Julian Beck [1925-1985]

Julian Beck

Short Biography

Julian Beck [1925-1985]

American theatrical director, actor, and producer, born in New York City. He married Judith Malina, 1926-, also an American theatrical director, actor, and producer, born Germany. Together they founded the Living Theater in 1947, which inaugurated the off-off Broadway movement. Their productions were highly imaginative and often involved collective improvisation and took an anarcho-pacifist viewpoint. Theatrical happenings and the orgiastic productions of Julian Beck 's Living Theater with audience participation may be viewed either as giving the director unlimited freedom or as eliminating his function altogether. Perhaps their most controversial work was Paradise Now (1968), a free-form critique of American life that involved nudity and audience participation. Their other productions include The Connection (1959), The Brig (1963), In the Jungle of the Cities (1960), and Antigone (1968). The company was based in Europe for two decades (1963-83). After Beck's death, the theater continued under the direction of Malina and Hanon Reznikov.

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Julian Beck quotes

Quotes on theatre and acting

• You cannot be free if you are contained within a fiction.