Richard Foreman

Richard Foreman

Richard Foreman (born June 10, 1937 in New York City ) is an American director and playwright .

Life

Foreman grew up in Scarsdale, Westchester County , and began to gain practical theater experience in the 1950s by creating sets for performances in his hometown. From 1959 to 1959 he studied at Brown University in Providence , where he was particularly enthusiastic about European art film (e.g. the films of Jean Cocteau ) and the philosophy of Ortega y Gasset . After graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree, he continued his studies at Yale University at Yale University in New Haven , where he focused primarily on the analysis of dramatic texts. After graduating with a Master of Fine Arts degree in 1962, Foreman moved to New York City , where he met the filmmaker and critic Jonas Mekas and became part of the Actors Studio's playwriting program . At that time, his writing was still based on playwrights such as Tennessee Williams and Arthur Miller . After a few frustrating experiences in the established theater business, under the strong impression of the New American Cinema , he decided to write that expresses the consciousness processes and resistance underlying the creative act directly in the writing. In the years to come, this very fundamental approach should also become the subject of his new theater. In the spring of 1968 he directed the first production of the newly founded Ontological-Hysteric Theater in the rooms of Jonas Mekas' Cinematheque at 80 Wooster Street. The play was performed on four consecutive evenings in front of six to twenty people. Foreman had his first major success with the musical theater piece Elephant Steps , written together with Stanley Silverman , which premiered in Lenox, Massachusetts in July and August 1968 and came to New York two years later. 1973, after numerous productions of his own plays and a directorial work in Paris ( Classical Therapy or a Week under the Influence ), the Ontological-Hysteric Theater moved to the floor of a building in SoHo that was mainly used by artists . In the mid-1970s Foreman began directing plays by other authors, and in 1976 he directed Brecht's Threepenny Opera for the Vivian Beaumont Theater at Lincoln Center . In the second half of the 1970s Foreman began experimenting with film and video as media. From the mid-80s onwards, he mainly worked on his own texts; four works were created in collaboration with the Wooster Group . From 1991 to 2010 the theater, now renamed Ontological Theater , resided under the roof of St. Mark's Church in the Bowery .

Important productions

Plays

• Angelface , New York City (1968)
• Ida-Eyed , New York City (1969)
• Total Recall , New York City (1970)
• HcOhTiEnLa (or) Hotel China , New York City (1971)
• Dream Tantras for Western Massachusetts , Lennox, Massachusetts (1971) (music by Stanley Silverman )
• Evidence , New York City (1972)
• Sophia = (Wisdom) Part 3: The Cliffs , New York City (1972)
• Particle Theory , New York City (1973)
• Classical Therapy or A Week under the Influence. . . , Paris (1973)
• Pain (t) , New York City (1974)
• Vertical Mobility , New York City (1974)
• Pandering to the Masses: A Misrepresentation , New York City (1975)
• Rhoda in Potatoland (Her Fall-Starts) , New York City (1975)
• Livre des Splendeurs: Part One , Paris (1976)
• Book of Splendors: Part Two (Book of Leaves) Action at a Distance , New York City (1977)
• Blvd. de Paris (I've Got the Shakes) , New York City (1977)
• Madness and Tranquility (My Head Was a Sledgehammer) , New York City (1979)
• Place + Target , Rome (1980)
• Penguin Touquet , New York City (1981)
• Café Amérique , Paris (1981)
• Egyptology , New York City (1983)
• La Robe de Chambre de Georges Bataille , Paris (1983)
• Miss Universal Happiness , New York City (1985)
• The Cure , New York City (1986)
• Film Is Evil: Radio Is Good , New York City (1987)
• Symphony of Rats , New York City (1987)
• Love and Science , Stockholm (1988)
• What Did He See? New York City (1988)
• Lava , New York City (1989)
• Eddie Goes to Poetry City: Part One , Seattle (1990)
• Eddie Goes to Poetry City: Part Two , New York City (1991)
• The Mind King , New York City (1992)
• Samuel's Major Problems , New York City (1993)
• My Head Was A Sledgehammer , New York City (1994)
• I've Got the Shakes , New York City (1995)
• The Universe , New York City (1995)
• Permanent Brain Damage , New York City (1996) (guest performance in London)
• Pearls for Pigs , Hartford, Connecticut (1997) (guest performances in Montreal, Paris, Rome, Los Angeles and New York City)
• Benita Canova , New York City (1997)
• Paradise Hotel (Hotel Fuck) , New York City (1998) (guest performances in Paris, Copenhagen, Salzburg and Berlin)
• Bad Boy Nietzsche , New York City (2000) (guest performances in Brussels, Berlin and Tokyo)
• Now That Communism is Dead, My Life Feels Empty , New York City (2001) (guest performances in Vienna and Holland)
• Maria Del Bosco , New York City (2002) (guest performance in Singapore)
• Panic! (How to Be Happy!) , New York City (2003) (guest performances in Zurich and Vienna)
• King Cowboy Rufus Rules the Universe! , New York City (2004)
• The Gods Are Pounding My Head! AKA Lumberjack Messiah , New York City (2005)
• ZOMBOID! (Film / Performance Project # 1) , New York City (2006)
• WAKE UP MR. SLEEPY! YOUR UNCONSCIOUS MIND IS DEAD! , New York City (2007)
• DEEP TRANCE BEHAVIOR IN POTATOLAND (A RICHARD FOREMAN THEATER MACHINE) , New York City (2008)
• IDIOT SAVANT , New York City (2009)

Operas

• Elephant Steps , New York City (1968) (Music: Stanley Silverman )
• Dr. Selavy's Magic Theater , New York City (1972) (Music: Stanley Silverman )
• Hotel for Criminals , New York City (1974) (Music: Stanley Silverman )
• American Imagination , New York City (1978) (Music: Stanley Silverman )
• Madame Adare , New York City (1980) (Music: Stanley Silverman )
• Africanis Instructus , New York City (1986) (Music: Stanley Silverman )
• Love & Science , New York City (1990) (Music: Stanley Silverman )
• WHAT TO WEAR , Los Angeles (2006) (Music: Michael Gordon )
• ASTRONOME: A NIGHT AT THE OPERA , New York City (2009) (Music: John Zorn )

Books

• Plays and Manifestos (1976)
• Theater of Images (1977)
• Reverberation Machines: The Later Plays and Essays (1986)
• Love and Science: Selected Librettos by Richard Foreman (1991)
• Unbalancing Acts: Foundations for a Theater (1993)
• My Head Was a Sledgehammer: Six Plays (1995)
• No-body: A Novel in Parts (1996)
• Paradise Hotel and Other Plays (2001)
• Richard Foreman (Art + Performance) (2005)
• Bad Boy Nietzsche! and Other Plays (2005)
• Manifestos and Essays (forthcoming 2010)

Prizes and awards

• 2004 Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters of France
• 2001 PEN Master American Playwright Award
• 1995-2000 MacArthur Fellowship
• 1996 Edwin Booth Award for Theatrical Achievement
• 1992 & 1995 NEA Playwriting Fellowship
• 1992 American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters Award in Literature
• 1990 NEA Distinguished Artist Fellowship for Lifetime Achievement in Theater
• 1990 Ford Foundation play development grant for Eddie Goes to Poetry City
• 1974 Rockefeller Foundation Playwrights Grant
• 1972 Guggenheim for Playwriting
• 7 Village Voice "Obies", (including 3 awards for "Best Piece" and one award for life's work)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Kate Davy: Richard Foreman and the Ontological-Hysteric Theater Ann Rbor / Michigan: UMI Research Press, 1981.
2. ^ Robb Baker: The Theater of Richard Foreman: Hysterical Cool in: The Soho Weekly News , Jan. 9, 1975.
3. ^ Charles Bernstein: A Conversation with Richard Foreman in: The Drama Review (T135), Fall 1992, pp. 103-130

literature

• Markus Weßendorf: The stage as a scene of thinking, Richard Foreman's Ontological-Hysteric Theater , Alexander Verlag, Berlin (1998), ISBN 3-89581-029-0
• Gerald Rabkin: Richard Foreman , Performing Arts Journal (1999), ISBN 978-0801861130