from pastelegram.org, June 2011 – April 2014
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American Arts Project 145 Bleecker Street"We had just made arrangements to take a space, were about to sign a lease, and were there cleaning up, when an Inspector appeared as if on cue, and gave us a list of what we would have to do to get permission to open. It was the last straw. Alan decided to try an outflanking maneuver. There are laws on the books in New York that exist to cover "neighborhood clubs:" those usually ethnic, sometimes shady, storefronts with "Sons of Romania" or some such painted on the curtained window. These laws governing private clubs allowed members to hold all kinds of events for themselves and their families, without having to obey the stringent rules governing theatres and other "public" meeting places. The salient points were: (1) that you had to have a book with the members' names in it; (2) that the members be issued some kind of identification; and (3) that they pay dues of some kind. Becoming a member and paying dues could not take place at the club (the space where the events occurred). We promptly became the American Arts Project. Membership cost a dollar a year, and entitled you to go to all programs free. As a club we couldn't charge members for events, but we could take donations. We printed a couple of thousand little green membership cards, and set out to publicize the AAP and find it a home. This time our hands weren't tied by the rules and regulations governing theatres, and we quickly rented a loft space in the Village, on Bleecker Street, right over Gerde's Folk City. It was just a big, bare room, which Alan and George Herms (who had joined us) found most exciting. A large number of extra-thick four-by-eight plywood sheets outfitted with pipe fittings on their undersides, and a great number of pipes cut to various lengths and threaded to the fittings gave us a flexible and workable stage. We could put the plywood together at one height, or raise parts of the "stage" to different heights; have an island in the middle of the audience, stage all around teh edges of the room, whatever suited the piece we were doing. Of necessity the stage lights were on poles, and there were fewer of them than in our "real" theatres, though some dramatic effects could be achieved. Given the vagaries of staging and stage managing, it seemed more sensible with this arrangement to do just one play at a time. We made up for the shortness of the programs, though: the productions were the most elaborate and beautiful we would ever come up with, and we added an "opener" to each show. American Arts Project went on for two months, and we did one play each month. [...] It was very interesting to me that American Arts Project, where we never charged admission if you had your one-dollar-a-year membership card, was the only theatre we ever ran that broke even." -- Diane di Prima. Recollections of My Life as a Woman: The New York Years. New York: Viking, 2001. |
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14 May 1964 Reading by Robert Duncan Unidentified Poetry |
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May 1964 West Coast Filmmakers Festival Unidentified Film by Paul Beattie Unidentified Film by Bob [?Branahan] Unidentified Film by Dean Stockwell Unidentified Film by Wallace Berman |
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Mondays in May Unidentified Dance Concerts Unidentified Dance Performances |
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Sundays at 3 P.M. Sunday Services Political Justice Unidentified Poetry Readings Readings of Assorted Magical and Joyous Texts |
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May 1964 A Happening by Robert Morris Unidentified Happening |
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May 1964 Andy Warhol FIlms Unidentified Films by Andy Warhol |
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May 1964 Happening Films Unidentified Films by Claes Oldenburg |
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22-31 May; 5-7, 11-13, 27 June; 3 July 1964 Film by Red Grooms and Rudy Burckhardt and a Play by Kenneth Koch Shoot the Moon Guinevere, or the Death of the Kangaroo |
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22 May 1964 Shopping and Waiting by James Schuyler Shopping and Waiting |
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1-2 June 1964 8 Theater Works by Schmidt Obaldia Blossom Tropp (Dance, Film, Slides, Stage Plays) Interior 1 & 2 A Man and His Dog Box Interlude The Guillotine Mazurka Black Traveler Poem for the Theater #6 |
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Wednesdays at midnight beginning 1 June 1964 Readings by Diane DiPrima Diane DiPrima reading from various joyful and/or magical texts |
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8-10 June 1964 Ford Foundation Award Winners Night Unidentified Film by Kenneth Anger Unidentified Film by Stan Brakhage Unidentified Film by Bruce Conner Unidentified Film by Stan Vanderbeek |
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18 June 1964 Kirby Doyle reads from his works Angel Faint Happiness Bastard |
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19-21, 26, 28 June; 5 July 1964 Taped Reading by Antonin Artaud and a Play by Michael McClure To Have Done with the Judgment of God The Blossom, or Billy the Kid |
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29 June - 1 July 1964 Stan Brakhage Film Festival Unidentified Films |
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4 July 1964 A Toast to Frankie Francine Unidentified |