The Segal Center Presents Theatre & Performance in 1970s NYC: Hillary Miller's 'Drop Dead'

In the mid-1970s, many artists and organizations successfully defied socially destructive policies and fought for the arts as a public good during New York City's near-bankruptcy and resulting austerity. Scholar and playwright Hillary Miller's book Drop Dead: Performance in Crisis, 1970s New York (Northwestern UP, 2016) combines theatre history with a detailed analysis of productions of the time to examine how the performing arts developed innovative responses to survive the crisis. Miller's account includes Broadway (TKTS), BAM, La Mama E.T.C., and The Public Theater, and highlights the important role of Martin E. Segal in shaping the City's cultural policy for decades to come. A panel of playwrights, directors, and historians will join in conversation about the theatre artists and arts institutions of the 1970s, and the significance of its theatrical legacies in understanding our contemporary city. Invited are Julia Foulkes; Jessica Hagedorn; Muriel Miguel, Spiderwoman Theater; Cindy Rosenthal; and Richard Wesley.
The event will be followed by a book signing with author, Hillary Miller.

All-Day Screening: Shorts from the Feminist Seventies is a selection of 16mm documentaries made by women in the 1970s on topics ranging from marriage, sex, and reproductive health to labor, identity, and memory-all culled from the New York Public Library's Reserve Film and Video Collection. Opening remarks by curator and film scholar Shilyh Warren, and invited guest Elena Rossi-Snook, Archivist, Reserve Film and Video Collection, The New York Public Library. Films courtesy of the Reserve Film and Video Collection of The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. Additional support from Third World Newsreel and Women Make Movies.

EVENT SCHEDULE
11:00am Screenings
My Name is Oona, Gunvor Nelson, 1969 | 16 min.
A profound experimental film that remasters sounds from and images of the filmmaker's young daughter to ask what girlhood might mean for the next generation. Presented in collaboration with Canyon Cinema.

I Am Somebody, Madeline Anderson, 1970 | 29 min.
Commissioned by Moe Foner for union activism, this film documents a successful strike by black female hospital workers in Charleston, SC in 1969. Screening courtesy Icarus Films. I Am Somebody has been preserved with funding from the Carnegie Corporation of New York.

Game, Abigail Child Productions, 1972 | 40 min.
A frank look at an African-American couple negotiating work and sexual politics in Manhattan. Presented in collaboration with Abigail Child.

1:00pm Screenings
It Happens to Us, Amalie Rothschild, 1972 | 30 min.
One of the first documentaries to give voice to women's experiences with abortion both before and after legalization. Presented in collaboration with New Day Films.

Joyce at 34, Joyce Chopra and ClauDia Weill, 1973 | 28 min.
A filmmaker who struggles to balance the new demands of motherhood with her career ambitions turns to her mother in New York for perspective and advice. Presented in collaboration with New Day Films. Joyce at 34 has been preserved with funding from the National Film Preservation Foundation.

Yudie, Mirra Bank, 1974 | 20 min.
The filmmaker's aging Jewish aunt tells a powerful story of emigration, independence, and life on New York's Lower East Side. Presented in collaboration with New Day Films.

Q & A with the Filmmakers
Participants: Amalie Rothschild, ClauDia Weill, and Mirra Bank

3:00pm Screenings
Dyketaktics, Barbara Hammer, 1974 | 4 min.
One of the first documentaries about lesbian sexuality by a lesbian filmmaker, this explicit film quite literally takes lovemaking out into the open. Presented in collaboration with Barbara Hammer.

From Spikes to Spindles, Christine Choy, 1976 | 52 min.
A landmark exploration of New York's Chinatown told primarily through interviews and observational footage.

Chicana, Sylvia Morales, 1979 | 22 min.
The first film to insist on the particular experiences of women in the Chicano community, this film challenges popular stereotypes by producing a new history of Mexican-American women. Presented in collaboration with Women Make Movies.

Gently Down the Stream, Su Friedrich, 1981 | 15 min.
Based on the filmmaker's journals, this experimental film explores the boundaries between dreams, memories, and the present. Presented in collaboration with Canyon Cinema.

5:00pm Q & A with the Filmmakers
Participants: Abigail Child, Barbara Hammer, Amalie Rothschild, and others.

6:30pm Panel
Theatre & 1970s NYC, panel discussion with Julia Foulkes, Jessica Hagedorn, Muriel Miguel, Cindy Rosenthal, and Richard Wesley.

7:30pm Book Signing with Hillary Miller Drop Dead