The Diaries of Judith Malina, edited with dedication & care by Kate Bredeson, is a four-volume set that publishes for the first time together the edited diaries of Judith Malina from 1947 to 1971. Kate gives us the gift of spending time with Judith as we celebrate her centennial year. Read more about the publication in American Theatre Magazine and get your own copies from Northwestern University Press here.
In honor of Judith’s 100th birthday this month and of this landmark publication, I have included in this entry some excerpts from June in Judith’s diaries (as edited by Kate). These excerpts are blocked in gray.
JUNE 1ST 1956:
We look at theatre locations. Julian points out that I like every one and it’s true that I see every place as a potential theatre and the image is as strong as my desire to realize it immediately.1
June 1st: Dracut Town Meeting! Historical Society approved for $500k from CPC funds to help repair the Coburn House and Harmony Hall. I sang the National Anthem with the Community Chorus.
June 4th: 100 years ago in Kiel (Germany), Judith Malina was born.
In present day Massachusetts, Brad had a Living Theatre Board Meeting.
I had training at the Historic New England Center- got to tour the organization’s (insanely cool) primary collections facility, with specialized storage, conservation labs, and archival spaces where more than 125,000 objects and over 1.5 million archival materials are cared for and housed.
JUNE 4TH 1947:
”Schon einundzwanzig, und noch nichts für die Unsterblichkeit getan.”
Twenty-one already, and I still haven’t done a thing worth immortality.2
June 5th: More training at Historic New England Center - got to learn about the current exhibit on display (Shoe Stories: Past, Present, Future) from one of the co-curators, Nora Ellen Carleson.3
June 6th: We held the 7th session of Dracut Youth Theatre Circle at Harmony Hall. Worked on costumes. Barbara Varnum (of the Historical Society) joined us to location scout in the Coburn House for photos for next week!
June 8th: Went to the last Dracut Historical Society meeting before the summer break, which is always a potluck! I made salted butter rolls (shio pan), which were a hit.
June 9th-12th: Costumes costumes costumes costumes costumes! I spent long afternoons and late nights fastening and adorning and embellishing garments for the final session of DYTC (worth it)
June 13th: Last day of Dracut Youth Theatre Circle! I distributed everyone’s costumes and one by one, each participant got to be the subject of a “Character Photo Shoot.” The other participants held lighting instruments and helped set up shots of each other as they took turns modeling as their characters. Barbara generously led us around the Coburn House so we could use its various rooms and stairwells and carriages as backdrops. We had a blast and were so pleased to see everyone embody the characters they’d been creating over the last several weeks.
June 15th: We received the much-anticipated delivery of our own four-volume set of The Diaries of Judith Malina, edited by Kate Bredeson.
JUNE 17TH 1947:
The pain that I’ve kept down to the vanishing point manifests itself as melancholy. If only The Living Theatre were a reality.
To still my restlessness I order my theatre collection into files.4
June 19th: Visited Gropius House! Walter Gropius, founder of the Bauhaus, built himself and his family a home in Lincoln, MA when he was hired at the Harvard School of Art and Design and moved to the United States in 1937. Now, the house is part of Historic New England, so Brad and I took the day to drive to Lincoln and check it out.5
June 22nd: Brad and I drove down to Cambridge for a lovely visit with Bo Peterson6 at the home of her longtime friends Bev and Pierre. We talked & talked & enjoyed the company of kindred spirits & ate yummy fried gnocchi.
June 23rd-26th: I helped prepare for the opening of the Historic New England Center
June 27th: Had the Ribbon Cutting & Opening Celebration for the Historic New England Center in Haverhill!7
June 29th: Brad and I checked out the Billerica Farmer’s Market - bought some local produce & some fresh swordfish.
June 30th: Brad and I joined the “Step Into History” Walking Tour with Lowell National Historical Park as part of Let’s Walk Lowell
If you missed our last entry, you can find it here:
Quoted from The Diaries of Judith Malina: 1947-1957 (Bredeson)
Quoted from The Diaries of Judith Malina: 1947-1957 (Bredeson)
Shoe Stories: Past, Present, Future explores over four hundred years of shoemaking, design, and life in New England and spotlights the history of Haverhill, Massachusetts, and the distinctive part Historic New England’s Burgess and Lang buildings play in the city’s narrative. Using objects, photographs, and ephemera, along with oral histories and digital storytelling, the exhibition takes an expansive approach to the history and the future of footwear.
Quoted from The Diaries of Judith Malina: 1947-1957 (Bredeson)
Fun fact: Walter Gropius was who Erwin Piscator (Judith’s teacher at the Dramatic Workshop and the object of her Piscator Notebooks) commissioned to design his Total Theatre. Many of the unrealized but much pondered drawings Gropius made for Piscator are held by the Harvard Art Museum today. I may have to make a special collections request to see those sometime soon….
Brad met Bo and her husband Laurie during some of his first Experiments in Civic Hope in South Bend, Indiana in 2020. The Living Theatre also helped sponsor Bo’s autobiographical one woman show, Pieces of Me, and her tour in her home country of South Africa.
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