Bitef

Revolution in the City of God. From your fellows perennial peans & hopefully some right moves. After all, it was you who said, »Don't vote for a new King.« ■ Ira Cohen

THE 10(Hh STREET LOFT When the Cherry Lane was closed by the Fire Department in 1952, The Living Theatre moved to a loft on Broadway at 100th Street. During a period of intense experimentation, Beck and Malina maintained their commitment to dramatic literature of the highest quality. The two seasons at the Loft were marked by productions of clasic and experimental texts by Racine, Strindberg, Pirandello, Auden, Goodman, and Cocteau. ■

THE 14th STREET THEATRE With its move to a building at 14th Street and 6th Avenue in 1959, The Living Theatre became the leading force in radical cultural and political life in New York and one of the most celebrated theatrical companies in the world. Its involvement in political activism and theatrical experimentation appeared in memorable productions of works by Brecht and young Americans Jack Gelber and Kenneth Brown. Especially shocking and moving was the wedding of advanced European techniques and gritty details of American life in Gelber's The Connection and The Apple and Brown's The Brig. In 1961, the year they won the Grand Prix at the Théâtre des Nations in Paris, Beck and Malina also took to the streets to lead the first world-wide General Strike for Peace. ■

JUDITH, JULIAN, AND ME, We worked, We demonstrated, We played. My life became meaningful and focused during the portrayal of Galy Gay in the Living Theatre production of Man is Man ■ Joseph Chaikin

THE LIVING THEATRE S PRODUCIONS of The Connection and The Brig changed my way of conceiving theatre. Down through the years, their moral force was exemplary and the continuity of their artistic radicalism serves as the single American example of what socially committed theatre might be. I salute them, as the true source of much of what's been of interest in our theatre over the past forty years. ■ Richard Foreman

WHEN the IRS padlocked The Living Theatre way back then, it forced the company into the street, where it belonged in the first place. It could be said that much of the American avant-garde theatre of that time followed Julian and Judith, dancing up the aisles of the world and out into liberated air. ■ Lawrence Ferlinghetti

EXILE IN EUROPE When the Internal Revenue Sendee closed the 14th Street Theatre in 1963, Beck and Malina conducted their own defense in the ensuing Federal trial, transforming it into a striking example of political theatre. After serving jail sentences of 60 nad 30 days respectively, they removed their company to Europe. During the years that followed, Tire Living Theatre productions of Mysteries and Smaller Pieces. Frankenstein, The Antigone of Sophocles, and Paradise Now travelled to great acclaim across the Continent and, in a triumphant return, throughout the United States. ■

IN THE LATE AUTUMN OF 1964, Julian Beck, Judith Malina and I sat down to lunch on the Channel Steamer as it carried us from Southampton to the Normandie coast of France. The only other person at our table was a young man, red-headed