ABSTRACT
This essay rereads Julian Beck's experience through the pages of his diaries, from 1952 to 1957, in a selection edited by Thomas Walker, actor and archivist of the Living Theatre. What is proposed is a journey through autobiographical memories, assembled around certain topics: the writing of the diaries; the significance of the years and recurring events; painting; theater; Judith Malina's first arrest; the death of Rose Zamora, Judith's mother. The article gives large space to Beck's writing, avoiding summarizing or paraphrasing it as much as possible, in order to restore its flow in long excerpts, in the material and temporal dimension that generated i t.The selected texts are presented in a new translation, while the English transcription is published in full in the Materials section of this magazine. What emerges is a tapestry of choices, turning points, and intuitions, traversed by uncertainty and governed by the imperative to realize one's own project, while painting was still predominant in his artistic activity and the search for a new theater produced total commitment and frustration. Against the backdrop of these years were the artistic, idealistic, and political ferment of a generation that was also the milieu and friends network of Julian Beck and Judith Malina.
BIOGRAFIA
Cristina Valenti ha insegnato Storia del Nuovo Teatro e Teatro Sociale presso l’Alma Mater Studiorum Università di Bologna. Ha diretto il Master in Imprenditoria dello Spettacolo presso la stessa Università, dove tuttora insegna Teatro sociale: ambiti e forme organizzative. Dirige la rivista «Quaderni di Teatro Carcere. È presidente di Scenario ETS e direttrice artistica di Scenario Festival. Ha scritto o curato: Scenario in festival, Progetti e visioni per un nuovo teatro (Titivillus, 2025); Mauerspringer. Forme di espressione artistica e di partecipazione nel teatro di strada (Titivillus, 2020); Leo de Berardinis oggi (con Laura Mariani, «Culture Teatrali», 2019); Storia del Living Theatre. Conversazioni con Judith Malina (Titivillus, 2018: nuova edizione aggiornata e accresciuta); Scenari del terzo millennio (Titivillus. 2018); Amore e Anarchia. Uno spettacolo del Teatro delle Albe (Titivillus, 2015); Katzenmacher. Il teatro di Alfonso Santagata (Zona, 2003); Living with The Living. Il Living Theatre in Europa (1964-1983). Julian Beck pittore (1944-1958) (IBC Regione Emilia Romagna - Comune di Riccione, 1998).
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