Living Theaterhttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif

LE LIVING

I have plenty of info, including 3 videotapes.

This is a short history of the company, identifying issues that have been salient to us.

I highly recommend The Diaries of Judith Malina. She is a great woman of the theater and one of the most authentic revolutionaries I've ever met.

There's a film called Living With The Living Theater.
This might be interesting for a look at what commmunal attempts looked like. Because the film was made by Nam June Paik, it has a twisted formal quality.

Julian Beck is in some ways a good model for Andrew's character; he has a great messianic quality. He was also a painter who showed at relatively prestigious galleries.

What is amazing about this company is its uncompromising idealism and its complete willingness to shred itself (and its company members) in pursuit of said ideals. What is enduring is their optimism; their true belief that the world could be reorganized, made better, by their attention and by collective action.

We've talked about what seems phony or problematic about their work. For the purposes of the piece, I think it's important that we recognize that the degree of parody/satire that exists in the "soul expedition" directions is directly related to these shortcomings. To that end, the shortcomings of le living, as the French say, are important elements of our piece. What I think we might search out are some clear articulations of what's good to us about this kind of work. We may find it in their writing. OR we may find it best articulated by some other 70s figures.

Where that work touches the impulse behind the "soul expedition" is this: if people could come together in a free space and discover their authentic desires...then something truly revolutionary could happen.