re-staging, directed by Judith Malina, won Obie Awards for Direction and Ensemble Performance.

    In October , the company opened a revival of Mysteries and Smaller Pieces, the collective creation that defined the interactive and Artaudian style[clarification needed] for which the company became famous.

    In late / early the company founder Judith Malina performed in Maudie and Jane, a stage adaptation, directed by Reznikov, of the Doris Lessing novel, The Diary of Jane Somers.

    Living theatre history: Paradise Now, a semi-improvisational piece involving audience participation, was notorious for a scene in which actors recited a list of social taboos that included nudity, while disrobing; this led to multiple arrests for indecent exposure.

    In April , Hanon Reznikov suffered a stroke. He died on May 3, [13]

    In , the company presented Red Noir, adapted and directed by Judith Malina. In , the company presented Korach, by Malina, and a revival of Seven Meditations on Political Sado-Masochism, directed by Malina and Tom Walker. Also in , the company created The Plot Is The Revolution, starring Malina and Silvia Calderoni, a co-production with the Italian group Motus.

    In , the company presented The History of the World, written and directed by Malina. In , the company presented Here We Are, written and directed by Malina. The company also vacated its Clinton Street space.

    Open theatre Most people today know Julian Beck, if at all, for a small but unforgettable film role at the end of his career. In Poltergeist 2 Beck plays the nightmarishly sinister Reverend Henry Kane and his one full scene in that film is far more unnerving than the rest of its rubber monsters and special effects. Beck, a bisexual radical who makes most contemporary theatre directors seem as challenging as civil servants, started out as a painter but moved into theatre in the late Forties, founding the legendary Artaud-inspired Living Theatre in The play introduces the practice of collective creation, dissolving the boundaries of human interactions and forging a harmony between the actors and audience. The play is a vertical ascent toward permanent revolution, leading to revolutionary action here and now.

    In , Judith Malina's play No Place to Hide premiered at the Clemente Soto Velez Center on the Lower East Side. The production later took to the streets of New York for the Underground Zero Festival, and was performed at Burning Man. Malina was writing Venus and Mars when she died in April

    Goals and influences

    From its conception, The Living Theatre was dedicated to transforming the organization of power within society from a competitive, hierarchical structure to cooperative and communal expression.

    The troupe attempts to do so by counteracting complacency in the audience through direct spectacle. They oppose the commercial orientation of Broadway productions and have contributed to the off-Broadway theater movement in New York City, staging poetic dramas.

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    • The primary text for The Living Theatre is The Theatre and its Double, an anthology of essays written by Antonin Artaud, the French playwright. It was published in France in and by the Grove Press in the U.S. in This work deeply influenced Julian Beck, a bisexual painter of abstract expressionist works. The troupe reflects Artaud's influence by staging multimedia plays designed to exhibit his metaphysical Theatre of Cruelty.

    In these performances, the actors attempt to dissolve the "fourth wall" between them and the spectators.

    Plays and publications

    • The Connection
    • The Brig
    • Mysteries
    • Antigone (adaptation)
    • Frankenstein
    • Paradise Now
    • The Living Book of the Living Theatre ()
    • The Legacy of Cain (–)
    • Turning the Earth
    • Seven Meditations on Political Sado-Masochism
    • Six Public Acts
    • The Money Tower
    • Prometheus at the Winter Palace ()
    • The Antigone of Sophocles ()
    • Masse Mensch ()
    • The Yellow Methuselah ()
    • The Archaeology of Sleep ()

    See also

    References

    1. ^ "Founded in , the Living Theatre is the oldest experimental theatre group still existing in the U.S."
    2. ^Heble, Ajay; Caines, Rebecca ().

      The Improvisation Studies Reader: Spontaneous Acts. Routledge. ISBN&#;.

    3. ^Botting, Gary, The Theatre of Protest in America, Edmonton: Harden House,
    4. ^Obituary: "In , Ms. Malina married Hanon Reznikov", New York Times
    5. ^ abBotting, Gary, "The Living Theatre", in The Theatre of Protest in America (Edmonton: Harden House, ),
    6. ^Hinant, Cindy ().

      Meyer-Stoll, Christiane (ed.). A Subversive Practitioner. Cologne: Snoeck Verlagsgessellschaft. p.&#; ISBN&#;.

    7. ^Beck, Garrick (). True Stories: Tales From the Generation of a New World Culture. Bloomington, IN: iUniverse. pp.&#;32– ISBN&#;.
    8. ^Weber, Bruce (April 10, ).

      "Judith Malina, Founder of the Living Theater, Dies at 88". The New York Times. Retrieved July 11,

    9. ^Cited in Botting, "The Living Theatre" (), 18–
    10. ^Botting, "The Living Theatre" (),
    11. ^Botting, "Bread and Puppet Theatre", in The Theatre of Protest in America (Edmonton: Harden House, ), 20–
    12. ^"A conversation with playwright Kenneth Brown", Cultural Compass, April
    13. ^Bacalzo, Dan (May 5, ).

      "The Living Theatre's Hanon Reznikov Dies at 57". Retrieved May 5,

    Bibliography

    • Neff, Renfrew ().

      Paradise now living theatre london It is the oldest experimental theatre group in the United States. After Beck's death in , company member Hanon Reznikov became co-director with Malina; [ 3 ] the two were married in The Living Theatre and its founders were the subject of the documentary Signals Through the Flames. In the s, the group was among the first in the U. Eliot and Gertrude Stein.

      The Living Theatre: U.S.A.

    • Rostagno, Aldo, with Judith Malina and Julian Beck (). We, the Living Theatre. New York: Ballantine Books.
    • The Living Theatre (). Paradise Now.

      Paradise now living theatre san diego

      Three single weight and one double weight vintage photographs and an original program from the premiere of The Living Theatre's experimental theatre piece "Paradise Now," performed on July 24 at a Carmelite cloister as part of the 22nd Avignon Festival in Avignon, France. Three of the photographs with stamps of the Gamma photo agency or photographers on the verso, two with manuscript annotations regarding the production on the verso. After a dispute with the IRS led to the closing of their New York City theater in , Julian Beck and Judith Malina moved The Living Theatre to Europe, where they toured almost exclusively, refining the group's vision of improvisational, collaborative, and participatory leftist theatre. In they debuted what would become their signature piece, "Paradise Now," at the Avignon Festival, where at the conclusion of the piece both performers and audience members took to the streets in a combination demonstration and parade that caused controversy among the residents of the town. Program: 4.

      New York: Random House.

    • Malina, Judith (). The Enormous Despair. New York: Random House.
    • Pierre Biner () The Living Theatre New York: Avon Books.
    • Malina, Judith (). The Diaries of Judith Malina, . New York: Grove Press, Inc.
    • Mystic Fire Video (), Signals Through the Flames.

      Documentary. Originally released by The Living Theatre in as a motion picture, produced and directed by Sheldon Rochlin and Maxine Harris.

    Further reading

    External links

    • The Living Theatre official site
    • Living Theatre records, –, held by the Billy Rose Theatre Division, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
    • Judith Malina diaries, –, held by the Billy Rose Theatre Division, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
    • PARADISE NOW: A COLLECTIVE CREATION OF THE LIVING THEATRE - ANTHOLOGY DVD, from Arthur Magazine
    • Living Theatre Archives at Special Collections Dept., University Library, University of California, Davis
    • Stuart A.

      Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library, Emory University: The Living Theatre records,