The Living Theatre -- the legendary theater company founded in the 1950's by the late Julian Beck and his wife Judith Malina, who remains as the company's artistic director -- will open its own permanent performance space, a 100-seat theatre called The Living Theatre, in a new building on the Lower East Side at 19-21 Clinton St. in Manhattan, it has been announced by Executive Director, Hanon Reznakov. The Living Theatre will inaugurate its new permanent home with a new production of one of the company's most renowned and controversial productions, THE BRIG by Kenneth H. Brown, beginning previews March 15 prior to its official opening March 29.
THE BRIG has not been presented in New York since The Living Theatre produced the play in 1963, when its won a Village Voice OBIE Award for Best Play.Written by a veteran who survived incarceration in a U.S. Marine Corps Brig during the Korean War, is a chilling portrait of the brutality of military prisons. Judith Malina directs the production, which offers a highly charged view of life among caged men.The original production won the 1963 OBIE Award for Best Play. Following a surge of critical acclaim, congressman John Lindsay and then Democratic Party district leader of Greenwich Village Ed Koch called for the U.S . Congress to investigate the conditions in Marine Corps prisons. The theater was subsequently seized by the Internal Revenue Service and shut down to the public. During the ensuing trial, the court dismissed the tax charges against The Living Theatre but sentenced Judith Malina and co-Founder/Director Julian Beck to 30 and 60 days respectively for contempt of court.Videos