The Living Theater

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The Living Theater presents its anti-war play The Brig as part of Myfest 2008 on Oranienplatz in Berlin-Kreuzberg

The Living Theater is an anarcho - pacifist , post-dramatic theater group that was founded in New York in 1947 and is still represented with one group in the United States and another in Italy . The Living Theater is also known in the German-speaking theater scene through the film documentary Resist - A Dream of Life (Original: Resist! To Be with the Living, 2004) by Dirk Szuszies , a former member, and Karin Kaper . The Living Theater should not be confused with the Theater for Living , a company from Vancouver that u. a. was founded by David Diamond.

history

Julian Beck
Judith Malina

The Living Theater by actress was founded Judith Malina and painter and poet Julian Beck , who on New York's Dramatic Workshop of Erwin Piscator met.

In the 1950s, the Living Theater was the first theater company to stage European authors such as Bertolt Brecht , Jean Cocteau , TS Eliot and Gertrude Stein in the United States. Initially, the Living Theater was present in small venues that often had to close for financial reasons or because of problems with the authorities. The Living Theater was also involved in creating the off-Broadway theater scene.

The play The Brig, which looks at the conditions in the prisons of the US Marine Corps from an anti-authoritarian perspective, again led to the closure of a venue in 1963 (“The Marines are not criticized.” Judith Malina in the film Resist) and to the brief arrest of Julian Beck and Judith Malina over tax debts which they refused to pay because they did not want to indirectly support the Vietnam War . Due to the repressive climate that opposed the opponents of the Vietnam War in the United States in the mid-1960s, the decision was made to emigrate as a group to Europe.

During this time the Living Theater was further politicized, which led to the fact that it developed more and more into a radically pacifist and anarchist ( street theater ) group. Projects such as Antigone and Frankenstein based on Mary Shelley's novel were realized collectively. The most famous piece from this creative phase is Paradise Now, an improvisation piece in which the audience is actively involved. In 1965/66 the Italian composer Luigi Nono worked with the members of the Living Theater on the realization of his composition A floresta é jovem e cheia de vida (for soprano, three reciters, clarinet, copper plates and tape), which was dedicated to the Vietnamese liberation front . In 1968 the Living Theater returned to the United States to tour with Paradise Now .

In 1969 some of the members left the group. Judith Malina and Julian Beck toured the remainder of the Living Theater in Brazil, which at the time was under brutal military dictatorship. After she was arrested there in 1971, the group returned to New York after their release and established themselves again there. At that point, Joseph Chaikin left the Living Theater to start the Open Theater . The group toured all over the world, also repeatedly in Germany, where in theater festivals, for example, in the play Seven Meditations on Political Sadomasochism, critical comments were made on torture and prison conditions of the RAF . After Beck died of cancer in 1985, the group was on the verge of disintegration, but then Hanon Reznikov became the central figure in the group alongside Judith Malina.

At the end of the nineties they received a kind of “asylum” in Rocchetta Ligure , a small town in the province of Alessandria in Italy, and founded the Centro Living Europa. To this day, the Living Theater Europa lives and works there as the “European arm” of the theater. In 2000 they appeared after the withdrawal of the Israeli army in Lebanon: for the Jewish members of Living such as B. Malina a shocking experience. In 2001 it drew attention to itself in New York City through actions after September 11th , which called for world peace, but nonetheless dealt critically with US (foreign) policy.

The Living Theater is still touring the world today, last visiting Germany in 2008 and presenting a new production of The Brig in Berlin and Stuttgart. Even today, important issues are dealing with war, discrimination, racism and anti-Semitism. After Reznikov's death on May 3, 2008, Malina took over the sole management of the group, which operates a permanent venue on Clinton Street in New York, until her death in 2015. In 2017 the ensemble created the piece Electric Awakening , which premiered in São Paulo , Brazil and which was also performed in Mexico in 2019.

Awards

The productions The Connection (1959: Jack Gelber for “Best New Play”, the Theater for “Best All-Around Production”, Warren Finnerty as “Best Actor”), The Brig (1963: Malina for “Best Direction”, Beck for "Best Design", the theater for "Best Production"), Antigone (1968, without categories: Beck and Malina) and Frankenstein (1968, without categories: the theater) each received an Obie Award . In 1996 the Living Theater received the War Resisters League Peace Award . In January 2003 Judith Malina was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame for Lifetime Achievement .

Works

  • Julian Beck and Judith Malina: Paradise Now. Pantheon, New York 1972
  • Judith Malina: The Enormous Despair. Random House, New York 1972
  • Aldo Rostagno, Judith Malina, Julian Beck: We, the Living Theater. Ballantine Books, New York 1970

Filmography

See also

literature

  • Erika Billeter and Dölf Preisig: The Living Theater: Paradise Now. A report in words and pictures. Bern et al., Rütten u. Loening 1968
  • Imke Buchholz and Judith Malina: Living Theater means life. One who set out to learn life. Volksverlag, Linden 1980
  • Jens Heilmeyer: now, theater of experience. Material on the new American theater movement. Cologne 1971, ISBN 3-7701-0609-1
  • Renfreu Neff: The Living Theater. USA 1970
  • Carlo Silvestro; The living book of the living theater. With a foreword by Wilhelm Unger. DuMont, Cologne 1971
  • John Tytell: The Living Theater: Art, Exile, and Outrage, Grove Press, New York 1995, ISBN 0-8021-3486-6 , ISBN 978-0-8021-3486-8

Web links

Commons : The Living Theater  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ I Frankenstein del Living Theater , review of the book of the same name by Anna Maria Monteverdi, last accessed on July 17, 2013 (Italian)
  2. ↑ See the film Resist .