David Gordon - ‘90s ARCHIVEOGRAPHY - part 2 1 #1 1993 - Poetry Project, NYC - Serious Fun!, , NYC - 1994 - Dance Theater Workshop, NYC - 1995 - NY Theatre Workshop, NYC 1995 î The Family Business - David as Auntie Annie - Ain as Paul - Valda as Mrs. Wonder. Ain Gordon - 31 - is the responsible only child - of only child Valda - and of responsible oldest child David - son of oldest child Rose. Rose Gordon dies in 1992 - after Sam Gordon dies in 1991 - sheshouldrestinpeace - and - heshouldrestinpeace - Valda - David and Ain inherit auntie Pauline Cooper - in 1992. David is teaching in LA. He don’t fly back for the funerals. Don’t go to no more funerals - David says. Ain kindly takes charge. #2 Rose has been co-signer on Paulie’s bank account - and F trains - to Manhattan to go with Paulie to the bank’n - the podiatrist - and takes her to the eye doctor or - goes shopping with her - on Clinton Street for stockings - or - Orchard Street fa bloomers but after Sammie dies - Rosie has cataract surgery - and - beginsta ask David -- to take care of auntie Paulie - and David - begins to ask Ain to help. #2 # #1 Family comes 1st - David says Fannie always useta say. We live in Manhattan’n Paulie lives in Manhattan - 1 of us - goes with Paulie - to doctors’n does kosher takeout shopping - and to the supermarket’n - Essex Street Market’n - we buy Pauline’s papers. She loves the Star’n - the Enquirer. And TV Guide - she says - is my bible. I can't see the TV - so good no more - and I need a goddamn magnifying glass - ta read the goddamn TV Guide.

#2 After Rosie dies - once in awhile in bad weather - or she don't feel so well - auntie Paulie calls - but - after a while - she never feels well’n I always call - David says. Or I do - Ain says - and Ain gets to be co-signer - on Paulie’s bank account - and takes her to doctors - and buys the newspapers’n does the take out shopping. I say hello - it’s me - Ain says. She says - I know who tattelah. How are you? Ohm toy-ed. What did ya do? She laughs - Nothing. But ohm still toy-ed. I'm calling to find out what you need. Ohhhhh tatelah - I dunno. It’s Thursday. Ya want the boiled chicken tops? Noooo - dey don't clean it good. I'll tell ‘em clean it. Noooo. Ohm toy-ed a chicken. It's comin’ outta my eahs. Hows gefulte fish? Nooo. Last time the pieces were too big. I’ll tell ‘em smaller pieces. Noooo. I dunno. How about 2 pieces? Okay - but watch they put carrots in da soup. Last time dey didn’t put. Okay I’ll watch. But not hawse pieces. Last time ya got hawse pieces. David Gordon - ‘90s ARCHIVEOGRAPHY - part 2 2 #1 She goes on binges. Lima bean soup 4 weeks in a row. If ya go by da store with da lima bean soup - get me. Then she don't like it no more. Noooo - they put in too many lima beans. 6 weeksa potato blintzes. Smacks her lips. Then no blintzes. Nooooo - too much onion - it gives me the diarrhea. #2 I arrive with food - David says - Inna beginning I lie about the cost. It’s on sale. Ya think yaw puttin one over on me, huh? She writes down what she owes me - in a little book - David says. After a while she don't ask. Can I throw away what's left of whatever this is from last week? She never throws anything away. Something’s in the refrigerator I didn't buy. She musta called for a delivery. She gets seltzer bottles delivered by Barry - every 2 weeks in wooden boxes. Sometimes the bottle needs shaking. Tatellah - she says - gimme a glassa seltzer - but be careful. Seltzer is dangerous. #1 Hard to run in with shopping’n run out again. Paulie wantsa talk - I hung up on Irene - she says - woulda hung up on Yettie too. I’m mad at ‘em both. Don’t think I don’t know Yettie told Irene. How come Yettie tells Irene - but not me? Why do I hafta hear it - from the big mouth yenta who lives by Yettie? Sometimes I say - David says - I don’t wanna hear all this - but she don’t stop. Sometimes she stops’n says - don’t look at me with ya mother’s eyes!

#2 David’s in L.A. when Pauline falls - and cracks her head open. Rosie calls me - Ain says. Paulie ain’t answering her phone. Something’s wrong - Rosie says. Ain uses his key. Auntie Paulie’s onna floor - covered with blood. I call the 1sta the emergency ambulances - Ain says - and I go inna ambulance - with Pauline - to the 1sta the hospitals. Valda is back from tour of The Mysteries. She meets Ain at the hospital. Ain Gordon saves - Valda says - his great aunt Pauline’s life. Simultaneously Ain - the artist - and writer - hasta save his own life. #1 Ain visits Pauline daily - writes down everything that happens - what doctors say - n’nurses - what Pauline says’n - how she says it. She can’t lift the metal lid - offa the food so - lunch time - I go - see she eats - and what - n’I write it down. If ya don’t want me - to write what you say - I say - ya better not say it. #1 #1 #2 AA 1994 - The Poetry Project - at St. Mark’s Church - ê David Gordon - ‘90s ARCHIVEOGRAPHY - part 2 3 The Poetry Project invites Ain to read new work aloud - he says - my new work is Pauline - Ain says - I ask David to read - at the church - with me. David reads - for the 1st time - what Ain is writing. #2 We follow Allen Ginsberg. Is it alphabetical? Gordon after Ginsberg? We are surprised at the audience size - n’the size of the reaction. We are suddenly the Sunshine Boys. The Sunshine Boys is the play by Neil Simon. David says - ya think we can we work on this together? I mean - David says - can I work on it with you? - Ain says okay. #1 Last of David’s typewriters - Italian red molded plastic - dies - Ain teaches him - to use a word processor. Pass the machine back’n and forth - write dialogue - pass processor - David answers - passes - Ain answers - pass. Ain Gordon and David Gordon write and edit together - a play - called The Family Business - about Phil’n Paul - father’n son plumbers n’their old aunt - Annie Kinsman.

#2 In The Family Business - a kinda comedy about life’n death - we can do it with 3 performers - Ain says - n’we are - with Valda - 3 performers. David’ll be auntie Annie - in a flowered housedress - n’hair clips from the 5 &10. I don’t shave my mustache - he says - pants stick outta my housedress’n I wear sneakers. I tell Pauline - David says - I’m gonna be you in a play about your life. She laughs. You guys are nuts - she says. Ain plays a character like himself named Paul‘n - 1 like David named Phil’n - 1 like David’s father. Valda is Mrs. Wonder - n’takes care of ‘em all - and - the family business. She’s every home health aide’n every other character - every woman and every man. #1 Valda shreiks ambulance noise as David - as Annie - careens at top speed - balanced on 2 old naugahyde rolling desk chairs - held together by David’s feet - wheeled by Ain. Family Business is performed at Dance Theater Workshop n’1 show at Lincoln Center - David says - Pauline has a heart attack between dress rehearsal - n’performance. David rushes to hospital - finds her n’says - don’t ya dare die till I come back after the bows - n’she don’t. David has an attacka vertigo - before NY Theatre Workshop run - and - Ain startsta see a shrink - before 8 showsa week - for 4 weeks at Mark Taper Forum in L.A. - where we add recorded overture - Life is Justa Bowla Cherries - sung - I think I remember - David says - by Ethel Merman. In 1996 we begin - Ain and me - a new production - together - David says - named - Who’s Anne First? We keep working on it till 1999 - renamed once - Silent Movie - and renamed - finally - First Picture Show - David Gordon - ‘90s ARCHIVEOGRAPHY - part 2 4 #2 1995 - MARK TAPER FORUM, LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA- VALDA - DAVID AND AIN DO 8 SHOWS A WEEK AT THE MARK TAPER. FAMILY BUSINESS IS PERFORMED - NIGHTLY - AND WITH MATINEES. Artistic Director of the Taper - GORDON DAVIDSON è meets with ‘em - Ain’n David - to offer research’n development money - think about - Gordon says - possible next project. Ya know - they say right away - we walk around downtown - they say - to Gordon Davidson - where people shop - for food - and clothes - tee shirts and sneakers - in kinda open spaces - framed by elaborate - deteriorating old movie house marquees. Ya can read namesa old theaters - that useta show the 1st silent movies. #1 We talk about the story of an aged - and forgotten filmmaker - an old guy lives inna retirement home - or a community - he lives with other “invisible” - film folk - guys who made the movies - the movies the public lined up to see - but - the movies disappeared - ’n the movie makers disappeared - and that’s the story - David says - some of ‘em are still here - but they got invisible. Whattaya say? Gordon says okay. #1 Back in NY - Ain calls David from the Performing Arts Library - didya know - Ain says - there were women - they made and acted in their own movies? There’s books about ‘em -they produced’n directed - wrote screenplays - they had studios - they had their own studios - didya know - Ain says - numbersa women - working inna middle of the men - in Hollywood? Forget the old guy - Ain says. Women!

O Old L.A. movie theater é ç ESTELLE PARSONS as film director Anne First STEVEN SKYBELL as Anne’s brother - Louis Furstmann NORMA FIRE as his wife - May Furstmann

ç JEANINE TESORI - AIN GORDON - DAVID GORDON

David Gordon - ‘90s ARCHIVEOGRAPHY - part 2 5 #2 #2 1 or more of the actors - whose pictures we found - appeared in workshops or showings or performed productions in east or west coast studios or theaters - NY Theater Workshop - 890 Broadway - 131 Varick Street - Jacob’s Pillow - Taper Lab - St. Clement’s Church - A.C.T. Geary Theater - Mark Taper Forum. î KEN MARKS - ESTELLE PARSONS - NORMA FIRE - RITA GARDNER -JEANNE SAKATA - LOLA PASHALINSKI - BILL KUX - VALDA SETTERFIELD í

îJOHN APICELLA - DAVID GREENSPAN - CHRISTOPHER JONES - PAUL ZIMET - KATHLEEN CONRY - ANNE GEE BYRD - EVAN PAPPAS í

îRANDY DANSON - ELLEN GREENE - DIANA CANOVA - CYNTHIA FUJIKAWA - GREGORY WALLACE - ALICE PLAYTEN í

î DION GRAHAM - DIANE SHALET - STEVEN SKYBELL - DINAH LENNEY - DAVID PITTU - JANE HOFFMAN - KAREN GRAHAMí

David Gordon - ‘90s ARCHIVEOGRAPHY - part 2 6 #2 In The First Picture Show - at the Mark Taper in Los Angeles - forgotten film producer’n director - Anne First - Estelle Parsons - is interviewed - and she sings - SHE WANTS ME TO REMEMBER - EVERYTHING THAT HAPPENED - 75 YEARS AGO. WANTS ME TO KNOW THE REASONS - FOR A 101 DECISIONS - I MADE 75 YEARS AGO.

WHAT IT WAS LIKE TO MOVE QUICKLY - ACT QUICKLY - ON THE SPUR OF A MOMENT WITHOUT FEAR - WITHOUT BLINKING. I CAN'T REMEMBER HOW MAKING CHOICES FELT. I CAN'T REMEMBER WHAT MY TASTE WAS. HOW DID I FEEL WHEN I DIDN'T FEEL SICKLY? I CAN'T REMEMBER - WHEN I COULD REMEMBER - WHAT I'M THINKING

DID I ONCE WEAR CLOTHES THAT FITTED ME - I CAN'T REMEMBER WHERE MY WAIST WAS. I KNOW I MUSTA WORN BRASSIERES - BUT I HAVEN'T HAD ONE ON IN YEARS NO ONE LOOKS AT ME LIKE I'M A WOMAN NOW - NO ONE'S LOOKED AT ME THAT WAY IN YEARS. #1 ç Cast of The First Picture Show - at the Mark Taper - forgotten film producer’n director - William Friend - Billy - Ken Marks - sings at the piano - NO FILM I MADE EXISTS - ONLY TITLES - ONLY LISTS - ONLY YEAR AND CAST AND COST - THE FILMS THEMSELVES- HAVE ALL BEEN LOST - THEY'RE ONLY IN MY HEAD - AND WHEN I'M DEAD - AND ALL IS SAID AND DONE - THERE ISN'T EVEN ONE FOR ANYONE TO SEE - THE JOKES ON ME - NO ONE WILL EVER SEE - THE PICTURES THAT I...MADE. #2 Anne First says - Oh - Billy. David Gordon - ‘90s ARCHIVEOGRAPHY - part 2 7

ç Cast of A.C.T. version - at Geary Theater - in San Francisco. #2 The worst versions happen - at the Geary in San Francisco and at Mark Taper. #1 The most interesting version of First Picture Show - David says now - in 2016 - happens at St. Clement’s - in NY. #2 At St. Clement’s - Ain’n me - David says - are still in charge - of this evolving script - and - develop - and edit - n’mostly - cast actors we know’n - actors suggested - by Mysteries casting director - Vince Leibhardt. #1 Vince suggests Estelle Parsons - which scares the shit outta me - David says - and she says yes - it’s how we meet - and David asks Norma Fire - Ain asks actor Ken Marks - who also plays the piano - there is no composer yet - so I hum tunes I know - David says - tunes we all know - n’Ken plays ‘em onna piano - so we all sing new words to old songs. #2 Producers - Gordon Davidson at the Taper - and Carey Perloff at A.C.T. - don’t yet try to control the final production - because - nobody knows there’s gonna be a final production - or - David don’t know - he says. So - he uses his same old metal folding chairs and - rolling tables - and - rolling clothing racks -and he hangs a “blackboard” - made of cardboard covered in black gaffers tape - so actors write in chalk - naming scenes - and characters - and erase and move on - and I watch - David says - I watch Estelle build the Anne character. #1 Estelle sits in 1 of the Family Business rolling office chairs - and we use the old - outta tune - upright St. Clement’s piano - perfect for silent movie music -and - Ain’n David ask Jeanine Tesori - pregnant composer - to see a run-through - maybe she’ll write real music - we hafta convince her we really want real music. #2 2016 - David wishes he knew howta do - in 1995 - what he had the opportunity to do. David Gordon - ‘90s ARCHIVEOGRAPHY - part 2 8 #1 So - the ‘90s so far - Punch and Judy grows outta The Mysteries - and Mysteries tour keeps Valda - as Duchamp - onna road - and Punch and Judy - and the 2 L.A. workshops - which pay exceeding well - David admits - keep David outta town - so Ain takes care of Pauline - which turns into The Family Business - for the 3 of us to attempt to work together - which ain’t at all easy - and Pick Up Company dancer - Chuck Finlon è who just gets sick when we do Mysteries - so he can’t assist David - is very much better by Family Business - assists David’n Ain puts up with all our bickering - as does drama coach - ç Joan Macintosh - who is our Switzerland - the neutral country we can repair to - when we can’t talk to each other - which grows more frequent during rehearsals - David says - also - The Mysteries has American Repertory Theater produced run - at the Loeb theater in Cambridge - which is perhaps - why - ç calls me - David says - summer of 1993 - about directing a pet project of his - Shlemiel the First - by his old friend - - adapted by Brustein. Brustein begins our phone conversation - by declari saying - you may not be the director for the job - I assure him he’s right. #2 But - Shlemiel has a lotta lives - successes and failures - gbombs in called a cash cow in Cambridge - New Yorker rave by John Lahr - called a c almost makes it to Broadway - bombs in Boca Raton - best thing about Shlemiel - David meets - and works more than once - and gets to with music director - Zalmen Mlotek è meets’n works more than once - with playwright and librettist - ç Arnold Weinstein. David loves ‘em both. #1 I David shifts play’s emphasis from embattled Gronam Ox and Yenta Pesha - í the Punch’n Judy of Chelm - she hits him with giant pickles - David shifts the emphasis to the innocent Shlemiel - and his disappointed wife Trina Rytza - who - to the who misplace love during the routine of their lives - he’s a janitor - and she sells radishes - but fall passionately in love - when they meet again - for the 1st time they imagine - as strangers. #2 You look l You look just like my wife - he says - but ya sk but ya voice is softer - ya breasts are bigger - and ya treat me better - he says - ohhh - and you - she says... David Gordon - ‘90s ARCHIVEOGRAPHY - part 2 9 c

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David Gordon - ‘90s ARCHIVEOGRAPHY - part 2 10 #1 David also invents wives for the other fools of Chelm - ç the men climb into padded printed pinafores to play their own wives. to.

#2 #2 David Gordon says - Robert Brustein says - when he is at Yale he commissions Shlemiel - from his good friend Isaac Bashevis Singer - based on Singer's classic stories - about the fools of Chelm. Shlemiel is not a success - Brustein says. 1993 - at Harvard - as artistic director of A.R.T. - he attends a Klezmer Conservatory Band benefit. Guest Joel Grey sings Rumania Rumania - with the band lead singer. Brustein re-imagines the Singer script - with Klezmer music. #1 Brustein wants Francesca Zambello to direct Shlemiel. She turns it down. He calls me. He ain’t sure I’m right for the job. I agree. He sends script - calls to hear my response. I suggest changes - reorder scenes - move intermission. Silence. I ask is he still there? He’s taking notes - he says. He sends reworked script and an airline ticket to attend a meeting. I take a chance - send a handwritten new 1st act. No response. I wanna return the ticket. I call A.R.T. Brustein takes the call - wants me to know - he is artistic director of A.R.T. - producer of the show - adapter of the script - and protector - he says - of Isaac Singer. He still wantsa see me at A.R.T. Okay - I meet co-producer Marjorie Samoff of American Music Theater Festival - lyricist Arnold Weinstein - composer Hankus Netsky. Later I meet set designer Robert Israel - light designer Peter Kaczorowski - and costume designer Catherine Zuber - all already chosen by Brustein. I meet mosta the actors - already under contract to A.R.T. A few audition in NY. I’d barely auditioned actor/singers before - I rely on Mr. Brustein. David Gordon - ‘90s ARCHIVEOGRAPHY - part 2 11 #2 ç I am hired to direct and choreograph. Jedediah Wheeler negotiates my contract. With Brustein's approval - I work with him on script changes - re-ordering scenes - altering dialogue necessary for scene shifts. I choose to emphasize the romance - of Mr. and Mrs. Shlemiel - as the central story line. I invent other wives of Chelm - for interaction with Trina Rytza and Yenta Pesha - Mrs. Shlemiel and Mrs. Gronam Ox. I design Shlemiel’s journey as the turning point - and the major musical/dance event - preceding intermission. Any script change - edit or addition - hasta be negotiated - by me with tact - patience - perseverance - nerve and guile. Script eventually performed - is the result of hard fought maneuvers which finally result in 1 extra program credit - íeditorial supervision by David Gordon - which I hafta insist on - though it is offered - initially and voluntarily - to me by Mr. Brustein. I asked for no further program credit. I had no experience - no advisor - and I was not smart enough to notice - or ask for - any authorial ownership points - which weren’t offered - when they were being divided - between all the others. I was never added to the royalty pool. #1 Brustein contracts Klezmer band lead singer as Mrs. Shlemiel. He says - to me - he made a mistake’n I - as director - by Equity rules - hafta work with her - for 2 weeks before I fire her - which I do - which don’t make me a Klezmer band favorite. Begin work with lyricist Arnold Weinstein who already wrote lyrics - to mosta the songs - but I write - at Arnold’s request - a rough draft of any possible new song we might need - to replace a scene - or move a scene along - and Arnold - “arnoldizes” the lyric - makes it beautiful and funny - and stylistically his own. I meet’n ask to work with Zalmen Mlotek - as music director. #2 I believe - most important “story” inna script is - sweet middle-aged fool Shlemiel and his angry disappointed wife Trina Rytza - fall in love again - when they meet as “strangers”. Songs they sing before’n after are initiated by me. Arnold and I work on the Sin song together. I sing Sin song - to Hankus - over the phone. I ask Arnold to write songs for the new - wives of Sages - sung’n acted by Sages - transforming onstage - with padded pinafores’n kerchiefs. Wives don’t exist in Singer/Brustein script. I invent further onstage transformations. Marilyn Sokol - acts’n sings Yenta - to Charles Levin’s Gronam - also - she’s an old sage - also young Shlemiel’s daughter. A young sage acts’n sings the aged dying Zalmen Tippish. Another acts’n sings - the “rascal” - who - alters Shlemiel’s journey - also Shlemiel’s young son. Chuck Finlon - Pick Up Co dancer - is my assistant’n we bring Klezmer musicians - with instruments -- outta the pit - onto the stage for the travel scene - and the finale. Brustein says - he never had a show move so easily from rehearsal space into the theater. Show opens to positive reviews - positive worda mouth - good ticket sales. Shlemiel is a big success at A.R.T. - at A.M.T.F. in Philly - at Serious Fun in N.Y. John Lahr writes in the New Yorker - David Gordon re-invents music theater. Brustein wants Shlemiel to go to Broadway. Rocco Landesman says no. Alexander Cohen says yes - suggests further script changes. Brustein says no - refers to Shlemiel as a “cash cow”. A.R.T. signs onto a Florida tour. Shlemiel’s gonna bomb in Florida This is post-modern entertainment - w/music - about Jews - David says. It ain’t Jewish musical comedy - it ain’t - he says - the next Fiddler Onna Roof - Shlemiel tours Florida on a circuit w/Bagels & Yox and the Mitzi Gaynor show. Alex Cohen flies his “money folks” to Boca Raton. Performance space - is a wrestling arena. Aged audiences - cough cough - snore - where did we park the car? Cough cough - Broadway bubble bursts. #1 In 1997 I re-direct Shlemiel in L.A. - Geffen Playhouse - w/Alice Playten as Trina Rytza - and it wins 2 Drama-Logue awards for direction and choreography. The odyssey ends - I think. But - no. A coupla more times inna 2000s. Original script is “conceived and adapted” by Mr. Brustein with personal attachment - to memory of his friend Mr. Singer - and an absolute sense of ownership - over “every word and comma -period” which includes - he says - to me - somma his father’s favorite jokes. #2 A lotta people liked all the Shlemiels a lot - and a lotta people didn’t - and I did - and didn’t - too - David says - and life goes on - 1995 - I direct’n choreograph The Firebugs - ê - by Max Frisch at Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis with new translation by Michael Feingold.

David Gordon - ‘90s ARCHIVEOGRAPHY - part 2 12

#1 David is very lucky - he thinks - now - writing archiveographically - at the enda this “career” - to have had opportunities - to be supported - and managed - by adventurous and generous professionals - and to be allowed’n encouraged - by Valda and Ain - to take economically dangerous - career chances - and to be paid actual dollars - to direct and to choreograph - by experienced artistic directors of lively theatrical organizations - to work on main stages and write’n re-write in collaboration with published writers - and to have his work - designed - lit - danced - and acted - by remarkable artists who knew a great deal more about what they were doing - ê - then David did about what he was doing. David Gordon - ‘90s ARCHIVEOGRAPHY - part 2 13 #2 Variety Review: The Firebugs - Tad Simons - SEPTEMBER 25, 1995 - One of the major themes of German playwright Max Frisch's 1958 play "The Firebugs," contained in the play's final refrain, "Stupidity, now to be called fate, woe to us, alas," is that today's bad ideas are tomorrow's disasters -- a warning the Guthrie Theater's creative team should have heeded before drowning Frisch's darkly comic play in a sea of clownishness and buffoonery. Guest director David Gordon appears to have mistaken the word "stupidity" for a stage direction, and the result, predictably enough, is a fizzling, ineffectual dud.

#1 Star Tribune Review: The Firebugs - Peter Vaughan - August 11, 1995 David Gordon’s wacky, circuslike staging of Max Frisch’s The Firebugs is one of the more inventive, original productions to grace the Guthrie Theater in some time. Gordon, who made his artistic reputation as a New York choreographer, has recently been trying his hand at stage direction, and he has certainly risen to the challenges in Firebugs. Frisch’s satiric parable about the propensity of people to compromise with evil. Much of the fun and relevance comes from Gordon’s use of a troop of firefighters as a Greeklike chorus that continually warns Biedermann, the middle-class protagonist played by Charles Janasz, of the dangers of hosting three strangers in his attic.

David Gordon - ‘90s ARCHIVEOGRAPHY - part 2 14 #2 1998 - David startsta work on - SOME-KINDA-WIND-IN-THE-WILLOWS - based on the book - Wind in the Willows - written by Kenneth Grahame - in 1908 - which David never reads as a child and which he never reads to his son Ain as a child - í but it’s gonna be in public domain - Carey Perloff says - Carey - who co-produces First Picture Show - at the Geary Theater - for A.C.T. in San Francisco - suggests to David - to teach a workshop - to student actors - based on Wind inna Willows - and she suggests a 2nd workshop - and Carey introduces David - to composer Richard Peaslee - who wrote the music for - The Persecution And Assassination Of Jean-Paul Marat As Performed By The Inmates Of The Asylum Of Charenton Under The Direction Of The Marquis De Sade - which is thrilling because Marat Sade was thrilling when David saw it - in London - but Mr. Peaslee is too busy with Martha Clarke - he says - so Carey introduces David to composer Gina Leishman - who ain’t busy - and they work together - the 1st time - and - again’n - again - inna 2000s on Brecht/Eisler - called - to begin with - Roundheads and Pointheads. (see 2000s ARCHIVEOGRAPHY - Part 1) #1 Act 1 - Spring 1919 - mischievous thieving weasels - stoats - squirrels’n foxes - live inna wood - keep their eyes open to take what don’t belong to ‘em. Animals awake from winter naps’n birds fly home - n’young Mole - 1st Spring outta the orphanage - meets up with Rat - his new neighbor - who takes him - under his paw - teaches him to row -a boat - introduces him to Mrs. Otter - and to Toad of Toad Hall - who - asks Rat’n Mole to join him on an adventure - in a horse’n wagon. Sideswiped by an automobile - Toad falls for this noisy vehicle’n runs off to buy - he says - 1 of his own. Meanwhile - Mole wanders off - ta visit Badger - gets lost inna freak storm n’Rat goes after him - n’Badger gives ‘em both shelter. Meanwhile - lonely Widow Mink has an eye for Badger - delivers a potta hot soup. Mole is getting a cold n’Badger’n Mole have a lot in common - both burrowing animals - so - Rat leaves Mole inna capable handsa - the Widow’n Badger. Meanwhile - time passes - n’Mole heads home’n meets Toad - who invites Mole to go for a ride in his new red car - which is stolen - Police Horse stops ‘em - n’takes ‘em to Judge Horse who sends ‘em to jail. Time passes - fall is coming - which means winter is coming - Mrs. Otter says - n’reminds Rat of the natural order of things - but - Rat startsa question - the natural order. Meanwhile - the daughter of the Jailer Horse feels pity - for unhappy Toad’n Mole - n’helps ‘em - disguised - as her twin aunts - possum washerwomen - n’they escape’n steal a train - chased by the Police Horse - jump offa the train - bump into the 1st horse who pulled the wagon - who shows ‘em the way home. Meanwhile - time passes - birds get ready to fly away - again and Rat meets Sailor Rat - who describes exotic life of a sailor - n’Rat grows more restless’n persuades Mole -Toad - the horse - Widow Mink - and Badger - to run away - he says - to the French Riviera and find out what it's like - to be a migrating animal - once in our lives. They go off in a balloon - leaving their homes in the care of well-meaning Mrs. Otter - and vulnerable to the weasels - the squirrels - the stoats and the foxes. In Act 2 - we discover our furry friends in bathing suits and sunglasses on the beach of the French Riviera - not all happy with the results of the experiment. #2 So - we do the workshop with all the A.C.T. singer/actors - and with Ken Marks from NY - and Gina Leishman’s music and piano - and - all the A.C.T. staff comes to watch and listen - everything goes well - and everyone - David thinks - has a good time which is unusual - David don’t always think ANYONE has a good time - and HE never does - and afterward Carey Perloff è meets me on a park bench - he says - during the run of Hans Christian Andersen - the Martha Clarke musical - at the Geary Theater - and Carey says - the board of A.C.T. - don’t wanna do no more musicals for a while - since they just spent 8 hundred’n 50 thousand dollars - she says - on this Martha Clarke musical - with music everyone knows’n loves from the Danny Kaye movie - which was supposta go to Broadway but - after the reviews - ain’t goin nowhere so - sorry - Some Kinda Wind In The Willows - ain’t gonna go nowhere either - she says. It don’t - I never do any of it - again - David says - and I never see the script again till now - in 2016 - when I write about how it didn’t - don’t - happen. Carey’n me hug - inna park in San Francisco - and we say - g’bye - and we’ll work together again - she says - on something else - she says - and smiles her smile - but no - we never do. I go from the park bench to the hotel - and - my bag is packed - and I taxi to the airport. That’s show biz. David Gordon - ‘90s ARCHIVEOGRAPHY - part 2 15 #1 In 1996 - David is 60 - but he don’t know he’s old yet. He never could do any particular great dance kinda thing - he had no great “technique” - he never could do “everything” - like some dancers’n actors he getsta work with - he can’t walk into and outta triple pirouettes - without visible preparation - like Dean Moss or Mikhail Baryshnikov - or be so “in the moment” like Valda Setterfield - so ya don’t know there’s any other moment - so he don’t exactly notice - yet - at 60 - what he’s missing doing - how much harder he hasta work - to do whatever he useta work less hard to do. #2 My father useta say - David says - when he couldn’t lift his arm - for the bursitis pain in his shoulder - I’ll work it out - he useta say. David asks dancers - now - to do things he don’t show - he can describe well enough - still imagine something - or the memory of something he saw - or wantsa see - but - he can’t do - or show it - but he never could - he says. Never could - he says - but I could jump up - if push comes - came - to shove - n’do what I couldn’t do - there is a time - David says - I can do what I can’t do. I can jump up - and - not being warmed up - I will pay for it later - but there is a later - n’people that matter to me - don’t disappear - yet - till people that matter - mattered - do disappear - some of ‘em forever - David says - but they been disappearing - for years - he says - dancers dance with a company for as long as they do - and - they get married’n have kids - or get hurt and have operations - or go home - to where they came from - ya hafta find somebody - new - younger - no memory - of the work ya do - and ya teach yourself - he taught himself - he says - howta cope with change - after all - change is parta his business - David says - he hasta ask at auditions - anybody ever see my work - he says - see what I do - did? And loss - memory - nostalgia sneak into the work - ya hafta fight ‘em or use ‘em.

#1 David meets a young woman - arts writer - she says - who are you - she says. David Gordon - he says. Oh - she says - glad to meet you - I specialize in your era.

ç from left to right - Big Eyes - Werkcentrum Dutch company - ç Beethoven - Karen and Cynthia - ç Grand Union - David’s striped shirt elbow - Steve - Trisha - Barbara -

ë seated at the right - dancer Nancy Topf - dies in a plane crash.

David Gordon - ‘90s ARCHIVEOGRAPHY - part 2 16 #2 1996, ’97, ’98 - David collaborates with son Ain Gordon - and with composer Jeanine Tesori - on a “play” with movement and music - which starts out titled - Who’s Anne First? - and - ends up The First Picture Show - at American Conservatory Theater - in San Francisco - and - Mark Taper Forum - in Los Angeles - where it dies - dead in the water - says Taper artistic director Gordon Davidson - who dies in 2016 - while I’m writing this - David says - so - David runs home - to NY. After 3 yearsa commuting to the west coast - he discovers he is also dead - inna NY water - till - ç LAURIE UPRICHARD - generously commissions new work - 3 years in a row - from David - at Danspace - so - 1999 - David Gordon constructs new work - Autobiography of a Liar. Perhaps - David thinks - now - Autobiography of a Liar - is - st the 1 Live Archiveography? (see 2010s ARCHIVEOGRAPHY - Part 2) Usually - some partsa what he usually refers to - as “used work”- usually appear - and reappear - in what he usually refers to as “new work” - performed by new - or other - company members - or other companies - in different contexts - sometimes in different countries - and/or - usually with no music - or different or other - music. #1 Valda Setterfield introduces herself in Autobiography of a Liar - ì - I am an actor called Valda Setterfield - she says - who has - over the years - been called upon to play the part of a character called Valda Setterfield - in the theater and dance work of the artist David Gordon. He persuaded me - when I first began to work with him - to bleach my hair white - which became a trademark - and to affect a British accent which was difficult at first - but - which I'm now quite good at. I was - at the time - amused by these shenanigans - but I now have mixed feelings - about being “shanghaied” - into giving up my natural long red hair - at such an early age - and about having allowed him to use my real name. Strangers hail me on the street. Hey Valda - they call out - I saw you the other night. You were so funny. Well - I'm not funny. That's not how I describe myself. I am serious and sincere - but he gives me funny things to say and I say them - like they're my own thoughts - and because I'm a good actor - the audience believes me. But believe me - any similarity - between the Valda you may have been looking at - some of you - all these years - or the Valda that you see here tonight - and the real Valda - me - is purely coincidental. Of course he wrote everything I'm saying right now. Audiences believe me but believe me - I don't talk like this. Does anybody really talk like this? Oh - here he comes now. Don't let on we 've spoken. David Gordon - ‘90s ARCHIVEOGRAPHY - part 2 17 #2 1999 - Lola Pashalinski introduces herself - as David Gordon - at Danspace in NY. This evening's performance - she says as David - is AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A LIAR - she says - and I'm the choreographer - David Gordon - Lola says. I'm going to talk to you as if you know what I know. I can never imagine that anyone doesn't know what I know. Or is unhappy to be not knowing. I love not knowing. #1 1999 - AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A LIAR - at Danspace - NY - with Valda Setterfield - Lola Pashalinski - and - Lucy Sexton - and - Cynthia Oliver - and - Karen Graham

David Gordon - ‘90s ARCHIVEOGRAPHY - part 2 18 #2 DESCRIPTION OF PROGRAM: An autobiographical event full of half-remembered half-truths about dances made another time - in another life - accommodating talents of performers I was in love with - and remade - for talents of performers I hope to be in love with now - with short references to works I think now are too long - and a long new dance because I never learn. Also including one-sided memories - and fabled encounters - with performers pretending to be -

David Gordon - James Waring - Yvonne Rainer - Merce Cunningham - Norma Fire - Lucinda Childs - Ain Gordon - Robert Dunn - Bruce Hoover - Regina Hoover - Suzanne Weil - Alyce Dissette - Steve Paxton - Trisha Brown - Rose Gordon - Bonnie Brooks - Arlene Croce - Rhoda Grauer - Nadine Bertin - David White - Mikhail Baryshnikov - Valda Setterfield

David Gordon - ‘90s ARCHIVEOGRAPHY - part 2 19 #1 1998 - BEETHOVEN Quartet for 3 women - 1 man - characters move in a garden? A room? Pause for momentary photo? Social conversation - in’n outta sync - punctuated by stillness - silence BETWEEN FAMILY MEMBERS - do I imagine this work is Chekovian? Yes - BUT I DON’T SAY SO. Do I imagine this work is about Rose - my mother and her sisters - and their 1 brother? Or - about the Wunderlich women and David - me? Yes - BUT I DON’T SAY SO. I almost never - before or after The Mysteries - acknowledge a relationship between what I make and what I feel - and how I live or have lived. The Family Business - would never happen without the intense life’n death duet - of AIN AND AUNTIE PAULIE - which would not happen without the deaths of Sam - and then Rose - or without Valda on tour in The Mysteries - and David at work at UCLA. How do I find Beethoven String Quartet # 16 - opus 135 in F - conducted by Leonard Bernstein - n’why is it the right music for this quartet? Is the work made to the music - or made without the music - with the music added? And how worried is David - he says - but don’t say so - that the result may be sentimental? Pauline always says - seltzer is dangerous. David says - ê feeling is - dangerous.

From upper left: Wunderlich family - Yetta - Rose - Irene - Ruth - David up inna corner laughing - Alfred - his wife Helen - Pauline Beethoven - Pick Up Co - Brendan - Cynthia - Lucy - Karen From lower right - Norma - Kastle - David. Beethoven - Cynthia -Brendan - Lucy - Karen Beginning of the End of the - Karen - Norma - Gus - Charlotte - Aaron. David Gordon - ‘90s ARCHIVEOGRAPHY - part 2 20

2000 - David is teaching composition at Columbia College in Chicago - staying down the street at The Hilton - racing back and forth - in the break between classes - between the dance of the Chicago students - in the studio - and the dance of the Florida chads - on the TV - in his Hilton hotel room. Talking as fast as he can - catching the students up - on the comings and goings on - the machinations and Florida fancy dancing - about the embattled Bush/Gore duet - which is being “choreographed” on reality TV - and will end as a solo - in a 4-year theatrical run - with a possible 4-year encore - in the White House of the United States of America. Hi - he says - we’re dancing on the edge - and we’re all gonna fall off the stage.