‘We Are Definitely Continuing,’ Says Living Theater Executive
By ALLAN KOZINN
The Living Theater closed its production of “Here We Are,” a spirited audience-participation piece by its founder, Judith Malina,
on Saturday evening. But though the performance was the company’s last
at the Clinton Street theater that had been its home since 2007, Brad
Burgess, the executive producer, said that recent reports that the esteemed experimental company was shutting down for good are incorrect.
“We are definitely continuing,” he said in a telephone interview on Monday. “Our plan is to present an extension of ‘Here We Are’ at the Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural and Educational Center, which is just around the corner from us, and we are discussing plans for an extended residency at the Clemente.” The added performances of “Here We Are” will run from March 26-29.
Mr. Burgess added that although Ms. Malina, 86, has moved from her Manhattan apartment to the Lillian Booth Actors’ Home, an assisted living facility in Englewood, N.J., she is not retiring. She was present – acknowledging the applause of the cast and audience, and pumping her fist – at the closing performance of “Here We Are” on Saturday, and she will remain artistic director of the company. He said that she would attend the rehearsals and added performances.
“She is writing a new piece for us as well,” Mr. Burgess said, “and she is writing a piece for the actors who are living at the Lillian Booth home, which they are buzzing about.”
The Living Theater has had many incarnations since Ms. Malina and the painter Julian Beck founded it in New York in 1947, and true to the experimental, anarchistic spirit that has driven it from the start, the company has gone years at a stretch without a permanent home. It was often itinerant during the early years, when it specialized in works by Brecht, Cocteau, Gertrude Stein and other adventurous European writers; by the time it turned to American Beat generation writers and semi-improvisatory works, it had found a home on 14th Street.
The company left those quarters in the late 1960s, when it stopped its activities to fight a tax evasion charge. Though the charge was later dropped, Ms. Malina and Mr. Beck were jailed for contempt of court for their theatrical antics during the proceedings. After their release, they reconstituted the theater and toured through Europe and the United States, but rarely performed in New York.
Soon after Mr. Beck’s death, in 1985, Ms. Malina and her new directorial partner, Hanon Reznikov, found a space on Third Street and Avenue C. But that theater closed in 1993, leaving the company to wander between then and its acquisition of the Clinton Street space in 2007.
Mr. Reznikov’s sudden death in 2008 largely doomed the company’s residency on Clinton Street, according to Mr. Burgess.
“Many of the plans for the company were in Hanon’s head,” said Mr. Burgess, who joined the company when he was 22, as Mr. Reznikov’s assistant, and is now 28. “Now I have more of a grip on things than I did then, and I know we can make this work. It’s a pretty interesting time in the company’s history, now.”
Jan Hanvik, the executive director of the Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural and Educational Center, confirmed the organization’s desire to work with the Living Theater. “We are interested in a long-term relationship,” he said by e-mail. “It fits our mission, which is to nurture emerging arts, and the arts are always emerging.”
That said, the scheduling of future collaboration is subject to renovations at the center and a deal on a new long-term lease with the city.
“So we test the waters with the collaborative run end of this month,” Mr. Hanvik said, “and are keeping the conversation going.”
“We are definitely continuing,” he said in a telephone interview on Monday. “Our plan is to present an extension of ‘Here We Are’ at the Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural and Educational Center, which is just around the corner from us, and we are discussing plans for an extended residency at the Clemente.” The added performances of “Here We Are” will run from March 26-29.
Mr. Burgess added that although Ms. Malina, 86, has moved from her Manhattan apartment to the Lillian Booth Actors’ Home, an assisted living facility in Englewood, N.J., she is not retiring. She was present – acknowledging the applause of the cast and audience, and pumping her fist – at the closing performance of “Here We Are” on Saturday, and she will remain artistic director of the company. He said that she would attend the rehearsals and added performances.
“She is writing a new piece for us as well,” Mr. Burgess said, “and she is writing a piece for the actors who are living at the Lillian Booth home, which they are buzzing about.”
The Living Theater has had many incarnations since Ms. Malina and the painter Julian Beck founded it in New York in 1947, and true to the experimental, anarchistic spirit that has driven it from the start, the company has gone years at a stretch without a permanent home. It was often itinerant during the early years, when it specialized in works by Brecht, Cocteau, Gertrude Stein and other adventurous European writers; by the time it turned to American Beat generation writers and semi-improvisatory works, it had found a home on 14th Street.
The company left those quarters in the late 1960s, when it stopped its activities to fight a tax evasion charge. Though the charge was later dropped, Ms. Malina and Mr. Beck were jailed for contempt of court for their theatrical antics during the proceedings. After their release, they reconstituted the theater and toured through Europe and the United States, but rarely performed in New York.
Soon after Mr. Beck’s death, in 1985, Ms. Malina and her new directorial partner, Hanon Reznikov, found a space on Third Street and Avenue C. But that theater closed in 1993, leaving the company to wander between then and its acquisition of the Clinton Street space in 2007.
Mr. Reznikov’s sudden death in 2008 largely doomed the company’s residency on Clinton Street, according to Mr. Burgess.
“Many of the plans for the company were in Hanon’s head,” said Mr. Burgess, who joined the company when he was 22, as Mr. Reznikov’s assistant, and is now 28. “Now I have more of a grip on things than I did then, and I know we can make this work. It’s a pretty interesting time in the company’s history, now.”
Jan Hanvik, the executive director of the Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural and Educational Center, confirmed the organization’s desire to work with the Living Theater. “We are interested in a long-term relationship,” he said by e-mail. “It fits our mission, which is to nurture emerging arts, and the arts are always emerging.”
That said, the scheduling of future collaboration is subject to renovations at the center and a deal on a new long-term lease with the city.
“So we test the waters with the collaborative run end of this month,” Mr. Hanvik said, “and are keeping the conversation going.”
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