The Living Theatre: Difference between revisions

{{multiple image|total_width=265|image1=JulianBeck.jpg|image2=JudithMalina.jpg|footer=[[Julian Beck]] (''left'') and [[Judith Malina]] founded The Living Theatre}}

"Founded in 1947, the Living Theatre is the oldest experimental theatre group still existing in the U.S."</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Heble |first=Ajay |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rXY9BAAAQBAJ&pg=PA116&lpg=PA116&dq=living+theatre+oldest+experimental+group&sourcepg=bl&otsPA116 |title=4K5_wbj61d&sig=ACfU3U3OCF2KvsiDWGu5wgcPW7Q-abVqUg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiSuafTgt3rAhUrgnIEHRSAABw4ChDoATAJegQICRAB#v=onepage&q=living%20theatre%20oldest%20experimental%20group&f=false ''The Improvisation Studies Reader: Spontaneous Acts'' edited by Ajay Heble and|last2=Caines |first2=Rebecca Caines|date=2014-08-07 ([[|publisher=Routledge]], 2015),|isbn=978-1-136-18714-8 p. 116: "The Living Theatre in New York City is the oldest experimental theatre group in the USA"|language=en}}</ref> For most of its history it was led by its founders, actress [[Judith Malina]] and painter/poet [[Julian Beck]]. After Beck's death in 1985, company member [[Hanon Reznikov]] became co-director with Malina;<ref>[[Gary Botting|Botting, Gary]], ''The Theatre of Protest in America'', Edmonton: Harden House, 1972.</ref> the two were married in 1988.<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/11/theater/judith-malina-founder-of-the-living-theater-dies-at-88.html Obituary: "In 1988, Ms. Malina married Hanon Reznikov"], ''[[New York Times]]''</ref> After Malina's death in 2015, 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 1983 documentary ''[[Signals Through the Flames]]''.

In the 1950s, 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, 1960) and [[Jean Cocteau]], as well as [[modernism|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|Luigi Pirandello's]] ''Tonight We Improvise''.<ref name=Botting18>Botting, Gary, "The Living Theatre", in ''The Theatre of Protest in America'' (Edmonton: Harden House, 1972), 18.</ref> 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 1950s, the American composer [[Alan Hovhaness]] worked closely with the Living Theatre, composing music for its productions. In 1959, their production of ''[[The Connection (1959 play)|The Connection]]'' attracted national attention for its harsh portrayal of drug addiction and its equally harsh language. In the early 1960s the Living Theatre was host to [[avant-garde]] minimalist performances by artists including [[Simone Forti]] and [[Robert Morris (artist)|Robert Morris]].<ref>{{cite book|last1=Hinant|first1=Cindy|editor1-last=Meyer-Stoll|editor1-first=Christiane|editor1-link=Gary Kuehn: Between Sex and Geometry Kunstmusuem Liechtenstein|title=A Subversive Practitioner|date=2014|publisher=Snoeck Verlagsgessellschaft|location=Cologne|isbn=3864421098978-3864421099|page=33|quote=Column was staged in February 1962 at the Living Theatre, New York, and features an element from [Robert] Morris’s earlier work Two Columns, 1961, which consisted of two eight-foot-high rectangular plywood boxes painted gray. In the performance of Column, one of these boxes was placed vertically on an empty stage for three-and-a-half minutes, then a string was pulled, causing it to fall on its side, where it lay for another three-and-a-half minutes}}</ref>

''[[The Brig (play)|The Brig]]'' (1963), an [[anti-authoritarian]] look at conditions in a [[United States Marine Corps|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.<ref name=Beck32>{{cite book|last1=Beck|first1=Garrick|title=True Stories: Tales From the Generation of a New World Culture|publisher=iUniverse|year=2017|isbn=978-1-5320-2600-3|location=Bloomington, IN|pages=32–39}}</ref> Judith defended Julian at the [[IRS]] hearing dressed like Portia from ''[[The Merchant of Venice]]''.<ref name=Botting18 /> For the rest of the 1960s, the group toured chiefly in Europe. They produced more politically and formally radical work carrying an [[anarchism|anarchist]] and [[pacifism|pacifist]] message, with the company members creating plays collectively and often living together. {{anchor|Paradise Now}}Major works from this period included the adaptations ''[[Antigone (Sophocles play)|Antigone]]'', ''[[Frankenstein (play)|Frankenstein]]'', and ''Paradise Now'', which became their best-known play.<ref>{{cite web|last=Weber|first=Bruce|title=Judith Malina, Founder of the Living Theater, Dies at 88|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/11/theater/judith-malina-founder-of-the-living-theater-dies-at-88.html|work=[[The New York Times]]|date=April 10, 2015|access-date=July 11, 2021}}</ref> ''Paradise Now'', a semi-[[improvisational theatre|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 1968 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."<ref>Cited in Botting, "The Living Theatre" (1972), 18–19.</ref> He added: "Our work had always striven to stress the sacredness of life."<ref>Botting, "The Living Theatre" (1972), 19.</ref> In 1971 they toured in Brazil, where they were imprisoned for several months, then deported.

In April 2008, Hanon Reznikov suffered a stroke. He died on May 3, 2008.<ref>

In 2014, 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 festival|Burning Man]]. Malina was writing ''Venus and Mars'' when she died in April 2015.

* ''The Legacy of Cain'' (1970-19781970–1978)

* ''Prometheus at the Winter Palace'' (1978)