Description
As cofounder of the internationally-known, highly-controversial radical political troupe, The Living Theater, author Judith Malina is one of the leading female countercultural figures of the 50s, 60s, 70s and beyond. in FULL MOON STAGES: PERSONAL NOTES FROM 50 YEARS OF THE LIVING THEATRE, she creates an intimate memoir in a unique format with a collection of personal notes written on every full moon for 50 years from 1964 to 2014. These never-before-published entries reveal Malina's most private thoughts and inform the reader on what The Living Theatre was performing as they wound their way from New York City to Italy, France, Belgium, Germany and Brazil in a nomadic series of notable performances of such underground classics as The Brig, The Connection, and Paradise Now. Malina is relentless in her commitment to the full moon schedule, writing regardless of her current life circumstance. Notes issue forth from hotels, trains--even prison, offering a light on the consequences of holding true to her code of the theatrical expression of her pacifist-anarchist principles. The book's format is well-suited for modern readers interested in history of the counterculture. In addition, the book includes 30+ rare historical photos from Living Theatre archives.
About the Author
Judith Malina is a German-born American theater and film actress, writer, and director. She was one of the founders of The Living Theatre, a radical political theatre troupe that rose to prominence in New York City and Paris during the 1950s and 60s. She lives in New York City. She trained with Erwin Piscator at the New School for Social Research in New York, where the pioneering director established a "Dramatic Workshop," during his exile from Nazi Germany in the mid-1940's. In 1947 she and painter Julian Beck founded The Living Theatre as an artistic and socially-conscious alternative to the commercial theater. Since then she has directed (and often acted in) more than sixty important productions which have hadconsiderable influence on the development of contemporary theater, including William Carlos Williams' Many Loves, Jack Gelber's The Connection, Kenneth H. Brown's The Brig, Bertolt Brecht's Antigone and the collective creations Mysteries and Smaller Pieces, Frankenstein, Paradise Now and The Legacy of Cain. Judith Malina, along with The Living Theatre Company, has been arrested and imprisoned in various countries for the theatrical expression of the group's anarchist-pacifist principle. Following the untimely death of Julian Beck in 1984 she has directed the company alongside Hanon Reznikov, whom she married in 1988. Malina is also the author of numerous published essays on theater and politics, diaries, poems and plays and occasionally appears as an actress in films (Dog Day Afternoon, China Girl, Awakenings, Enemies: a Love Story, The Addams Family, Household Saints and When in Rome) and television (Miami Vice, Tribeca, ER, The Sopranos). She has taught at Columbia University, New York University, the New School for Social Research and is a 1996 recipient of an Honorary Doctorate from Whittier College. In 1999, she and Hanon Reznikov opened the Centro Living Europa, the European headquarters of The Living Theatre in the Palazzo Spinola of Rocchetta Ligure, Italy. In 1975 Malina was given a lifetime achievement Obie award, she was a recipient of a 1985 Guggenheim award, in 2003 Malina was inducted into the Theatre Hall of Fame, and in 2008 she was awarded the Brazilian President's Medal for Outstanding Artistic Achievement. In 2007, The Living Theatre inaugurated a new, performance space on the Lower East Side of New York City. The theatre opened with an incredibly successful revival of The Brig directed by Malina, which was awarded Obies for Best Ensemble and Best Direction and is still touring in Europe.
Reviews
"FULL MOON STAGES transcends the reception model that comprises most books, by which one simply absorbs information in the hope of better understanding the subject matter at hand, and demands of the reader an intensity of psychic and durative commitment that is difficult to summon in these days of instantaneity. This book-length poem privileges experientiality over intellectual understanding, asking that you take the trip and allow yourself to be changed by the journey. If one commits to taking the Malinian trip, this story of a life, told sequentially yet in fragments, as if it were an existence illuminated by lightning bolts, is one of the most powerful interactions I've ever had with a piece of nonfiction. As I sat at the table after finishing it, tears streaming down my face, I could not help but reflect on all that remained to be done." --American Theatre Magazine "Judith Malina, the pioneering cofounder of the radical, politically fiery troupe The Living Theater ... has performed all over the world and even went to jail for her convictions. But come hell or high water, on every full moon she wrote a new entry in the diary of her life. This memoir collects those frank and funny observations, creating a biography of her career and a record of the movement she helped steer for decades."--Broadway Direct Book Filter Best of the Winter Picks "Serious theater buffs will applaud this final performance by a singular artist." --Library Journal "An exceptional memoir rich with detail and an inherently fascinating read from beginning to end. Of special note is the succinct dedication by Al Pacino. FULL MOON STAGES is very highly recommended for both community and academic library Theatrical History and Theatrical Biography reference collections." --Midwest Book Review "For fifty years, Malina kept a journal, recording what she and her troupe were doing during every full moon ... It becomes a sketchbook, a framework of ideas stretching across generations. FULL MOON STAGES is a work of broad strokes that ... paints an intimate portrait of an innovator and her uncompromising vision of what theater can be." --Manhattan Book Review "The music of the repetition, its insistent organizing principle, functions like the serial arrangement in Cage, Steve Reich, or Phillip Glass, and it provides a haunting resonance. The impact on a reader over 200 pages is cumulative. Even though Malina's lens may be tightly focused, the scope of her story stretches over a half-century." --LA Review of Books "I can't think of any other inspiration of freedom that comes close to representing the message of The Living Theatre and its daring and monumental effects." -- Al Pacino, award-winning actor, from the dedication "Her stamina was extraordinary. She was happy, buoyant, and spread the love." --Angelica Huston, award-winning actress "A magical diary: pithy, salient. Shows the great arc of an ever radiant revolutionary artist and activist. Judith Malina is still out in the vast sky of our Utopian Living Theatre hearts and minds." --Anne Waldman, award-winning poet and performer "If one wants to have a life as a woman artist, first of all read Judith Malina--this lovely and evocative FULL MOON STAGES. She was one of the greatest theater makers of the 20th into the 21st Century, and one of the most fascinating, brilliant women of the world." --Karen Malpede, award-winning playwright "For the people who knew Judith Malina in life nothing can fill the absence of that most vibrant, profound, quixotic, being but this book, FULL MOON STAGES is a Fattura, a spell, that can conjure Judith for YOU in the present. It is a vortex, an entry into her world, into that amazing mind and life of hers. It is a diagram, an ex-ray, a blueprint, a map of a poetic, artistic, political, metaphysical life lived to the fullest." --Penny Arcade, award-winning performance artist "Every month describes a concise lunar aspect of the Beautiful Nonviolent Anarchist Revolution. Judith has inscribed The Living's Akashic Record in a 50-year love letter." --Joanie Fritz Zosike, Living Theatre company member "A palimpsest of Living Theatre experience of over 50 years." --Thomas Walker, Living Theatre company member "Having this collection in hand is to hold an intimate portrait of Judith's honesty, resilience, pain and spirit wrapped around life with her Living Theatre!" --Lois Kagan Mingus, Living Theatre company member since 1988/Artistic Associate/Board of Directors member "I can't think of any other inspiration of freedom that comes close to representing the message of The Living Theatre and its daring and monumental effects." -- Al Pacino, award-winning actor, from the dedication "Her stamina was extraordinary. She was happy, buoyant, and spread the love." --Angelica Huston, award-winning actress "A magical diary: pithy, salient. Shows the great arc of an ever radiant revolutionary artist and activist. Judith Malina is still out in the vast sky of our Utopian Living Theatre hearts and minds." --Anne Waldman, award-winning poet and performer "If one wants to have a life as a woman artist, first of all read Judith Malina--this lovely and evocative FULL MOON STAGES. She was one of the greatest theater makers of the 20th into the 21st Century, and one of the most fascinating, brilliant women of the world." --Karen Malpede, award-winning playwright "For the people who knew Judith Malina in life nothing can fill the absence of that most vibrant, profound, quixotic, being but this book, FULL MOON STAGES is a Fattura, a spell, that can conjure Judith for YOU in the present. It is a vortex, an entry into her world, into that amazing mind and life of hers. It is a diagram, an ex-ray, a blueprint, a map of a poetic, artistic, political, metaphysical life lived to the fullest." --Penny Arcade, award-winning performance artist "Every month describes a concise lunar aspect of the Beautiful Nonviolent Anarchist Revolution. Judith has inscribed The Living's Akashic Record in a 50-year love letter." --Joanie Fritz Zosike, Living Theatre company member "A palimpsest of Living Theatre experience of over 50 years." --Thomas Walker, Living Theatre company member "Having this collection in hand is to hold an intimate portrait of Judith's honesty, resilience, pain and spirit wrapped around life with her Living Theatre!" --Lois Kagan Mingus, Living Theatre company member since 1988/Artistic Associate/Board of Directors member "The single most influential American company of its era." --Stephen J. Bottoms, author, Playing Underground: A Critical History of the 1960s Off-Off-Broadway Movement "The most prominent and persistent advocate for a 'new theater,' one that sought to dissolve the accepted artifice of stage presentations, to conjoin art and political protest, and to shrink, if not eliminate, the divide between performers and the audience." --New York Times
Book Information
ISBN 9781941110256
Author Judith Malina
Format Paperback
Page Count 256
Imprint Three Rooms Press
Publisher Three Rooms Press
Weight(grams) 311g
About the Author
Judith Malina is a German-born American theater and film actress, writer, and director. She was one of the founders of The Living Theatre, a radical political theatre troupe that rose to prominence in New York City and Paris during the 1950s and 60s. She lives in New York City. She trained with Erwin Piscator at the New School for Social Research in New York, where the pioneering director established a "Dramatic Workshop," during his exile from Nazi Germany in the mid-1940's. In 1947 she and painter Julian Beck founded The Living Theatre as an artistic and socially-conscious alternative to the commercial theater. Since then she has directed (and often acted in) more than sixty important productions which have hadconsiderable influence on the development of contemporary theater, including William Carlos Williams' Many Loves, Jack Gelber's The Connection, Kenneth H. Brown's The Brig, Bertolt Brecht's Antigone and the collective creations Mysteries and Smaller Pieces, Frankenstein, Paradise Now and The Legacy of Cain. Judith Malina, along with The Living Theatre Company, has been arrested and imprisoned in various countries for the theatrical expression of the group's anarchist-pacifist principle. Following the untimely death of Julian Beck in 1984 she has directed the company alongside Hanon Reznikov, whom she married in 1988. Malina is also the author of numerous published essays on theater and politics, diaries, poems and plays and occasionally appears as an actress in films (Dog Day Afternoon, China Girl, Awakenings, Enemies: a Love Story, The Addams Family, Household Saints and When in Rome) and television (Miami Vice, Tribeca, ER, The Sopranos). She has taught at Columbia University, New York University, the New School for Social Research and is a 1996 recipient of an Honorary Doctorate from Whittier College. In 1999, she and Hanon Reznikov opened the Centro Living Europa, the European headquarters of The Living Theatre in the Palazzo Spinola of Rocchetta Ligure, Italy. In 1975 Malina was given a lifetime achievement Obie award, she was a recipient of a 1985 Guggenheim award, in 2003 Malina was inducted into the Theatre Hall of Fame, and in 2008 she was awarded the Brazilian President's Medal for Outstanding Artistic Achievement. In 2007, The Living Theatre inaugurated a new, performance space on the Lower East Side of New York City. The theatre opened with an incredibly successful revival of The Brig directed by Malina, which was awarded Obies for Best Ensemble and Best Direction and is still touring in Europe.
Reviews
"FULL MOON STAGES transcends the reception model that comprises most books, by which one simply absorbs information in the hope of better understanding the subject matter at hand, and demands of the reader an intensity of psychic and durative commitment that is difficult to summon in these days of instantaneity. This book-length poem privileges experientiality over intellectual understanding, asking that you take the trip and allow yourself to be changed by the journey. If one commits to taking the Malinian trip, this story of a life, told sequentially yet in fragments, as if it were an existence illuminated by lightning bolts, is one of the most powerful interactions I've ever had with a piece of nonfiction. As I sat at the table after finishing it, tears streaming down my face, I could not help but reflect on all that remained to be done." --American Theatre Magazine "Judith Malina, the pioneering cofounder of the radical, politically fiery troupe The Living Theater ... has performed all over the world and even went to jail for her convictions. But come hell or high water, on every full moon she wrote a new entry in the diary of her life. This memoir collects those frank and funny observations, creating a biography of her career and a record of the movement she helped steer for decades."--Broadway Direct Book Filter Best of the Winter Picks "Serious theater buffs will applaud this final performance by a singular artist." --Library Journal "An exceptional memoir rich with detail and an inherently fascinating read from beginning to end. Of special note is the succinct dedication by Al Pacino. FULL MOON STAGES is very highly recommended for both community and academic library Theatrical History and Theatrical Biography reference collections." --Midwest Book Review "For fifty years, Malina kept a journal, recording what she and her troupe were doing during every full moon ... It becomes a sketchbook, a framework of ideas stretching across generations. FULL MOON STAGES is a work of broad strokes that ... paints an intimate portrait of an innovator and her uncompromising vision of what theater can be." --Manhattan Book Review "The music of the repetition, its insistent organizing principle, functions like the serial arrangement in Cage, Steve Reich, or Phillip Glass, and it provides a haunting resonance. The impact on a reader over 200 pages is cumulative. Even though Malina's lens may be tightly focused, the scope of her story stretches over a half-century." --LA Review of Books "I can't think of any other inspiration of freedom that comes close to representing the message of The Living Theatre and its daring and monumental effects." -- Al Pacino, award-winning actor, from the dedication "Her stamina was extraordinary. She was happy, buoyant, and spread the love." --Angelica Huston, award-winning actress "A magical diary: pithy, salient. Shows the great arc of an ever radiant revolutionary artist and activist. Judith Malina is still out in the vast sky of our Utopian Living Theatre hearts and minds." --Anne Waldman, award-winning poet and performer "If one wants to have a life as a woman artist, first of all read Judith Malina--this lovely and evocative FULL MOON STAGES. She was one of the greatest theater makers of the 20th into the 21st Century, and one of the most fascinating, brilliant women of the world." --Karen Malpede, award-winning playwright "For the people who knew Judith Malina in life nothing can fill the absence of that most vibrant, profound, quixotic, being but this book, FULL MOON STAGES is a Fattura, a spell, that can conjure Judith for YOU in the present. It is a vortex, an entry into her world, into that amazing mind and life of hers. It is a diagram, an ex-ray, a blueprint, a map of a poetic, artistic, political, metaphysical life lived to the fullest." --Penny Arcade, award-winning performance artist "Every month describes a concise lunar aspect of the Beautiful Nonviolent Anarchist Revolution. Judith has inscribed The Living's Akashic Record in a 50-year love letter." --Joanie Fritz Zosike, Living Theatre company member "A palimpsest of Living Theatre experience of over 50 years." --Thomas Walker, Living Theatre company member "Having this collection in hand is to hold an intimate portrait of Judith's honesty, resilience, pain and spirit wrapped around life with her Living Theatre!" --Lois Kagan Mingus, Living Theatre company member since 1988/Artistic Associate/Board of Directors member "I can't think of any other inspiration of freedom that comes close to representing the message of The Living Theatre and its daring and monumental effects." -- Al Pacino, award-winning actor, from the dedication "Her stamina was extraordinary. She was happy, buoyant, and spread the love." --Angelica Huston, award-winning actress "A magical diary: pithy, salient. Shows the great arc of an ever radiant revolutionary artist and activist. Judith Malina is still out in the vast sky of our Utopian Living Theatre hearts and minds." --Anne Waldman, award-winning poet and performer "If one wants to have a life as a woman artist, first of all read Judith Malina--this lovely and evocative FULL MOON STAGES. She was one of the greatest theater makers of the 20th into the 21st Century, and one of the most fascinating, brilliant women of the world." --Karen Malpede, award-winning playwright "For the people who knew Judith Malina in life nothing can fill the absence of that most vibrant, profound, quixotic, being but this book, FULL MOON STAGES is a Fattura, a spell, that can conjure Judith for YOU in the present. It is a vortex, an entry into her world, into that amazing mind and life of hers. It is a diagram, an ex-ray, a blueprint, a map of a poetic, artistic, political, metaphysical life lived to the fullest." --Penny Arcade, award-winning performance artist "Every month describes a concise lunar aspect of the Beautiful Nonviolent Anarchist Revolution. Judith has inscribed The Living's Akashic Record in a 50-year love letter." --Joanie Fritz Zosike, Living Theatre company member "A palimpsest of Living Theatre experience of over 50 years." --Thomas Walker, Living Theatre company member "Having this collection in hand is to hold an intimate portrait of Judith's honesty, resilience, pain and spirit wrapped around life with her Living Theatre!" --Lois Kagan Mingus, Living Theatre company member since 1988/Artistic Associate/Board of Directors member "The single most influential American company of its era." --Stephen J. Bottoms, author, Playing Underground: A Critical History of the 1960s Off-Off-Broadway Movement "The most prominent and persistent advocate for a 'new theater,' one that sought to dissolve the accepted artifice of stage presentations, to conjoin art and political protest, and to shrink, if not eliminate, the divide between performers and the audience." --New York Times
Book Information
ISBN 9781941110256
Author Judith Malina
Format Paperback
Page Count 256
Imprint Three Rooms Press
Publisher Three Rooms Press
Weight(grams) 311g
