''Signals Through the Flames'' is a 1983 documentary film on the work of
Julian Beck
Julian Beck (May 31, 1925 – September 14, 1985) was an American actor, stage director, poet, and painter. He is best known for co-founding and directing the Living Theatre, as well as his role as Reverend Henry Kane, the malevolent preacher ...
and
Judith Malina
Judith Malina (June 4, 1926 – April 10, 2015) was a German-born American actress, director and writer. With her husband Julian Beck, Malina co-founded The Living Theatre, a radical political theatre troupe that rose to prominence in New York C ...
as the founders of
The Living Theatre
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/p ...
performance company.
The title of the film is taken from the work of
Antonin Artaud
Antoine Maria Joseph Paul Artaud (; ; 4September 18964March 1948), better known as Antonin Artaud, was a French artist who worked across a variety of media. He is best known for his writings, as well as his work in the theatre and cinema. Widely ...
in his book on theatre theory called ''
The Theatre and its Double''. The film was produced by Mystic Fire Video as a project of the now defunct Mystic Fire Video bookstore in New York City. It was directed and edited by Sheldon Rochlin.
''Signals Through the Flames'' contains first person interviews with Beck and Malina and archival footage of performances and street actions from various news reporting sources of the theater's political life in the late 1960s. Particular attention is given to Paris in 1968 in a performance called ''Paradise Now'' and the occupation of the Odeon Theatre. Excerpts from the filmed productions of ''
The Brig'' by Kenneth H. Brown directed by Jonas Mekas and of Jack Gelber's play ''
The Connection'' directed by
Shirley Clarke are also part of the documentary.
The film documents significant history in the performing arts community. Academic and performing arts institutions such as the Segal Theatre Center
and the Yale School of Drama
continue to offer free public screenings of the film more than three decades later. The archives of The Living Theatre, including this film, were acquired by the Yale School of Drama.
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References
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External links
''Signals Through the Flames'' (full movie) at Internet Archive
''Signals Through the Flames'' at Internet Movie Database (IMDb)
''The Brig'' (full film) at Vimeo
Living Theater maintains a website with information on new productions
''The Connection'' directed by Shirley Clark at Milestone video
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1983 films
American documentary films
Documentary films about theatre
1980s English-language films
1980s American films
English-language documentary films
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