Julian Beck

● creepy dude from Poltergeist (2)

● Painter (realist, expressionist, impressionist)
● Went to Yale and met ​Judith Malina

Judith Malina
● German Jew, grew up in Germany, but her dad said YEET bc Hitler
● Pops put on plays warning against Hitler b4 it happened
● Theatrical background and family

Together they ran the Living Theater, where they kind of kick-started ​theater of cruelty​.
Immersive theater, fueled by sex and drugs and rebellion.

Antonin Artaud: a theater and its double

HW FOR THURSDAY:

Research Living Theater and who and what it may have influenced in the current theatrical
world

3/21/19

Hair- off Broadway, politically satirical, nudity, interactive, “hallucinogens” in the show, the
writers wrote the characters based on real people that they met in the East Village

Avenue Q- off Broadway, middle finger to the norms, sort of interactive, middle finger to the
government

HW FOR TUESDAY

Read A Sam Shepard Play (Choose one):

● The Tooth of Crime
● The Buried Child
● True West
● Curse of the Starving Class
● La Turista
● A Lie of the Mind

Themes in Sam Shepard Plays

● Alcoholism
● Dysfunctional families
 ● Living on the edge
● Almost “gothic” horror
● He was a part of the East Village theater scene in the 50’s/60’s

Next Play to Read: ​No Exit​ by Jean Paul Sartre

FOR THURSDAY:

Research place called “Caffe Cino”

Research playwright Lanford Wilson

FOR TUESDAY:

Pick a play by Lanford Wilson to read:

Burn This
Talley’s Folly
Balm in Gilead
Hot l Baltimore

Final Exam
● Naturalism definition
● Realism definition
● Who wrote Therese Raquin?
● Example​s​ why Therese Raquin is NATURALISTIC
● Who wrote Ghosts?
● Is Ghosts naturalistic or ​realistic​?
● GBS wrote Pygmalion.
● Shaw was a polemicist- “someone who supports a point by undermining another one”
● Pygmalion- “upper class people can still be shitty” “class doesn’t matter” “women are
people too. they can make their own decisions. equally intelligent, effective humans as
men”
● Federal Theater Project (part of the WPA in the New Deal)- to give artists work and
lower the unemployment rates
● What came out of this? “The Living Newspaper” (kind of a precursor to SNL and
Weekend Update) [Politicians hated this bc it was left-leaning]
● This also included the Negro Theater Unit (dealt a lot with the experiences of black
people at that time. Promoted integration)
● Who founded the Living Theater? (Julian Beck and Judith Malina)
● What is their most known work? (“The Brig” and “The Connection”)
● Why did they do what they did the way that they did it? (Anti-authoritarian, avant garde,
protest theater) (“​From its conception, The Living Theatre was dedicated to transforming
 the organization of power within society from a competitive, hierarchical structure to
cooperative and communal expression. The troupe attempts to do so by counteracting
complacency in the audience through direct spectacle. They oppose the commercial
orientation of Broadway productions and have contributed to the off-Broadway theater
movement in New York City, staging poetic dramas.”)
● “The Theater and its Double” by Antonin Artaud
● No fourth wall in Living Theater or in Artaud’s stuff
● Theatre of Cruelty! (Wake up! Shakes people out of their stupor in a theater-going
experience)
● Sam Shepard

Read a Play

“Bug” or “August Osage County” by Tracy Letts

Bertolt Brecht
-Naturalism was prevalent at the time
-Brecht disagreed w/ that.
-Political subject matter (human experience)
-​EPITHEATER​- alienation, political, gestus
-V​erfremdungseffekt (alienation effect) (@Scott_Richards)
-Gestus: “Play characters believably without convincing themselves or the audience that they
have become that character” “address the audience, breaking character”
-breaking the fourth wall
-self-awareness that “this is a play” and by no means reality

Expressionism
Exploration of human emotion rather than trying to create a narrative

Ajit Prop Theater- Propaganda theater. It has a political agenda. It serves to persuade.

Orson Welles- “War of the Worlds” (and its effect on the nation)

ASSIGNMENT for Tuesday: study Modernism