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Judith Malina

JUDITH MALINA

  (1926 - 2015)
Nationality:    USA
email:    n/a     Website:    n/a

Literary Agent:    n/a

Judith Malina co-founder in 1951 with her husband Julian Beck of The Living Theatre, one of the key post-war American experimental theatre companies along with Bread and Puppet Theatre, the Open Theatre and the Performance Group. The Living Theatre's early work embraced the American and European avant-garde with productions of Gertrude Stein, TS Eliot, Jean Cocteau and others . Their later legendary performances like The Brig, antigone, Frankenstein and Mysteries and Smaller Pieces attempted to unite an anarchist liberatory politics with a highly physical immediate theatrical experience, which sometimes included the audience in its embrace. Paradise Now was described as a spiritual and political voyage towards Permanent Revolution and was raided by the police when it played at the Roundhouse in 1969 because of the onstage nudity, which audience members were encouraged to join in with. In her book The Enormous Despair (1972) she details their late 60s exile in Europe and return to the US. After Beck's death in 1985 Malina ran the company with Hanon Reznikov until his death in 2008. In recent years Malina's work took on a more feminist slant including productions of Doris Lessing while she also ran women's theatre groups in the US and Italy and directed work including plays by Karen Malpede, Elsa Lasker-Schuler and many pieces she wrote or adapted herself. Malina's published diaries of the early period 1947-57 give a vivid account of her and Beck's early struggles to establish the company.

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below is a list of Judith Malina's plays - click on a Play Title for more information

         Antigone         Eureka!         Frankenstein         Here We Are         History Of the World, The         Korach         Legacy Of Cain, The         Paradise Now         Seven Meditations On Political Sado-Masochism         Turning The Earth
Antigone

Antigone
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Notes:
Original Playwright - Bertolt Brecht. Adapted by Bertolt Brecht from a translation into German of Sophocles "Antigone" by Frederich Holderin

1st Produced:
-    

Organisations:
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1st Published:
Applause Theatre Book Publishers 1989   

Music:
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Genre:
Translation

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Eureka!

Synopsis:
Published in 1847, the 'prose poem', as Poe called it, lays out with astonishing forethought what has since come to be called the Big Bang theory. the Living theatre has adapted Poe's text to a theatrical form, which will provide the audience with an awareness of participating actively in the creation of the universe and realize the parallel between the development of the elements of the cosmos and our own human development. eureka! was conceived and written by Hanon Reznikov when he read Poe's text-but he did not live to finish the task. Judith Malina, his collaborator and the director of the play completed the script. the purpose of the play is to provide the audience with a sense of empowerment. By participating in the creation of the known universe we communicate the possibility of creating a more harmonious social structure. eureka! joins nearly 100 Living theatre productions created since 1951, all of which seek to expand our knowledge of the universe."
- press release

Notes:
written by Hanon Reznikov And Judith Malina

1st Produced:
Living Theatre, 21 Clinton St, NY     2008

Organisations:
the Living Theatre

1st Published:
-   

Music:
-

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Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  7            Female:  6            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Frankenstein

Synopsis:
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Notes:
Written by Julian Beck And Judith Malina.

1st Produced:
Living Theatre, La Fiacola     1972

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   

Music:
-

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Genre:
-

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Here We Are

Synopsis:
the legendary Judith Malina, at 86, has again redefined theatre's role in our lives with a production that changes and transcends the actual definition of what art can produce, and that art and life are far more connected than we have been willing to accept. As we enter 2013 the world has not ended, but it remains in disarray. Where are we? How did we get here? Shouldn't we take a look at how we make decisions, how we organize ourselves and see if we can find better solutions to our problems than the existing systems in place? What have we tried in the past that has mislead us? What are the new ideas for the new world? How can we achieve them together and put aside violence, without the fear of retribution? How can the theatre help us do this? We visit the Anarchist collectives of France, Spain and the Ukraine for the 19 th and 20th centuries, and find ourselves transported to an immersive and participatory underground outdoor/indoor crossroads of our present moment. the ensemble and the audience work together to manufacture and perform the potential creative possibilities for a post revolutionary world of beauty and non violence. In the play we also admit to the inadequacy and inefficacy of the voting process, which is the core of our own poorly organized society and is largely responsible for why we do not live in the world we want. This is the last production at the Living theatre on Clinton Street before it closes at the end of February 2013, capping the longest run for the company in one venue in New York City.

Notes:
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1st Produced:
the Living theatre
21 Clinton Street, New York, NY 10002     01 Nov 2013

Organisations:
the Living Theatre

1st Published:
-   

Music:
-

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Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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History Of the World, The

Synopsis:
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Notes:
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1st Produced:
The Living Theatre, NY     31 Dec 2011

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   

Music:
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Genre:
interactive play

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Korach

Synopsis:
the Living theatre, the oldest experimental theatre group still producing in the United States, continues its 63rd season with the world premiere of Judith Malina's Korach, a new play based on the Biblical account of Korach, "the first recorded anarchist in history," who challenged the authority of Moses over the Israelites; a pivotal point in their 40-year trek through the desert after their liberation from egyptian slavery. Korach follows the history of anarchists who have been wiped out because they frightened the government. Inspired by the Books of Moses, the Jewish Mishnas, and also the Psalms, Korach begins with the Israelites' trek through the desert and eventual uprising against Moses, lead by Korach and his tribe. Using live action and film, the play also looks at anarchists in Spain circa 1939, Russia circa 1921, and modern day. Korach is about the necessity of any state to eliminate dissident elements within it if it is to survive - and the responsibility of revolutionaries to present their ideas in a way as to not incite violence. Korach features a cast of 30, mostly young actors and some veterans of the Living theatre.
- nytheatre.com

Notes:
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1st Produced:
the Living theatre
21 Clinton Street, New York, NY 10002     16 Dec 2010

Organisations:
the Living Theatre

1st Published:
-   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

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Genre:
55 min Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  3            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Legacy Of Cain, The

Synopsis:
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Notes:
Written by Julian Beck And Judith Malina.

1st Produced:
-    

Organisations:
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1st Published:
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Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

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Genre:
-

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
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Paradise Now

Synopsis:
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Notes:
Written by Julian Beck And Judith Malina.

1st Produced:
Living Theatre, La Fiacola    

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Random House, 1971   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

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Genre:
-

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  16 m/f

Further Reference:
-

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Seven Meditations On Political Sado-Masochism

Synopsis:
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Notes:
Written by Julian Beck And Judith Malina.

1st Produced:
-    

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

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Genre:
-

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Turning The Earth

Synopsis:
A new beginning

Notes:
Written by Julian Beck and Judith Malina

1st Produced:
-    

Organisations:
Living Theatre

1st Published:
-   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Site specific

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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