Programming Theater History
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Programming Theater History “One of the great stories of the American theater..., The Workshop not only built an international reputation with its daring choice of plays and non-traditional productions, it also helped launch a movement of regional, or resident, companies that would change forever how Americans thought about and consumed theater.” (Elin Diamond, from the Introduction.) Herbert Blau founded, with Jules Irving, the legendary Actor’s Workshop of San Francisco, in 1952, starting with ten people in a loft above a judo academy. Over the course of the next thirteen years and its hundred or so productions, it introduced American audiences to plays by Brecht, Beckett, Pinter, Genet, Arden, Fornes, and various unknown others. Most of the productions were accompanied by a stunningly concise and often provocative program note by Blau. These documents now comprise, within their compelling perspective, a critique of the modern theater. They vividly reveal what these now canonical works could mean, fi rst time round, and in the context of 1950s and 1960s American culture, in the shadow of the Cold War. Programming Theater History curates these notes, with a selection of The Workshop’s incrementally artful, alluring program covers, Blau’s recollections, and evocative production photographs, into a narrative of indispensable artefacts and observations. The result is an inspiring testimony by a giant of American performance theory and practice, and a unique refl ection of what it is to create theatre history in the present. Herbert Blau is Byron W. and Alice L. Lockwood Professor Emeritus of the Humanities at the University of Washington, USA. He has also had a parallel career in the theater, as co-founder and co-director of The Actor’s Workshop of San Francisco, then co-director of the Repertory Theater of Lincoln Center in New York, and as artistic director of the experimental group KRAKEN. His publications include The Dubious Spectacle: Extremities of Theater (2002), Nothing in Itself: Complexions of Fashion (1988), Sails of the Herring Fleet: Essays on Beckett (2004), As If: An Autobiography (Volume 1 2012), and Reality Principles: From the Absurd to the Virtual (2011). Programming Theater History The Actor’s Workshop of San Francisco Herbert Blau Introduction by Elin Diamond First published 2013 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2013 Herbert Blau The right of Herbert Blau to be identified as the author of the text has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalog record for this book has been requested ISBN: 978-0-415-51669-3 (hbk) ISBN: 978-0-415-51670-9 (pbk) ISBN: 978-0-203-12407-9 (ebk) Typeset in Sabon by Saxon Graphics Ltd, Derby In memory of Jules Irving Contents List of illustrations ix Acknowledgments xiii Introduction 1 1 A Loft, in the Early Days 9 2 Coming Up the Ramp: Mid-Term Variations 32 3 Alienation and the Absurd: The Mystery Remains 57 4 Reason Not the Need: Faith or Fury, Farce or Dream 80 5 Mixed Blessings and the Sorcery of Persuasion 109 6 Home Stretch: What Will the Future Think? 130 The Winding Sheet: A Requiem-Coda 165 Index 168 Illustrations Photographs Note: unless otherwise stated, photographer unknown Chapter 1 1.1 Ebenezer Baptist Church: Mark Lapin 10 1.2 Down at the Encore Theater: Chic Lloyd 11 1.3 I Am A Camera 17 1.4 Hedda Gabler 21 1.5 Blood Wedding 24 1.6 The Playboy of the Western World 26 1.7 Summer and Smoke 29 Chapter 2 2.1 Elgin Street Theater 32 2.2 Lysistrata: Chic Lloyd 35 2.3 Venus Observed 36 2.4. Death of a Salesman: Chic Lloyd 39 2.5 Death of a Salesman: Chic Lloyd 40 2.6 The Cherry Orchard 42 2.7 Oedipus Rex 43 2.8 Maître Pierre Patelin 44 2.9 The Crucible 46 2.10 Marines Memorial Club Hotel 47 2.11 Camino Real 50 2.12 Camino Real 51 2.13 Captive at Large: Ed Winter 52 2.14 The Importance of Being Earnest: Ed Winter 54 x Illustrations Chapter 3 3.1 Mother Courage: Phiz Mozesson 59 3.2 Mother Courage: Phiz Mozesson 60 3.3 Miss Julie 63 3.4 The Plough and the Stars: Ted Streshinsky 65 3.5 The Flowering Peach: Chic Lloyd 68 3.6 Waiting for Godot: Wagner Set: Chic Lloyd 70 3.7 Waiting for Godot: Chic Lloyd 70 3.8 Waiting for Godot at San Quentin 71 3.9 The Country Wife: Chic Lloyd 74 3.10 The Ticklish Acrobat 78 Chapter 4 4.1 The Potting Shed: Chic Lloyd 82 4.2 Tiger at the Gates: Chic Lloyd 84 4.3 A Gift of Fury: Chic Lloyd 85 4.4 The Miser: Chic Lloyd 88 4.5 The Iceman Cometh: Chic Lloyd 91 4.6 Waltz of the Toreadors: Chic Lloyd 93 4.7 Garden District: Chic Lloyd 96 4.8 The Entertainer: Chic Lloyd 97 4.9 The Infernal Machine: Chic Lloyd 100 4.10 Encore Theatre (The Caretaker) 102 4.11 Endgame: Chic Lloyd 104 4.12 Endgame: Chic Lloyd 105 4.13 Cock-A-Doodle Dandy 108 Chapter 5 5.1 Jack, or the Submission 113 5.2 The Marriage of Mr. Mississippi: Chic Lloyd 115 5.3 Saint’s Day: Chic Lloyd 118 5.4 The Birthday Party: Chic Lloyd 119 5.5 King Lear: Chic Lloyd 123 5.6 King Lear: Chic Lloyd 123 5.7 Sergeant Musgrave’s Dance 126 5.8 Henry IV Part I: Chic Lloyd 129 Chapter 6 6.1 The Glass Menagerie: Chic Lloyd 132 6.2 Galileo: Chic Lloyd 135 Illustrations xi 6.3 Galileo: Chic Lloyd 136 6.4 Volpone: Chic Lloyd 141 6.5 The Balcony: Hank Kranzler 142 6.6 The Balcony: Hank Kranzler 145 6.7 The Balcony: Hank Kranzler 146 6.8 The Caretaker 150 6.9 The Caucasian Chalk Circle: Hank Kranzler 151 6.10 The Birds 154 6.11 The Wall: Hank Kranzler 157 6.12 The Country Wife: Hank Kranzler 160 6.13 Uncle Vanya: Hank Kranzler 164 Program Covers Sleeve 1 [(between pages 50 and 51)] Plate 1 John Millington Synge, The Playboy of the Western World (1953; by Helen Breger) Plate 2 Anton Chekhov, The Cherry Orchard (1954; by Leonard Breger) Plate 3 Alfred Hayes, The Girl on the Via Flaminia (1955; by Malcolm Smith) Plate 4 David Mark, Captive at Large (1955; by Malcolm Smith) Plate 5 Bertolt Brecht, Mother Courage (1956; by Malcolm Smith) Plate 6 Clifford Odets, The Flowering Peach (1956; by Marion Kronfeld) Plate 7 Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot (1957; by Malcolm Smith) Plate 8 James Schevill, The Bloody Tenet (1957; by Malcolm Smith) Plate 9 Jean Giraudoux, Tiger at the Gates (1957; by Helen Breger) Plate 10 Herbert Blau, A Gift of Fury (1958; by Richard Robinson) Plate 11 Eugene O’Neill, The Iceman Cometh (1958; by Robert McClay) Plate 12 Jean Anouilh, Waltz of the Toreadors (1958; by Helen Breger) Plate 13 Samuel Beckett, Endgame (1959; by Robert LaVigne) Plate 14 Jean Cocteau, The Infernal Machine (1959; by Leonard Breger) Plate 15 John Osborne and Anthony Creighton, Epitaph for George Dillon (1959; by Peter Bailey) Plate 16 Yukio Mishima, Three Noh Plays (1959; by Jacques Overhoff) Plate 17 Miriam Stovall, The Rocks Cried Out (1960; by Judy Collins) Plate 18 Friedrich Dürrenmatt, The Marriage of Mr. Mississippi (1960; by Judith Saunders and David L. Haselwood) xii Illustrations Sleeve 2 [(between pages 146 and 147)] Plate 19 Sean O’Casey, Cock-a-Doodle Dandy (1959; by David Green) Plate 20 John Whiting, Saint’s Day (1960; by Judy Saunders) Plate 21 Eugene O’Neill, A Touch of the Poet (1960; by Robert LaVigne) Plate 22 Jean Genet, The Maids and The Widow (1961; by Robert LaVigne) Plate 23 John Arden, Sergeant Musgrave’s Dance (1961; by Robert LaVigne) Plate 24 Anton Chekhov, The Three Sisters (1961; by Ann Horton) Plate 25 William Shakespeare, King Lear (1961; by Cornelia Schulz) Plate 26 Harold Pinter, The Birthday Party (1960; by Judy Saunders) Plate 27 George Bernard Shaw, Misalliance (1961; by Judy Collins) Plate 28 Bertolt Brecht, Galileo (1962; by Judith Davis) Plate 29 Herbert Blau, Telegraph Hill (1963; by Helen Breger) Plate 30 Jean Genet, The Balcony (1963; by Robert LaVigne) Plate 31 Harold Pinter, The Caretaker (1963; by Ann Horton) Plate 32 Bertolt Brecht, The Caucasian Chalk Circle (1963; by Tadeusz Kulisiewicz) Plate 33 Conrad Bromberg, The Defense of Taipei (1964; by Ann Burger) Plate 34 William Wycherley, The Country Wife (1964; by William Stewart Jones) Plate 35 Ben Jonson, Volpone (1963; by James H. Stearns) Plate 36 Anton Chekhov, Uncle Vanya (1965; by Edward Winter) Acknowledgments Some years ago, when I was sorting out photographs for an autobiography, there were so many—going back to my childhood in Brooklyn—spread out in our living room and on the dining room table, it was really hard to choose.