Living Theater

A detailed Summary of Living Theater

The Living Theater is a theatrical company that took a different road than those of traditional theaters. Lead by Julian Beck and Judith Malina, the Living Theater smashed the barriers between art and politics. This far left-wing company was ready for a new theater, a theater that was out to change the state of things, performing plays that were not being done and doing them in new untried ways(Gottfried 95).

American theater of the past was made up of complete right-wingers. Right wing plays, right-wing directors, and right-wing theatergoers. In the 1940's left wingers started stepping into the theater challenging the traditional right wing theater. Although the number of left wing plays was no more than a few dots on a page of thousands of dots, those few gave the left wing plays a pulse beat leading them into the theater of tomorrow.

The left wing turned away from realistic plays that search for and provide answers to social problems or questions. Instead it seeks the what is the point? the where am-I going? and the what is my identity?(Gottfried 57). They think of theater as an art not a business. Because it is looked at as an art there are not limits to the content , no right or wrong. Boundar

Wilson, Edwin, Alvin Goldfard. Living Theater- A History.

In the 1950's the Living Theater started following the theories of Antonin Artaud. Artaud called for "a theatre in which the actors are like victims burning at the stake, signaling thru the flames" (beatland authors 1). His intention was to communicate to the audience through shock. He focused on intensifying the gut reaction of people. This idea was the "theater of cruelty" that Artaud theorized and the Living Theater followed. "Mysteries" a play performed by the Living Theater, was described by Beck and Malina as a number of theatrical events that explored all the physical senses, and at the same time portrayed the physical defects and glories of man's present being(Gottfried 298). Special characteristics of this play relate back to Artaud's idea of the "theater of cruelty". In the last scene of "Mysteries" twenty-five people dye of the plague, each actor acts out their death, after all are dead there is a blackout and all human senses are attacked. You hear female voices, see flashes of lights, then smell that of incense. Following the blackout, six of the people who died rise from the dead to bury the remaining dead (Gottfried 298). Also to add to the Artaudian effects there is use of ceremony, ritual and incantation to help intensify the art of the left wing theater.

After being sentenced to prison the two fled to Europe where they traveled around performing the plays of the Living Theater. The Living Theater was very into drugs which helped encourage the police to chase the Living Theater out of New York. While traveling around Europe they continued to interact with

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Approximate Word count = 1117
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Arts