Living Theatre (New York, N.Y.)

The Living Theatre, founded by Judith Malina and Julian Beck in 1947, produced avant-garde plays performed in New York theaters until 1963, when they were shut down by the IRS for failing to pay taxes. After a worldwide tour, the Living Theatre settled in Berlin in 1965. The company toured the United States in 1968. After touring Brazil and Europe, the Living Theatre came back to New York in May 1989 where it has its present home.

From the guide to the Living Theatre designs, 1948-1967 and undated, (The New York Public Library. Billy Rose Theatre Division.)

The Living Theatre is an American experimental theatre company, which was founded in 1947 by Judith Malina and Julian Beck and which has been co-directed, since Beck's death in 1985, by Malina and Hanon Reznikov. The company is currently based in New York City and has toured extensively throughout the world.

From the description of Living Theatre records, circa 1947-2007. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 702158764

Founded in New York City in 1947 by Julian Beck and Judith Malina, the Living Theatre achieved international fame as a radical theatre group.

From the description of Living Theatre records, 1947-1975. (University of California, Davis). WorldCat record id: 60548324

The Living Theatre was founded in 1947 as an imaginative alternative to the commercial theater by Judith Malina and Julian Beck. The Living Theatre has staged nearly a hundred productions performed in eight languages in 28 countries on five continents.

During the 1950's and early 1960's in New York, The Living Theatre pioneered the unconventional staging of poetic drama - the plays of American writers like Gertrude Stein, William Carlos Williams, Paul Goodman, Kenneth Rexroth and John Ashbery, as well as European writers rarely produced in America, including Cocteau, Lorca, Brecht and Pirandello.

Today the Living Theatre has a home at 21 Clinton Street, which is the company's first permanent home since the closing of The Living Theatre on Third Street at Avenue C in 1993. "History." The Living Theatre. http://www.livingtheatre.org/history.html (accessed May 20, 2008).

From the guide to the Living Theatre ephemera collection, 1953–1968, (University of Delaware Library - Special Collections)

The Living Theatre, founded by Judith Malina and Julian Beck in 1947, produced avant-garde plays performed in New York theaters until 1963, when they were shut down by the IRS for failing to pay taxes.

After a worldwide tour, the Living Theatre settled in Berlin in 1965. The company toured the United States in 1968. After touring Brazil and Europe, the Living Theatre came back to New York in May 1989 where it has its present home.

From the description of Living Theatre designs, 1948-1967 and undated. (New York Public Library). WorldCat record id: 773034638

The Living Theatre was founded by Judith Malina and Julian Beck in 1947.

Their avant-garde plays were performed in New York theaters until 1963 when they were shut down by the IRS for failing to pay taxes. Living Theatre then launched a workd-wide tour and settled in Berlin in 1965. The company toured the United States in 1968 and returned to Europe in 1969. In 1970 Living Theatre toured Brazil, performing in street plays, developing the cycle of plays titled THE LEGACY OF CAIN. While in Brazil its members were arrested for drug possession and jailed. The charges were eventually dropped due to strong protests from the world artistic community. After leaving Brazil, Living Theatre performed in the inner city of Pittsburgh. In 1975 they returned to Europe and continued bringing plays to the streets. Julian Beck returned with the Living Theatre to the United States before his death in 1985 and performed a repertory of four works. This included THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF SLEEP, ANTIGONE, THE YELLOW METHUSELAH and THE ONE AND THE MANY. In May 1989 the Living Theatre came back to New York where it has its present home.

From the description of Living Theatre records, 1945-1991. (New York Public Library). WorldCat record id: 122314106

Biography

Robin Gibson and Luis Veiga were professional photographers and former members of The Living Theatre. Veiga, a Brazilian photographer, first connected with the Living Theatre in Brazil and joined the theatre in Vermont in 1974 during the creation of the play, The Money Tower. Gibson, a professional photographer from Pittsburgh, contributed photographs to textbooks. Both Gibson and Veiga left the Living Theatre in 1975 to join a Pittsburgh group, Direct Action Theater.

From the guide to the Robin Gibson and Luis Veiga Living Theatre Collection, 1974-1975, (University of California, Davis. General Library. Department of Special Collections.)

The Living Theatre was founded in 1947 by Judith Malina (1926-), a student of Erwin Piscator, and Julian Beck (1925-1985), an abstract expressionist painter of the New York School. The name reflected the founders' desire to create a theater essentially of its own time, which would be a part of the community. It also reflected their vision of a theater that would challenge and move the audience. In planning for the development of the Living Theatre, Malina and Beck, who were married in 1948, consulted and collaborated with many people including Robert Edmond Jones, Jean Cocteau, John Cage, Paul Goodman, Eric Bentley, Frederick Kiesler, Aline Bernstein and others, some of whom became "Sponsors" of the Living Theatre. The first performances of the Living Theatre were presented in the Becks' apartment in 1951. Later that year, the Living Theatre moved to the Cherry Lane Theatre, and inaugurated their initial season with Gertrude Stein's Dr. Faustus Lights the Lights, Paul Goodman's Faustina, and Kenneth Rexroth's Beyond the Mountains .

During the 1950s the Living Theatre continued to stage plays by Pablo Picasso, August Strindberg, Luigi Pirandello, Paul Goodman, Claude Fredericks, T.S. Eliot, Jean Cocteau and William Carlos Williams. They also staged performances by contemporary poets and performing artists including Dylan Thomas, John Cage, Alan Hovhaness, Lucia Dlugoszewski, Judith Martin, James Waring, Allen Ginsberg and Willard Maas.

In 1954 the Living Theatre moved to a loft at Broadway and 100th Street. By 1958, they had moved into their 14th Street theater where they were to remain until the Internal Revenue Service forced their closing in 1963. Among the highlights of their years at 14th Street were productions of Many Loves by William Carlos Williams, The Connection by Jack Gelber, The Marrying Maiden by Jackson MacLow, In the Jungle of the Cities by Bertolt Brecht and The Brig by Kenneth H. Brown.

An invitation to participate at the Theatres des Nations festival in Paris prompted the Living Theatre's first tour of Europe in the summer of 1961. The company performed The Connection, In the Jungle of the Cities, and Many Loves and was awarded the Grand Prix of the festival. The tour also included Italy and Germany, and the success of these performances was reflected in a series of invitations to return to Europe in 1962.

In 1964 the Becks were indicted by a Federal Grand Jury in connection with their protests against the eviction from the 14th Street theater. Malina and Beck were found guilty, but were allowed to fulfill their obligations to perform in England before serving their sentences. In early 1965, having served their sentences, they re-joined the company in Europe, beginning a voluntary exile that lasted several years. During this period the Living Theatre performed throughout Europe staging Genet's The Maids, as well as their own works, often created collectively, and evolving from performance to performance. These included Mysteries and Smaller Pieces, Paradise Now and Frankenstein .

The Living Theatre returned to the United States in 1968 and gave their first American performance of Mysteries and Smaller Pieces at the Yale School of Drama. As a communal theater, they toured the United States before returning to Europe in March of 1969. In 1970-1971, the Becks took the Living Theatre to Brazil, where they performed in the streets, developing the cycle of plays titled The Legacy of Cain . Arrested on alleged possession of marijuana, Malina, Beck and other members of the company were imprisoned in Brazil. Upon their return to the United States they performed in the streets of Pittsburgh, staging The Legacy of Cain, including, Six Public Acts and The Money Tower . In 1975 the Living Theatre returned to Europe, and from their base in Rome continued to bring their vision of a pacifist anarchism to the streets, in an effort to reach audiences who might never enter a theater.

In 1984 the Living Theatre came back to the United States again and performed a repertory of four works: The Archaeology of Sleep, the last project completed by Julian Beck before his death in 1985, Antigone, The Yellow Methuselah and The One and the Many by Ernest Toller. In May 1989, Judith Malina and Hanon Reznikov opened the Living Theatre on Third Street in Manhattan with Armand Schwerner's The Tablets . It was the Theatre's first New York home in 26 years and where they continue to perform.

From the guide to the Living Theatre records, 1945-1991, (The New York Public Library. Billy Rose Theatre Division.)

The Living Theatre was founded in 1947 by actor and writer Judith Malina and painter/poet Julian Beck. Intended as an experimental alternative to commercial theatre, it attracted the sponsorship of, and staged works by, important American writers including Kenneth Rexroth, Gertrude Stein, John Ashbery, and William Carlos Williams. Also included were European writers such as Jean Cocteau (French), Bertolt Brecht (German), Federico García Lorca (Spanish), and Luigi Pirandello (Italian), many of whom were at that time rarely if ever produced in America.

Its reception by the established New York theatre world was not entirely positive, and between 1953 and 1963 three of its venues were shut down by the authorities. The Living Theatre then turned to touring, travelling Europe and refining their vision of "a new form of nonfictional acting based on the actor's political and physical commitment to using the theatre as a medium for social change." ["Historical Notes," Living Theatre website] Over the next twenty years their venues expanded to Brazilian prisons, Pittsburgh steel mills, Palermo slums, and New York City schools; their performances were free to all and included Six Public Acts, The Money Tower, Seven Meditations on Political Sado-Masochism, Turning the Earth and the Strike Support Oratorium .

In the 1980s the group began to focus on participatory theatre, involving the audience in rehearsals and performances; plays of this phase included Prometheus at the Winter Palace, The Yellow Methuselah and The Archaeology of Sleep . When Julian Beck died in 1985 he was replaced by Hanon Reznikov, who brought the troupe to a new Third Street performance space on Manhattan's Lower East Side. Continuing its tradition of challenging authority, the theatre was closed by authorities in 1993.

In 1999, funded by the European Union, the troupe renovated Palazzo Spinola, a 17th century building in Rocchetta Ligure, Italy, and reopened it as Centro Living Europa. One of their first productions from the new venue was Resistenza, a dramatization of the city's resistance to the German occupation in 1943-1945. In 2006 they re-established a presence in New York City at 21 Clinton Street, where they continue to produce new plays, most with anarchist, pacifist, or anti-globalization themes.

The Living Theatre exerted a strong influence on other American experimental theatre companies, including The Open Theater (founded by Living Theatre member Joseph Chaikin) and Bread and Puppet Theater. Over its history The Living Theatre has staged nearly a hundred productions performed in eight languages in 28 countries on five continents, and its productions have won four Obie Awards: The Connection (1959), The Brig (1963 and 2007), and Frankenstein (1968).

From the guide to the Living Theatre Collection, 1951-1961, (Special Collections Research Center, Syracuse University Libraries)

Founded in 1947 as an imaginative alternative to the commercial theater by Judith Malina, the German-born student of Erwin Piscator, and Julian Beck, an abstract expressionist painter of the New York School, The Living Theatre has staged nearly a hundred productions performed in eight languages in 28 countries on five continents - a unique body of work that has influenced theater the world over.

During the 1950's and early 1960's in New York, The Living Theatre pioneered the unconventional staging of poetic drama - the plays of American writers like Gertrude Stein, William Carlos Williams, Paul Goodman, Kenneth Rexroth and John Ashbery, as well as European writers rarely produced in America, including Cocteau, Lorca, Brecht and Pirandello. Best remembered among these productions, which marked the start of the Off-Broadway movement, were Doctor Faustus Lights the Lights, Tonight We Improvise, Many Loves, The Connection and The Brig .

In the mid-1960's, the company began a new life as a nomadic touring ensemble. In Europe, they evolved into a collective, living and working together toward the creation of a new form of nonfictional acting based on the actor's political and physical commitment to using the theater as a medium for furthering social change. The landmark achievements of this period include Mysteries and Smaller Pieces, Antigone, Frankenstein and Paradise Now .

In the 1970's, The Living Theatre began to create The Legacy of Cain, a cycle of plays for non-traditional venues. From the prisons of Brazil to the gates of the Pittsburgh steel mills, and from the slums of Palermo to the schools of New York City, the company offered these plays, which include Six Public Acts, The Money Tower, Seven Meditations on Political Sado-Masochism, Turning the Earth and the Strike Support Oratorium free of charge to the broadest of all possible audiences.

The 1980's saw the group return to the theater, where they developed new participatory techniques that enable the audience to first rehearse with the company and then join them on stage as fellow performers. These plays include Prometheus at the Winter Palace, The Yellow Methuselah and The Archaeology of Sleep .

Following the death of Julian Beck in 1985, co-founder Judith Malina and the company’s new director, veteran Hanon Reznikov, who first encountered The Living Theatre while a student at Yale in 1968, opened a new performing space in Manhattan’s Lower East Side, producing a steady stream of innovative works including The Tablets, I and I, The Body of God, Humanity, Rules of Civility, Waste, Echoes of Justice, and The Zero Method . After the closing of the Third Street space in 1993, the company went on to create Anarchia, Utopia and Capital Changes in other New York City venues.

In 1999, with funds from the European Union, they renovated a 1650 Palazzo Spinola in Rocchetta Ligure, Italy and reopened it as the Centro Living Europa, a residence and working space for the company’s European programs. There they created Resistenza, a dramatization of the local inhabitants’ historical resistance to the German occupation of 1943-45. In recent years, the company has also been performing Resist Now!, a play for anti-globalization demonstrations both in Europe and the U.S. A month-long collaboration with local theater artists in Lebanon in 2001 resulted in the creation of a site-specific play about the abuse of political detainees in the notorious former prison at Khiam.

The Living Theatre has opened a new theatre at 21 Clinton Street, presenting The Brig . They continue also to present NO SIR!, a play for the street against military recruitment.

Historical note comes from The Living Theatre website: http://www.livingtheatre.org/history.html .

From the guide to the Living Theatre Records, circa 1947-2007, (Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library)