Weekend Brecht

Bertolt Brecht 

From Brecht's A Short Organum for the Theatre:

"Our representations [on the stage] must take second place to what is represented, men's life together in society; and the pleasure felt when the rules emerging from this life in society are treated as imperfect and provisional. In this way the theatre leaves its spectators productively disposed even after the spectacle is over. Let us hope that their theater may allow them to enjoy as entertainment that terrible and never-ending labour which should ensure their maintenance, together with the terror of their unceasing transformation. Let them here produce their own lives in the simplest way; for the simplest way of living is an art." (Translated by John Willett)

Brecht's The Threepenny Opera, directed by Robert Wilson, is at BAM Oct 4—8.

BAMcafé Live All-Stars

Photo: Melvin Van Peebles, courtesy of the artist

Melvin is coming...


"Play It As It Lays," Melvin Van Peebles with Laxative


Saturday, October 1 at 9pm
Free

Stay tuned.

Just Announced: Beyond This Place

It isn't everyday that a documentary filmmaker has the guts to turn the camera on himself, much less on, say, his fraught relationship with his perpetually stoned, freedom-fetishizing, absentee father. But we get nothing less in the award-winning documentary Beyond This Place, director Kaleo La Belle's engrossing chronicle of his own attempts to make amends with his dad, forget it all, and move on.

Luckily, BAM just got the green light to screen the film in the Opera House on October 30 as part of our 150th anniversary celebrations. We couldn't be more excited. Take a look at the trailer here:



So why are we screening it in the roomy opera house instead of closer to the popcorn in BAM Rose Cinemas? Because it will definitely sell out, and we want to make sure there's plenty of room for all that want to see it. Why will it sell out? Because, along with the buzz surrounding the film in general, two very special guests—one of them an already-seasoned, particularly doe-eyed BAM artist—will be on hand to provide a live soundtrack. Unfortunately, the guests' names are locked inside of a secret vault located half a mile under Lafayette Avenue. They also might or might not be mentioned at 1:38 into the trailer above...

Beyond This Place goes on sale tomorrow (September 14) to BAM members and Monday (September 19) to the general public. As I said, it will definitely sell out, so if you want to absolutely guarantee your seat, become a BAM member and beat the rush for tickets.

The BAM Timeline

Dating from its first performance at Montague Street in Brooklyn Heights in 1861, the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) has grown into a thriving urban arts center that brings international performing arts, media, and film to Brooklyn. After the fire that destroyed the original facility in 1903, BAM reopened at 30 Lafayette in 1908 with a grand gala evening featuring Geraldine Farrar and Enrico Caruso in a Metropolitan Opera production of Gounod’s Faust. In the first half of the 20th Century BAM supported presentations by cultural figures as diverse as William Butler Yeats, Marian Anderson, and President Franklin D. Roosevelt, whose 1940 appearance jammed the Fort Greene streets around BAM with over 6,000 spectators. After World War II, Brooklyn shared the growing problems of other urban centers throughout America, and BAM’s audience and support base declined.

Merce Cunningham and John Cage on Stage at BAM, How to Pass, Kick, Fall, and Run, Merce Cunningham Dance Company, 1970. Photo: James Klosty

By the time Harvey Lichtenstein was appointed executive director in 1967, the programs and facilities needed rethinking. He quickly set a new course for BAM by focusing on the work of challenging artists who were not being supported elsewhere in the city, such as Merce Cunningham, Twyla Tharp, Jerzy Grotowski, and Robert Wilson. Lichtenstein established the Next Wave Festival in 1983, recognized as the most influential festival of contemporary performing arts in the United States. Under the leadership of President Karen Brooks Hopkins and Executive Producer Joseph V. Melillo, it is recognized internationally as a preeminent, progressive cultural center.

Download the BAM Timeline for a full list of BAM's most important moments, from1823 up to 2011.