Mel Gordon
Biographic Data
| ID | 5425388 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Mel Gordon |
| GIVEN NAMES | Mel |
| FAMILY NAME | Gordon |
| SIGNATURE | GORDON M |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 24 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 5 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 22 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1974 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1995 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
The Castle Awakens
The Castle Awakens
The Grand Guignol
Alberto Savinio and the Teatro Metafisico
Kestutis Nakas
Granovsky's Tragic Carnival
Acting Experiments in the Group
Reconstructing the Russians
Michael Chekhov's Life and Work
Laurie Anderson’s United States Part II
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
Laurie Anderson
I always felt it was a mistake being labeled as an autobiographical artist.[...] Most of the work that I do is two-part or stereo, not monolithic at all—so there's always the yes/no, he/she, or whatever pairs I'm working with. Laurie Anderson, 1979 Since her first performance work in 1974, Laurie Anderson has found herself concerned with a basic esthetic dilemma that has troubled a number of other performance artists: how to create an intensely p…
Lothar Schreyer and the Strmbϋhne
By the time the word Expressionism became widely used in Germany in the years 1910-1911, it had already acquired magical properties. It denoted a kind of primitive, anti-rational, anti-classical, non-French creation; various graphic artists, writers, philosophers and dancers from Central Europe began to label their work “Expressionist.” Without a center or an adjudicating leader, without any authoritative pronouncements or clearly stated manifest…
Workers' Theatre in America
Eisenstein's Later Work at the Proletkult
In September 1923, four months after the premiere of his provocative circus production of The Wiseman and three years before his recognition as Europe's foremost filmmaker, Sergei Eisenstein collaborated with the writer and linguist Sergei Tretyakov in the preparation of two new revolutionary plays, Do You Hear, Moscow?! and Gas Masks. More than Nikolai Foregger and Meyerhold, more than all of his teachers, the twenty-five-year-old Eisenstein was…
Gurdjieff’s Movement Demonstrations
Drawing on pre-Christian Assyrian, Phrygian, Armenian, Zoroastrian, Sufi, Tibetan, and Persian elements at the time of the Russian Revolution, George Ivanovich Gurdjieff attempted to create a school of thought that would coordinate and expand Western man's anatomic and intellectual centers of energy Into newly dynamic forms. Certain physical and mental activities, Gurdjieff believed, could bring about a total alteration of consciousness. For over…
The Adriani Lazzi of the Commedia Dell'Arte
It would be difficult to think of an historical acting style that affected twentieth-century performance more than the Italian sixteenth-century commedia dell'arte . For avant-garde directors in the 1910's—people like Meyerhold, Evreinov, Reinhardt, Copeau—the commedia , with its reliance on stereotyped characters, masks, broad gestures, and improvised comedy, represented the very theatricality of the theatre. Performing across Europe and elsewhe…
Percy MacKaye's Masque of Caliban (1916)
Just as the widely-heralded American Pageant Movement began to show a decline in both artistry and general interest, Percy MacKaye, the already well-known playwright and poet, staged the gigantic spectacle Caliban on May 25, 1916 at New York City's Lewisohn Stadium. Although not the largest production of the pre-World War I period—MacKaye's collaboration with Thomas Wood Stevens, St. Louis, a Civic Masque (1914) utilized the participation of more…
Foregger and The Dance of the Machines
Nikolai Foregger (1892-1939), christened Nicholas Baron Foregger von Greiffenturn, the sole descendant of an aristocratic Russo-German family, was one of the most extreme exponents of mechanization and abstraction in the Soviet theatre and dance during its first decade. Foregger belonged to that unique generation of Russian writers, artists, directors, and dance-masters who, born in the 1890's, quickly reached their artistic maturity in the early…
German Expressionist Acting
The New Man possesses even greater, more direct feelings. He stands there grasping his heart. And from the surge welling up in his blood, he is in an absolutely impulsive state. It is as if he would wear his heart painted onto his chest. Now he is not an image anymore—he is actually MAN. Completely entangled in the Cosmos, but with cosmic perceptions. ... Not counterfeit thoughts, but his emotions alone lead him and guide him. Only then can he ad…
Radlov's Theatre of Popular Comedy
Sergei Radlov (1892-1958) is remembered today chiefly for his inventive Shakespearean productions of the Thirties, during the last period of theatrical experimentation in Stalinist Russia. Yet, Radlov was largely responsible for the growth of an entirely new performance mode in the Soviet theatre—Constructivism. During the years 1920-1922, Radlov's Petrograd group, Theatre of Popular Comedy, drawing its inspiration from Yuri Annenkov's production…
The San Francisco Mime Troupe's
To me The Mother is one of Brecht's worst plays, sentimental and party-dogmatic. Later on in his career, I tell them [Denny Stevens and Steve Friedman of the Mime Troupe], he [Brecht] learned how to do these things much better, how to sink dialectic into the human situation.... And when I insist on the play's being a lesser work, I get a very cold smile from Steve: “We disagree entirely.” Review by Michael Feingold in the Village Voice (2 Decembe…
Dada Berlin
During recitals of simultaneous poetry of the most incomprehensible kind, we attacked the art-loving, Boulevard public with toy guns, toilet paper, false beards, and the poetry of Wolfgang Goethe and Rudolf Presber ... Under the motto “Art is shit!”, the Dadas began their demolition ... (of bourgeois culture). Erwin Piscator In the years 1918, 1919, and 1920, the Berlin Dada movement, mounting less than thirty productions, exerted a formidable, i…
Conference Mystique in the Esoteric Cabaret
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
Meyerhold's Biomechanics
In my Biomechanics, I was able to determine altogether twelve or thirteen rules for the training of an actor. But when I polish it, I'll leave perhaps no more than eight. Vs. Meyerhold Biomechanics was a system of actor-training that Meyerhold devised shortly after the Revolution. Although not always clearly understood, it received wide attention during the twenties and thirties due to Meyerhold's unique position as the foremost revolutionary ava…
Foregger and The Dance of the Machines
Nikolai Foregger (1892-1939), christened Nicholas Baron Foregger von Greiffenturn, the sole descendant of an aristocratic Russo-German family, was one of the most extreme exponents of mechanization and abstraction in the Soviet theatre and dance during its first decade. Foregger belonged to that unique generation of Russian writers, artists, directors, and dance-masters who, born in the 1890's, quickly reached their artistic maturity in the early…
Granovsky's Tragic Carnival
German Expressionist Acting
The New Man possesses even greater, more direct feelings. He stands there grasping his heart. And from the surge welling up in his blood, he is in an absolutely impulsive state. It is as if he would wear his heart painted onto his chest. Now he is not an image anymore—he is actually MAN. Completely entangled in the Cosmos, but with cosmic perceptions. ... Not counterfeit thoughts, but his emotions alone lead him and guide him. Only then can he ad…
The San Francisco Mime Troupe's
To me The Mother is one of Brecht's worst plays, sentimental and party-dogmatic. Later on in his career, I tell them [Denny Stevens and Steve Friedman of the Mime Troupe], he [Brecht] learned how to do these things much better, how to sink dialectic into the human situation.... And when I insist on the play's being a lesser work, I get a very cold smile from Steve: “We disagree entirely.” Review by Michael Feingold in the Village Voice (2 Decembe…
Dada Berlin
During recitals of simultaneous poetry of the most incomprehensible kind, we attacked the art-loving, Boulevard public with toy guns, toilet paper, false beards, and the poetry of Wolfgang Goethe and Rudolf Presber ... Under the motto “Art is shit!”, the Dadas began their demolition ... (of bourgeois culture). Erwin Piscator In the years 1918, 1919, and 1920, the Berlin Dada movement, mounting less than thirty productions, exerted a formidable, i…
Conference Mystique in the Esoteric Cabaret
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
Meyerhold's Biomechanics
In my Biomechanics, I was able to determine altogether twelve or thirteen rules for the training of an actor. But when I polish it, I'll leave perhaps no more than eight. Vs. Meyerhold Biomechanics was a system of actor-training that Meyerhold devised shortly after the Revolution. Although not always clearly understood, it received wide attention during the twenties and thirties due to Meyerhold's unique position as the foremost revolutionary ava…
Foregger and The Dance of the Machines
Nikolai Foregger (1892-1939), christened Nicholas Baron Foregger von Greiffenturn, the sole descendant of an aristocratic Russo-German family, was one of the most extreme exponents of mechanization and abstraction in the Soviet theatre and dance during its first decade. Foregger belonged to that unique generation of Russian writers, artists, directors, and dance-masters who, born in the 1890's, quickly reached their artistic maturity in the early…
German Expressionist Acting
The New Man possesses even greater, more direct feelings. He stands there grasping his heart. And from the surge welling up in his blood, he is in an absolutely impulsive state. It is as if he would wear his heart painted onto his chest. Now he is not an image anymore—he is actually MAN. Completely entangled in the Cosmos, but with cosmic perceptions. ... Not counterfeit thoughts, but his emotions alone lead him and guide him. Only then can he ad…
Radlov's Theatre of Popular Comedy
Sergei Radlov (1892-1958) is remembered today chiefly for his inventive Shakespearean productions of the Thirties, during the last period of theatrical experimentation in Stalinist Russia. Yet, Radlov was largely responsible for the growth of an entirely new performance mode in the Soviet theatre—Constructivism. During the years 1920-1922, Radlov's Petrograd group, Theatre of Popular Comedy, drawing its inspiration from Yuri Annenkov's production…
The San Francisco Mime Troupe's
To me The Mother is one of Brecht's worst plays, sentimental and party-dogmatic. Later on in his career, I tell them [Denny Stevens and Steve Friedman of the Mime Troupe], he [Brecht] learned how to do these things much better, how to sink dialectic into the human situation.... And when I insist on the play's being a lesser work, I get a very cold smile from Steve: “We disagree entirely.” Review by Michael Feingold in the Village Voice (2 Decembe…
Percy MacKaye's Masque of Caliban (1916)
Just as the widely-heralded American Pageant Movement began to show a decline in both artistry and general interest, Percy MacKaye, the already well-known playwright and poet, staged the gigantic spectacle Caliban on May 25, 1916 at New York City's Lewisohn Stadium. Although not the largest production of the pre-World War I period—MacKaye's collaboration with Thomas Wood Stevens, St. Louis, a Civic Masque (1914) utilized the participation of more…
Workers' Theatre in America
Eisenstein's Later Work at the Proletkult
In September 1923, four months after the premiere of his provocative circus production of The Wiseman and three years before his recognition as Europe's foremost filmmaker, Sergei Eisenstein collaborated with the writer and linguist Sergei Tretyakov in the preparation of two new revolutionary plays, Do You Hear, Moscow?! and Gas Masks. More than Nikolai Foregger and Meyerhold, more than all of his teachers, the twenty-five-year-old Eisenstein was…
Gurdjieff’s Movement Demonstrations
Drawing on pre-Christian Assyrian, Phrygian, Armenian, Zoroastrian, Sufi, Tibetan, and Persian elements at the time of the Russian Revolution, George Ivanovich Gurdjieff attempted to create a school of thought that would coordinate and expand Western man's anatomic and intellectual centers of energy Into newly dynamic forms. Certain physical and mental activities, Gurdjieff believed, could bring about a total alteration of consciousness. For over…
The Adriani Lazzi of the Commedia Dell'Arte
It would be difficult to think of an historical acting style that affected twentieth-century performance more than the Italian sixteenth-century commedia dell'arte . For avant-garde directors in the 1910's—people like Meyerhold, Evreinov, Reinhardt, Copeau—the commedia , with its reliance on stereotyped characters, masks, broad gestures, and improvised comedy, represented the very theatricality of the theatre. Performing across Europe and elsewhe…
Laurie Anderson’s United States Part II
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
Laurie Anderson
I always felt it was a mistake being labeled as an autobiographical artist.[...] Most of the work that I do is two-part or stereo, not monolithic at all—so there's always the yes/no, he/she, or whatever pairs I'm working with. Laurie Anderson, 1979 Since her first performance work in 1974, Laurie Anderson has found herself concerned with a basic esthetic dilemma that has troubled a number of other performance artists: how to create an intensely p…
Lothar Schreyer and the Strmbϋhne
By the time the word Expressionism became widely used in Germany in the years 1910-1911, it had already acquired magical properties. It denoted a kind of primitive, anti-rational, anti-classical, non-French creation; various graphic artists, writers, philosophers and dancers from Central Europe began to label their work “Expressionist.” Without a center or an adjudicating leader, without any authoritative pronouncements or clearly stated manifest…
Michael Chekhov's Life and Work
Acting Experiments in the Group
Reconstructing the Russians
Alberto Savinio and the Teatro Metafisico
Kestutis Nakas
Granovsky's Tragic Carnival
The Grand Guignol
The Castle Awakens
The Castle Awakens
Art (19 works) · Art history (12 works) · Literature (10 works) · Aesthetics (9 works) · History (8 works) · History (7 works) · Philosophy (7 works) · Theatre and Performance Studies (7 works) · Philosophy (6 works) · Psychology (6 works)