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78.
A group of texts by four Living Theatre members, c. 1970.
i) 3pp. typescript with holograph amendments by Steven Ben Israel, beginning "Every time we speak or move, whether we know it or not, WE say I LOVE YOU….". A theoretical text on collective improvisation, quoting RD Laing and asserting that "The ARTISTS responsibility has always been to create the immediate mirror of his time… and to demonstrate the immediate need for this mirror to be changed…" (members of The Living Theatre visited Laing following their run at the Roundhouse in June 1969, and his book "The Politics of Experience", published in 1967, was frequently referred to by the company). Sheets creased and edge-worn.
Pacifist, anarchist, jazz drummer, performance artist and one of the first among the troupe to take up yoga, Ben Israel toured for fifteen years with The Living Theatre and portrayed the monster in 'Frankenstein' in 1968. In 1971, when most of the cast of 'Paradise Now' were arrested on drug charges during a tour of Brazil, he fled to New York where he started a campaign to get the troupe freed.
ii) 8pp. typescript songs/poems by Hans Schano (Echnaton), one of them with a postscript to "Jack" [Henry Moore]: "If someone wants to make a hit out of the Scapegoatsong please let me know first." Echnaton first joined The Living Theatre in spring 1966 and became one of its leading members, appearing in 'Mysteries & Smaller Pieces', 'Frankenstein', 'Antigone' and 'Paradise Now'. In November 1968 he was arrested along with Julian Beck and Steven Ben Israel following a performance of 'Paradise Now' in Philadelphia. He also participated in Frederick Rzewski's Musica Electronica Viva earlier in the year.
iii) three typescripts by Günter Pannewitz (six sheets), one of them with holograph amendments and a typed postscript: "Please Jack, change it in any way you want to Love Günter" + autograph letter signed sent from Grenoble to Jack Henry Moore, with mentions of Judith Malina and Julian Beck, written on the verso of a hand-coloured flyer designed by Terré for a psychedelic concert at the Straight Theatre, San Francisco, December 31, 1969.
iv) a typeset poem by Jim Tiroff, "Dolore, O Dolore" ("written in and smuggled out termini prison in toe of boot, April 68"). Tall foolscap sheet, folded and creased along lower edge. Tiroff, who died of a heroin overdose in 1975, was a graphic artist, musician, theatre designer, performer and nudist who toured Europe with The Living Theatre in the 1960s.
