|
Johnny Dodd
Johnny Dodd (aka John P. Dodd) (June 25, 1941 – July 15, 1991) was an off-off-Broadway lighting designer for theater, dance and music concerts in the downtown art scene in Lower Manhattan during the latter half of the 20th century. He designed lighting for Judson Poets Theater, La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club, the Theater for the New City and the glam rock band New York Dolls. He also acted in underground art films and plays and in 1973 directed the Anthony Clarvoe play ''City of Light'' based on the ''City of Light'' novel by Lauren Belfer. Career achievements During the 1960s, Dodd was resident lighting designer at the Caffe Cino after starting work there as a waiter in 1961. In 1967, Dodd received an Obie Award for his work on Søren Agenoux's ''A Christmas Carol'', Lanford Wilson's '' The Madness of Lady Bright'' and Tom Eyen's ''White Whore and the Bit Player''. Dodd also worked on productions at Judson Memorial Church, La MaMa and Theatre Genesis. During t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Off-off-Broadway
Off-off-Broadway theaters are smaller New York City theaters than Broadway theatre, Broadway and off-Broadway theaters, and usually have fewer than 100 seats. The off-off-Broadway movement began in 1958 as part of a response to perceived commercialism of the professional theatre scene and as an experimental theatre, experimental or avant-garde movement of drama and theatre. Over time, some off-off-Broadway productions have moved away from the movement's early experimental spirit. History The off-off-Broadway movement began in 1958 as a "complete rejection of commercial theatre". Michael Smith gives credit for the term's coinage to Jerry Tallmer in 1960. Among the first venues for what would soon be called "off-off-Broadway" theatre were coffeehouses in Greenwich Village, particularly the Caffe Cino at 31 Cornelia Street, operated by the eccentric Joe Cino, who early on took a liking to actors and playwrights and agreed to let them stage plays there without bothering to read th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tom Eyen
Tom Eyen (August 14, 1940 – May 26, 1991) was an American playwright, lyricist, television writer and director. He received a Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical for ''Dreamgirls'' in 1981. Eyen is best known for works at opposite ends of the theatrical spectrum. Mainstream theatergoers became acquainted with him in 1981, when he partnered with composer Henry Krieger and director Michael Bennett to write the book and lyrics for the hit Broadway musical ''Dreamgirls'', about an African-American female singing trio. Eyen's career started, however, with experimental theatre that he wrote and directed Off-Off Broadway in the 1960s. This led to his Off-Broadway success with '' The Dirtiest Show in Town'' (1970), a musical revue with nudity, and '' Women Behind Bars'' (1975), a camp parody of women's prison exploitation films. Eyen died of AIDS-related complications in Palm Beach, Florida at the age of 50. Early life and education Eyen was born in Cambridge, Ohio, th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Life Of Juanita Castro
''The Life of Juanita Castro'' is a 1965 American underground film directed by Andy Warhol, filmed in March 1965 based on the absurdist theater play by Ronald Tavel by the same name. Plot A playwright (Ronald Tavel) taunts a number of actresses into improvising a play on Fidel Castro and his family, at a time when the revolution was bringing back disquieting stories of executions and imprisonments and, particularly, virulent hatred and torture of homosexuals in Cuba. Several of the play's male characters (Fidel Castro, Raúl Castro, and Che Guevara) are played by women. The actresses face a camera they believe is filming them, while in fact they are being filmed by another camera placed off to one side. At times they are directed by Tavel to perform pointless acts in unison. Reception According to ''The New York Times'' drama reviewer Tom Vick, the film "rewrites history as a high-camp farce," poking fun at machismo and totalitarianism. Cast *Ronald Tavel as on-screen director ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ronald Tavel
Ronald Tavel (May 17, 1936 – March 23, 2009) was an American gay screenwriter, director, novelist, poet and actor, best known for his work with Andy Warhol and The Factory and the Theatre of the Ridiculous. Tavel was the founder, with the director John Vaccaro, of the Playhouse of the Ridiculous. He received the Obie Award for Outstanding Contribution to Theater in 1969 for the musical drama ''Boy On the Straight-Back Chair''. He also wrote a novel about the pederastic experiences of an expatriate in Tangier, Morocco, called '' Street of Stairs'' published by Olympia Press in 1968. Early life Born in Brooklyn, New York, Tavel graduated from Brooklyn College and later attended the University of Wyoming, where he earned a master's degree in creative writing in 1959. Career Tavel worked as a screenwriter during the 1960s for many of Andy Warhol's underground films including ''Chelsea Girls''. Tavel worked with other members of Warhol's Factory crowd, including Freddie He ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Juanita Castro
Juana de la Caridad "Juanita" Castro Ruz ( , ; 6 May 1933 – 4 December 2023) was a Cuban-American activist and writer, as well as the sister of Fidel and Raúl, both former presidents of Cuba, and Ramón, a key figure of the Cuban Revolution. After collaborating with the Central Intelligence Agency in Cuba in 1964, she lived in the United States until her death. Early life Juana de la Caridad Castro Ruz was born in Birán, near Mayarí, in what is now known as the province of Holguín on 6 May 1933. She was the fourth child of Ángel Castro y Argiz and Lina Ruz González and had three brothers — Ramón, Fidel, and Raúl — and three sisters — Angelita, Emma, and Agustina. Lina Ruz González was Ángel Castro's cook; he was married to another woman when Juanita and her older brothers were born. Castro also had five half-siblings: Lidia, Pedro Emilio, Manuel, Antonia, and Georgina, who were raised by Ángel Castro's first wife Maria Luisa Argota, as well as another h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Blake Gopnik
Blake Gopnik (born 1963) is an American art critic who has lived in New York City since 2011. He previously spent a decade as chief art critic of ''The Washington Post'', prior to which he was an arts editor and critic in Canada. He has a doctorate in art history from Oxford University. He is the author of ''Warhol'', a biography of the American artist Andy Warhol. Early life and education Gopnik was born in Philadelphia, in 1963, to Irwin and Myrna Gopnik, with whom he moved to Montreal as a child. He and his five siblings—Berkeley psychologist Alison, writer Adam, oceanographer Morgan, archeologist Hilary, and Melissa Gopnik, who manages a nonprofit—grew up in Moshe Safdie's brutalist housing community, Habitat 67. Gopnik was educated in French at the Académie Michèle-Provost and then trained as a commercial photographer. He studied at McGill University in Montreal, where he received a Bachelor of Arts with honors in medieval studies in 1988, specializing in Vulgat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Steven Watson (author)
Steven Watson (born 1947) is an author, art and cultural historian, curator, and documentary filmmaker. His 1991 book ''Strange Bedfellows: The First American Avant-Garde'' was called "a chapter in our national biography" by Stefan Kanfer for the ''Los Angeles Times'' and "a marvelous group portrait of a band of cultural renegades" by ''Publishers Weekly''. Watson has written five books about 20th century American avant-garde and counterculture movements, curated two exhibitions at the National Portrait Gallery ("Group Portrait, The First American Avant-Garde" and "Rebels: Painters and Poets of the 1950s"), and served as consultant curator for the Whitney Museum exhibition "Beat Culture and the New America". Biography Watson was born in 1947. He grew up in the suburbs of Minneapolis, Minnesota and graduated from Mound High School. He majored in English at Stanford University and participated in anti-Vietnam War protests, including a guerrilla theater piece called ''Alice in ROTC ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kiss (1963 Film)
''Kiss'' is a 1964 American underground film directed by Andy Warhol. It was one of the first experimental films Warhol made at The Factory in New York City. Plot The film runs 50 minutes and features various couples kissing for 3 and half minutes each. The film features Barbara Rubin, Gerard Malanga, Johnny Dodd, Ed Sanders, Mark Lancaster, Baby Jane Holzer, and Robert Indiana. Soundtrack In 1964, La Monte Young provided a loud minimalist drone soundtrack to ''Kiss'' when shown as small TV-sized projections at the entrance lobby to the third New York Film Festival held at Lincoln Center. Release In July 1964, ''Kiss'' was shown with its predecessor ''Sleep'' at the Park Square Cinema in Boston. See also * Andy Warhol filmography * ''Sleep'' (1964) * ''Eat'' (1964) * ''Blue Movie ''Blue Movie'' (also known as ''Fuck'' and ''F,k'') is a 1969 American erotic film written, produced and directed by Andy Warhol. It is the first adult erotic film depicting explicit sex to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fred Herko
Frederick Charles "Freddie" Herko (February 23, 1936 – October 27, 1964) was an American artist, musician, actor, dancer, choreographer and teacher. Early life Born in New York City, Herko's father was a diner manager and his mother was a homemaker. The family first lived on the Lower East Side, then moved to Brooklyn. When Herko was age 2, the family settled in Ossining, New York. As a child, Herko exhibited a talent for music and became a proficient pianist and flautist. Upon graduating from high school, Herko attended the Juilliard School and planned to be a concert pianist. In 1954, Herko attended a staging of '' Giselle'' and became fascinated with the Russian lead Igor Youskevitch. Herko soon decided to pursue a career as a ballet dancer. When Herko told his parents of his decision, his “macho, working-class” father became enraged and beat him. Career Herko soon earned a four-year scholarship to the American Ballet Theatre School (now known as the Jacqueline Ke ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Andy Warhol Filmography
American artist and filmmaker Andy Warhol produced more than 600 films between 1963 and 1968, including short '' Screen Tests'' film portraits. His subsequent work with filmmaker Paul Morrissey guided the Warhol-branded films toward more mainstream success in the 1970s. Since 1984, the Whitney Museum of American Art and Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and worked to preserve, restore, exhibit, and distribute Warhol's underground films. In 2014, the MoMA began a project to digitize films previously unseen and to show them to the public. History Warhol had always been interested in films, and once he became successful as an artist with his pop art paintings, he started making underground films at his studio dubbed The Factory. In 1963, he experimented with single-frame cinematography, a stylistic method already used by a number of independent filmmakers. However, he quickly came to the conclusion that long takes were the opposite of what was conventional at the time, and he started prod ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Andy Warhol
Andy Warhol (;''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''"Warhol" born Andrew Warhola Jr.; August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987) was an American visual artist, film director and producer. A leading figure in the pop art movement, Warhol is considered one of the most important American artists of the second half of the 20th century. His works explore the relationship between artistic expression, advertising, and celebrity culture that flourished by the 1960s, and span a variety of media, including painting, sculpture, photography, and filmmaking. Some of his best-known works include the silkscreen paintings ''Campbell's Soup Cans'' (1962) and '' Marilyn Diptych'' (1962), the experimental film '' Chelsea Girls'' (1966), the multimedia events known as the '' Exploding Plastic Inevitable'' (1966–67), and the erotic film '' Blue Movie'' (1969) that started the " Golden Age of Porn". Born and raised in Pittsburgh in a family of Rusyn immigrants, Warhol initially pursued ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Living Theater
The Living Theatre is an American theatre company founded in 1947 and based in New York City. It is the oldest experimental theatre group in the United States. For most of its history it was led by its founders, actress Judith Malina and painter/poet Julian Beck. After Beck's death in 1985, company member Hanon Reznikov became co-director with Malina; the two were married in 1988. After Malina's death in 2015, her responsibilities were taken over by her son Garrick Maxwell Beck, Tom Walker and Brad Burgess. The Living Theatre and its founders were the subject of the 1983 documentary ''Signals Through the Flames''. History In the 1950s, the group was among the first in the U.S. to produce the work of influential European playwrights such as Bertolt Brecht (''In The Jungle of Cities'' in New York, 1960) and Jean Cocteau, as well as modernist poets such as T. S. Eliot and Gertrude Stein. One of their first major productions was Pablo Picasso's '' Desire Caught By the Tail''; other ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
