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123-605: In the 1950s, the group was among the first in the U.S. to produce the work of influential European playwrights such as Bertolt Brecht ( In The Jungle of Cities in New York, 1960) and Jean Cocteau , as well as modernist poets such as T. S. Eliot and Gertrude Stein . One of their first major productions was Pablo Picasso 's Desire Caught By the Tail ; other early productions were Many Loves by William Carlos Williams and Luigi Pirandello's Tonight We Improvise . Based in

246-667: A Latino pronunciation of "Lower East Side". Politically, the neighborhood is in New York's 7th and 12th congressional districts. It is in the New York State Assembly 's 65th district and 74th district; the New York State Senate 's 26th district; and New York City Council 's 1st and 2nd districts. As was true of all of Manhattan Island, the area now known as the Lower East Side

369-541: A Marine prison, was their last major production in New York before a tax dispute led to the closure of the theatre space and the brief imprisonment of Beck and Malina. Judith defended Julian at the IRS hearing dressed like Portia from The Merchant of Venice . For the rest of the 1960s, the group toured chiefly in Europe. They produced more politically and formally radical work carrying an anarchist and pacifist message, with

492-484: A 10-year lease on the 3,500-square-foot (330 m) basement of a new residential building under construction at 21 Clinton Street, between Houston and Stanton Streets on Manhattan's Lower East Side . The Clinton Street theater is the company's first permanent home since the closing of The Living Theatre on Third Street at Avenue C in 1993. The company moved into the completed space in early 2007 and opened in April 2007 with

615-454: A beer-hall. He did short sketches in which he played refractory employees, orchestral musicians or photographers, who hated their employers and made them look ridiculous. The employer was played by his partner, Liesl Karlstadt, a popular woman comedian who used to pad herself out and speak in a deep bass voice. Brecht's first full-length play, Baal (written 1918), arose in response to an argument in one of Kutscher's drama seminars, initiating

738-454: A child known as Eugen) was born on 10 February 1898 in Augsburg , Germany, the son of Berthold Friedrich Brecht (1869–1939) and his wife Sophie, née Brezing (1871–1920). Brecht's mother was a devout Protestant and his father a Roman Catholic (who had been persuaded to have a Protestant wedding). The modest house where he was born is today preserved as a Brecht Museum. His father worked for

861-499: A few Jewish scribes and variety stores. Some kosher delis and bakeries, as well as a few " kosher style " delis, including the famous Katz's Deli , are located in the neighborhood. Second Avenue in the Lower East Side was home to many Yiddish theatre productions in the Yiddish Theater District during the early part of the 20th century, and Second Avenue came to be known as “Yiddish Broadway”, even though most of

984-626: A leading theoretician of epic theatre (which he later preferred to call "dialectical theatre") and the Verfremdungseffekt . When the Nazis came to power in Germany in 1933, Brecht fled his home country, initially to Scandinavia. During World War II he moved to Southern California where he established himself as a screenwriter, and meanwhile was being surveilled by the FBI . In 1947, he

1107-462: A milestone in Brecht's early theatrical and dramaturgical development. Brecht's Edward II constituted his first attempt at collaborative writing and was the first of many classic texts he was to adapt. As his first solo directorial début, he later credited it as the germ of his conception of " epic theatre ". That September, a job as assistant dramaturg at Max Reinhardt 's Deutsches Theater —at

1230-519: A military VD clinic ; the war ended a month later. In July 1919, Brecht and Paula Banholzer (who had begun a relationship in 1917) had a son, Frank. In 1920 Brecht's mother died. Frank died in 1943, fighting for Nazi Germany on the Eastern Front . Some time in either 1920 or 1921, Brecht took a small part in the political cabaret of the Munich comedian Karl Valentin . Brecht's diaries for

1353-506: A music festival in July, as what Weill called a "stylistic exercise" in preparation for the large-scale piece. From that point on Caspar Neher became an integral part of the collaborative effort, with words, music and visuals conceived in relation to one another from the start. The model for their mutual articulation lay in Brecht's newly formulated principle of the " separation of the elements ", which he first outlined in " The Modern Theatre Is

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1476-749: A number of agitprop plays, praising the bolshevik collectivism (replaceability of each member of the collective in Man Equals Man ) and the Red Terror ( The Decision ). For us, man portrayed on the stage is significant as a social function. It is not his relationship to himself, nor his relationship to God, but his relationship to society which is central. Whenever he appears, his class or social stratum appears with him. His moral, spiritual or sexual conflicts are conflicts with society. Erwin Piscator , 1929. In 1927 Brecht became part of

1599-462: A number of buildings historically associated with the Jewish immigrant community. Notable sites include: Synagogues include: Little Fuzhou ( Chinese : 小福州 ; pinyin : Xiǎo Fúzhōu ; Foochow Romanized : Siēu-hók-ciŭ ), or Fuzhou Town ( Chinese : 福州埠 ; pinyin : Fúzhōu Bù ; Foochow Romanized : Hók-ciŭ-pú ) is a neighborhood within the eastern sliver of Chinatown , in

1722-471: A paper mill, becoming its managing director in 1914. At Augsburg, his maternal grandparents lived in the neighbouring house. They were Pietists and his grandmother influenced Bertolt Brecht and his brother Walter considerably during their childhood. Due to his grandmother's and his mother's influence, Brecht knew the Bible, a familiarity that would have a life-long effect on his writing. From his mother came

1845-682: A play that would never see the stage in Brecht's lifetime. Happy End' s score by Weill produced many Brecht/Weill hits like "Der Bilbao-Song" and "Surabaya-Jonny". The masterpiece of the Brecht/Weill collaborations, Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny ( Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny ), caused an uproar when it premiered in 1930 in Leipzig, with Nazis in the audience protesting. The Mahagonny opera would premier later in Berlin in 1931 as

1968-452: A revival of The Brig by Kenneth H. Brown, first presented at The Living Theatre at 14th Street and Sixth Avenue in 1963. The re-staging, directed by Judith Malina , won Obie Awards for Direction and Ensemble Performance. In October 2006, the company opened a revival of Mysteries and Smaller Pieces , the 1964 collective creation that defined the interactive and Artaudian style for which the company became famous. In late 2007 / early 2008

2091-475: A script for a semi-documentary feature film about the human impact of mass unemployment, Kuhle Wampe (1932), which was directed by Slatan Dudow . This striking film is notable for its subversive humour, outstanding cinematography by Günther Krampf , and Hanns Eisler's dynamic musical contribution. It still provides a vivid insight into Berlin during the last years of the Weimar Republic . Unhappy

2214-569: A trend that persisted throughout his career of creative activity that was generated by a desire to counter another work (both others' and his own, as his many adaptations and re-writes attest). "Anyone can be creative," he quipped, "it's rewriting other people that's a challenge." Brecht completed his second major play, Drums in the Night , in February 1919. Between November 1921 and April 1922 Brecht made acquaintance with many influential people in

2337-521: A triumphant sensation. Brecht spent the last years of the Weimar-era (1930–1933) in Berlin working with his "collective" on the Lehrstücke . These were a group of plays driven by morals, music and Brecht's budding epic theatre. The Lehrstücke often aimed at educating workers on Socialist issues. The Measures Taken ( Die Massnahme ) was scored by Hanns Eisler . In addition, Brecht worked on

2460-582: A two-story wooden bungalow in the Los Angeles beach suburb of Santa Monica . By the late 1930s, the West Side of Los Angeles had become a thriving expatriate colony of European intellectuals and artists. Because the colony included so many writers, directors, actors, and composers from German-speaking countries, it has been referred to as "Weimar on the Pacific". At the center of the émigré community

2583-471: A variety of small New York locations which were frequently closed due to financial problems or conflicts with city authorities, they helped to originate off-off-Broadway and off-Broadway as significant forces in U.S. theater. Their work during this period shared some aspects of style and content with Beat generation writers. Also during the 1950s, the American composer Alan Hovhaness worked closely with

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2706-739: A year. After Germany invaded Norway and Denmark , Brecht left Sweden for Helsinki, Finland, where he awaited a pending visa to the United States. During this time he co-wrote the play Mr Puntila and His Man Matti ( Herr Puntila und sein Knecht Matti ) with Hella Wuolijoki , with whom he lived in the Marlebäck manor house in Iitti . Upon receipt of the U.S. visa in May 1941, the Brecht family relocated to Southern California . They rented

2829-729: Is a historic neighborhood in the southeastern part of Manhattan in New York City . It is located roughly between the Bowery and the East River from Canal to Houston streets. Historically, it was understood to encompass a much larger area, from Broadway to the East River and from East 14th Street to Fulton and Franklin Streets. Traditionally an immigrant, working class neighborhood, it began rapid gentrification in

2952-527: Is almost identical to neighboring buildings. In September 2013, it was announced that the Essex Crossing redevelopment project was to be built in the area, centered around the intersection of Essex and Delancey Streets, but mostly utilizing land south of Delancey Street. The census tabulation area for the Lower East Side is bounded to the north by 14th Street and to the west by Avenue B , Norfolk Street, Essex Street , and Pike Street . According to

3075-553: Is now lined with upscale boutiques. Similarly, trendy restaurants, including Clinton St. Baking Company & Restaurant , are found on a stretch of tree-lined Clinton Street that New York Magazine described as the "hippest restaurant row" on the Lower East Side. In November 2007, the Blue Condominium , a 32-unit, 16-story luxury condominium tower, was completed at 105 Norfolk Street just north of Delancey Street. The pixellated, faceted blue design starkly contrasts with

3198-623: Is now obscured by shoreline landfill. It was near the east end of the present pedestrian bridge over the FDR Drive near Cherry Street . The name is preserved in Corlears Hook Park at the intersection of Jackson and Cherry Streets along the East River Drive. The bulk of immigrants who came to New York City in the late 19th and early 20th centuries came to the Lower East Side, moving into crowded tenements there. By

3321-483: Is now the East Village , earlier populations of Poles and Ukrainians have moved on and been largely supplanted by newer immigrants. The immigration of numerous Japanese people over the last fifteen years or so has led to the proliferation of Japanese restaurants and specialty food markets. There is also a notable population of Bangladeshis and other immigrants from Muslim countries, many of whom are congregants of

3444-663: The 124 Ridge Street Gallery among others. In December 2007, the New Museum relocated to a brand-new, critically acclaimed building on Bowery at Prince. A growing number of galleries are opening in the Bowery neighborhood to be in close proximity to the museum. The Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space , which opened in 2012, exhibits photography featuring the neighborhood in addition to chronicling its history of activism. Social service agencies like Henry Street Settlement and Educational Alliance have visual and performing arts programs,

3567-620: The 2010 United States Census , the population of Lower East Side was 72,957, an increase of 699 (1.0%) from the 72,258 counted in 2000 . Covering an area of 535.91 acres (216.88 ha), the neighborhood had a population density of 136.1 inhabitants per acre (87,100/sq mi; 33,600/km ). The racial makeup of the neighborhood was 22.6% (16,453) White , 10.9% (7,931) African American , 0.2% (142) Native American , 24.9% (18,166) Asian , 0.0% (13) Pacific Islander , 0.3% (191) from other races , and 1.6% (1,191) from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino residents of any race were 39.6% (28,870) of

3690-620: The Beat poets and writers were drawn to the neighborhood – especially the parts which later became the East Village – by the inexpensive housing and cheap food. The German population decreased in the early twentieth century as a result of the General Slocum disaster and due to anti-German sentiment prompted by World War I . After World War II , the Lower East Side became New York City's first racially integrated neighborhood with

3813-636: The Beekman family of New York; his son Gerardus Beekman was christened at the plantation on August 17, 1653. On February 25, 1643, as part of Kieft's War , volunteers from the New Amsterdam colony killed forty Wiechquaesgecks at their encampment in the Massacre at Corlears Hook , in retaliation for ongoing conflicts between the colonists and the natives of the area, including the natives' unwillingness to pay tribute and their refusal to turn over

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3936-558: The First Roumanian-American congregation (the Rivington Street Synagogue), partially collapsed in 2006 and was subsequently demolished. In addition, there is a major Hare Krishna temple and several Buddhist houses of worship. Chinese residents have also been moving into Lower East Side, and since the late 20th century, they have comprised a large immigrant group in the area. The part of

4059-667: The GULAG after being arrested during Joseph Stalin 's Great Purge , was harshly criticised by Russian émigrés living in the West. At the onset of the Cold War and " Second Red Scare " in the U.S., Brecht was blacklisted by movie studio bosses and investigated by the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). Along with more than 40 other Hollywood writers, directors, actors and producers, he

4182-574: The Neue Sachlichkeit movement. The collective's work "mirrored the artistic climate of the middle 1920s", Willett and Manheim argue: with their attitude of Neue Sachlichkeit (or New Matter-of-Factness), their stressing of the collectivity and downplaying of the individual, and their new cult of Anglo-Saxon imagery and sport. Together the "collective" would go to fights, not only absorbing their terminology and ethos (which permeates Man Equals Man ) but also drawing those conclusions for

4305-509: The SS and a chief architect of the Holocaust ; he was known as "The Hangman of Prague" ( German : der Henker von Prag ). For this film, Brecht's fellow expatriate, composer Hanns Eisler , was nominated for an Academy Award in the category of Best Music Score . The fact that three refugee artists from Nazi Germany – Lang, Brecht and Eisler – collaborated to make the film exemplified

4428-483: The Two Bridges and Lower East Side areas of Manhattan. Starting in the 1980s and by the 1990s, the neighborhood became a prime destination for immigrants from Fuzhou, Fujian , China. Manhattan's Little Fuzhou is centered on East Broadway . However, since the 2000s, Chinatown, Brooklyn became New York City's new primary destination for Fuzhou immigrants, resulting in a second Little Fuzhou that has far surpassed

4551-400: The copyrights of Brecht's work with her siblings. Brecht formed a writing collective which became prolific and very influential. Elisabeth Hauptmann , Margarete Steffin , Emil Burri, Ruth Berlau and others worked with Brecht and produced the multiple teaching plays , which attempted to create a new dramaturgy for participants rather than passive audiences. These addressed themselves to

4674-642: The middle-class , as well as immigrants from countries such as Taiwan, Indonesia, Bangladesh , China, the Dominican Republic , India, Japan , Korea, the Philippines , and Poland. In the early 2000s, the gentrification of the East Village spread to the Lower East Side proper, making it one of the trendiest neighborhoods in Manhattan. Orchard Street , despite its "Bargain District" moniker,

4797-526: The " dramaturgical collective" of Erwin Piscator 's first company, which was designed to tackle the problem of finding new plays for its "epic, political, confrontational, documentary theatre". Brecht collaborated with Piscator during the period of the latter's landmark productions, Hoppla, We're Alive! by Toller , Rasputin , The Adventures of the Good Soldier Schweik , and Konjunktur by Lania . Brecht's most significant contribution

4920-495: The "dangerous image of the self-denying woman" that recurs in his drama. Brecht's home life was comfortably middle class, despite what his occasional attempt to claim peasant origins implied. At school in Augsburg he met Caspar Neher , with whom he formed a life-long creative partnership. Neher designed many of the sets for Brecht's dramas and helped to forge the distinctive visual iconography of their epic theatre . When Brecht

5043-400: The 1840s, large numbers of German immigrants settled in the area, and a large part of it became known as " Little Germany " or "Kleindeutschland". This was followed by groups of Italians and Eastern European Jews, as well as Greeks, Hungarians, Poles, Romanians, Russians, Slovaks and Ukrainians, each of whom settled in relatively homogeneous enclaves. By 1920, the Jewish neighborhood was one of

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5166-484: The 1920s and a renewing influence on the musical worldwide. One of its most famous lines underscored the hypocrisy of conventional morality imposed by the Church, working in conjunction with the established order, in the face of working-class hunger and deprivation: Erst kommt das Fressen Dann kommt die Moral. First the grub (lit. "eating like animals, gorging") Then the morality. The success of The Threepenny Opera

5289-584: The Berlin cultural scene. Amongst them was the playwright Arnolt Bronnen with whom he established a joint venture, the Arnolt Bronnen / Bertolt Brecht Company. Brecht changed the spelling of his first name to Bertolt to rhyme with Arnolt. In 1922 while still living in Munich, Brecht came to the attention of an influential Berlin critic, Herbert Ihering : "At 24 the writer Bert Brecht has changed Germany's literary complexion overnight"—he enthused in his review of Brecht's first play to be produced, Drums in

5412-659: The Clemente Soto Velez Center on the Lower East Side. The production later took to the streets of New York for the Underground Zero Festival, and was performed at Burning Man . Malina was writing Venus and Mars when she died in April 2015. From its conception, The Living Theatre was dedicated to transforming the organization of power within society from a competitive, hierarchical structure to cooperative and communal expression. The troupe attempts to do so by counteracting complacency in

5535-537: The Dutch colony of New Amsterdam was located primarily below the current Fulton Street , while north of it were a number of small plantations and large farms called " bouwerij " ("bowery", equivalent to " boerderij " in present-day Dutch). Around these farms were a number of enclaves of free or "half-free" Africans, which served as a buffer between the Dutch and the Native Americans. One of the largest of these

5658-452: The East Village name, and the term was adopted by the popular media by the mid-1960s. As the East Village developed a culture separate from the rest of the Lower East Side, the two areas came to be seen as two separate neighborhoods rather than the former being part of the latter. By the 1980s, the Lower East Side had begun to stabilize after its period of decline , and once again began to attract students, artists, and adventurous members of

5781-486: The Epic Theatre " (1930). The principle, a variety of montage , proposed by-passing the "great struggle for supremacy between words, music and production" as Brecht put it, by showing each as self-contained, independent works of art that adopt attitudes towards one another. In 1930 Brecht married Weigel; their daughter Barbara Brecht was born soon after the wedding. She also became an actress and would later share

5904-464: The HUAC at that time, the so-called Hollywood Ten , declined on First Amendment grounds to answer about their Communist Party affiliations and were cited for contempt. Brecht's decision to be a "cooperative" witness—albeit in an evasive way and providing no useful information—led to criticism of him, including accusations of betrayal. The day after his testimony, Brecht fled to Europe and never returned to

6027-487: The HUAC that he had never been a member of the Communist Party . He made wry jokes throughout the proceedings, punctuating his inability to speak English well with continuous references to the translators present, who transformed his German statements into English ones unintelligible to himself. HUAC vice-chairman Karl Mundt thanked Brecht for his cooperation. The remaining unfriendly witnesses who appeared before

6150-505: The Jungle premiered in Munich, also directed by Engel. Opening night proved to be a "scandal"—a phenomenon that would characterize many of his later productions during the Weimar Republic —in which Nazis blew whistles and threw stink bombs at the actors on the stage. In 1924 Brecht worked with the novelist and playwright Lion Feuchtwanger (whom he had met in 1919) on an adaptation of Christopher Marlowe 's Edward II that proved to be

6273-485: The Living Theatre, composing music for its productions. In 1959, their production of The Connection attracted national attention for its harsh portrayal of drug addiction and its equally harsh language. In the early 1960s the Living Theatre was host to avant-garde minimalist performances by artists including Simone Forti and Robert Morris . The Brig (1963), an anti-authoritarian look at conditions in

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6396-405: The Lower East Side is especially remembered as a place of Jewish beginnings for Ashkenazi American Jewish culture. Vestiges of the area's Jewish heritage exist in shops on Hester and Essex Streets , and on Grand Street near Allen Street. An Orthodox Jewish community is based in the area, operating yeshiva day schools and a mikvah . A few Judaica shops can be found along Essex Street, as are

6519-474: The Lower East Side, the East Village and Chinatown . Community District 3 had 171,103 inhabitants as of NYC Health 's 2018 Community Health Profile, with an average life expectancy of 82.2 years. This is higher than the median life expectancy of 81.2 for all New York City neighborhoods. Most inhabitants are adults: a plurality (35%) are between the ages of 25–44, while 25% are between 45–64, and 16% are 65 or older. The ratio of youth and college-aged residents

6642-553: The Night , but the productions did not materialize. The year 1927 also saw the first collaboration between Brecht and the young composer Kurt Weill . Together they began to develop Brecht's Mahagonny project, along thematic lines of the biblical Cities of the Plain but rendered in terms of the Neue Sachlichkeit ' s Amerikanismus , which had informed Brecht's previous work. They produced The Little Mahagonny for

6765-542: The Night , and In the Jungle , although at that point only Drums had been produced). The citation for the award insisted that: "[Brecht's] language is vivid without being deliberately poetic, symbolical without being over literary. Brecht is a dramatist because his language is felt physically and in the round." That year he married the Viennese opera singer Marianne Zoff . Their daughter, Hanne Hiob , born in March 1923,

6888-431: The Night —"[he] has given our time a new tone, a new melody, a new vision. [...] It is a language you can feel on your tongue, in your gums, your ear, your spinal column." In November it was announced that Brecht had been awarded the prestigious Kleist Prize (intended for unestablished writers and probably Germany's most significant literary award, until it was abolished in 1932) for his first three plays ( Baal , Drums in

7011-557: The Revolution was separated from the densely populated city by rugged hills of glacial till: "this region lay beyond the city proper, from which it was separated by high, uncultivated, and rough hills", observers recalled in 1843. As early as 1816, Corlears Hook was notorious for streetwalkers , "a resort for the lewd and abandoned of both sexes", and in 1821 its "streets abounding every night with preconcerted groups of thieves and prostitutes" were noted by The Christian Herald . In

7134-555: The U.S. He lived in Zurich , Switzerland for a year. In February 1948 in the Swiss town of Chur , Brecht staged an adaptation of Sophocles ' Antigone , based on a translation by Hölderlin . The play was published under the title Antigonemodell 1948 , accompanied by an essay on the importance of creating a " non-Aristotelian " form of theatre. Lower East Side, Manhattan The Lower East Side , sometimes abbreviated as LES ,

7257-492: The U.S. in 1958. This work deeply influenced Julian Beck, a bisexual painter of abstract expressionist works. The troupe reflects Artaud's influence by staging multimedia plays designed to exhibit his metaphysical Theatre of Cruelty . In these performances, the actors attempt to dissolve the " fourth wall " between them and the spectators. Bertolt Brecht Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht (10 February 1898 – 14 August 1956), known as Bertolt Brecht and Bert Brecht ,

7380-430: The U.S. in 1968 to tour Paradise Now , Antigone , Mysteries and Smaller Pieces , and Frankenstein . "That madman who inspires us all, Artaud , does have some advice," Beck said in an informal address at Yale University after his return, "and I think he is the philosopher, for those of us who work in theatre, whom we can reach toward most quickly, of whom we can say, yes, here is one man since Rousseau who does uphold

7503-473: The accused killer of a colonist. The projection into the East River that retained Corlaer's name was an important landmark for navigators for 300 years. On older maps and documents, it is usually spelled Corlaers Hook, but since the early 19th century, the spelling has been anglicized to Corlears . The rough unplanned settlement that developed at Corlaer's Hook under the British occupation of New York during

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7626-539: The area within today's Eldridge, Essex, Hester and Broome Streets—was eliminated when the loyalist Delancey family's property was confiscated after the American Revolution . The city Commissioners of Forfeiture eliminated the aristocratic planned square for a grid, effacing Delancey's vision of a New York laid out like the West End of London . The point of land on the East River now called Corlears Hook

7749-696: The audience through direct spectacle. They oppose the commercial orientation of Broadway productions and have contributed to the off-Broadway theater movement in New York City, staging poetic dramas. The primary text for The Living Theatre is The Theatre and its Double , an anthology of essays written by Antonin Artaud , the French playwright. It was published in France in 1937 and by the Grove Press in

7872-410: The city ( Bowery ) survives in the names Delancey Street and Orchard Street . On the modern map of Manhattan, the Delancey farm is represented in the grid of streets from Division Street north to Houston Street. In response to the pressures of a growing city, Delancey began to survey streets in the southern part of the "West Farm" in the 1760s. A spacious projected Delancey Square —intended to cover

7995-417: The company created The Plot Is The Revolution , starring Malina and Silvia Calderoni, a co-production with the Italian group Motus. In 2012, the company presented The History of the World , written and directed by Malina. In 2013, the company presented Here We Are , written and directed by Malina. The company also vacated its Clinton Street space. In 2014, Judith Malina's play No Place to Hide premiered at

8118-491: The company founder Judith Malina performed in Maudie and Jane , a stage adaptation, directed by Reznikov, of the Doris Lessing novel, The Diary of Jane Somers . In April 2008, Hanon Reznikov suffered a stroke. He died on May 3, 2008. In 2010, the company presented Red Noir , adapted and directed by Judith Malina. In 2011, the company presented Korach , by Malina, and a revival of Seven Meditations on Political Sado-Masochism , directed by Malina and Tom Walker. Also in 2011,

8241-489: The company members creating plays collectively and often living together. Major works from this period included the adaptations Antigone , Frankenstein , and Paradise Now , which became their best-known play. Paradise Now , a semi- improvisational piece involving audience participation, was notorious for a scene in which actors recited a list of social taboos that included nudity, while disrobing; this led to multiple arrests for indecent exposure . The group returned to

8364-418: The course of the 19th century, they came to be called hookers . In the 1832 summer of New York City's cholera epidemic, a two-story wooden workshop in the neighborhood was commandeered to serve as a makeshift cholera hospital; between July 18 and September 15, when the hospital was closed as the epidemic wound down, 281 patients were admitted, both black and white, of whom 93 died. In 1833, Corlear's Hook

8487-424: The first was ABC No Rio . Begun by a group of Colab no wave artists (some living on Ludlow Street ), ABC No Rio opened an outsider gallery space that invited community participation and encouraged the widespread production of art. Taking an activist approach to art that grew out of The Real Estate Show (the take over of an abandoned building by artists to open an outsider gallery only to have it chained closed by

8610-428: The former at Abrons Arts Center , a home for contemporary interdisciplinary arts. The neighborhood is also home to several graffiti artists, such as Chico and Jean-Michel Basquiat . As the neighborhood has gentrified and become safer at night, it has transformed into a popular late-night destination. Orchard, Ludlow and Essex between Rivington Street and Stanton Street have become especially packed at night, and

8733-701: The idea of the non-civilized man." He added: "Our work had always striven to stress the sacredness of life." In 1971 they toured in Brazil, where they were imprisoned for several months, then deported. The Living Theatre has toured extensively throughout the world, often in non-traditional venues such as streets and prisons. It has greatly influenced other American experimental theatre companies, notably The Open Theater (founded by former Living Theatre member Joseph Chaikin ) and Bread and Puppet Theater . The Living Theatre's productions have won four Obie Awards : The Connection (1959), The Brig (1963 and 2007), and Frankenstein (1968). In 2006, The Living Theatre signed

8856-592: The improvisational approach of the commedia dell'arte in which the actors chatted with the prompter about their roles), and Pirandello 's Six Characters in Search of an Author in his group of Berlin theatres. A new version of Brecht's third play, now entitled Jungle: Decline of a Family , opened at the Deutsches Theater in October 1924, but was not a success. In the asphalt city I'm at home. From

8979-529: The influence this generation of German exiles had on American culture. Hangmen Also Die! turned out to be Brecht's only script that became a Hollywood film. The money he earned from selling the script enabled him to write The Visions of Simone Machard , Schweik in the Second World War and an adaptation of Webster 's The Duchess of Malfi . During the reign of the Third Reich , Brecht

9102-485: The influx of African Americans and Puerto Ricans . Areas where Spanish speaking was predominant began to be called Loisaida . By the 1960s, the influence of the Jewish and Eastern European groups declined as many of these residents had left the area, while other ethnic groups had coalesced into separate neighborhoods, such as Little Italy . The Lower East Side then experienced a period of "persistent poverty, crime, drugs, and abandoned housing". A substantial portion of

9225-511: The land where heroes are needed. Galileo , in Brecht's Life of Galileo ( 1943 ) Fearing persecution, Brecht fled Nazi Germany in February 1933, just after Hitler took power. Following brief spells in Prague, Zurich and Paris, he and Weigel accepted an invitation from journalist and author Karin Michaëlis to move to Denmark. The Brechts first stayed with Michaëlis at her house on

9348-529: The largest of these ethnic groupings, with 400,000 people, pushcart vendors and storefronts prominent on Orchard and Grand Streets, and numerous Yiddish theatres along Second Avenue between Houston and 14th Streets. Living conditions in these "slum" areas were far from ideal, although some improvement came from a change in the zoning laws, which required "new law" tenements to be built with air shafts between them so that fresh air and some light could reach each apartment. Still, reform movements, such as

9471-485: The massive worker arts organisation that existed in Germany and Austria in the 1920s. So did Brecht's first great play, Saint Joan of the Stockyards , which attempts to portray the drama in financial transactions. This collective adapted John Gay 's The Beggar's Opera , with Brecht's lyrics set to music by Kurt Weill . Retitled The Threepenny Opera ( Die Dreigroschenoper ) it was the biggest hit in Berlin of

9594-558: The mid-2000s, prompting the National Trust for Historic Preservation to place the neighborhood on their list of America's Most Endangered Places in 2008. The Lower East Side is part of Manhattan Community District 3 , and its primary ZIP Code is 10002. It is patrolled by the 7th Precinct of the New York City Police Department . The Lower East Side is roughly bounded by East 14th Street on

9717-517: The neighborhood in a strong manner, and Chinatown holds a special place in the imagination of Chinese Americans, just as Astoria in Queens holds a place in the hearts of Greek Americans . It was a hub for ancestors of many people in the metropolitan area, and much depicted in fiction and films. Mesivtha Tifereth Jerusalem , established in 1907, was long led by Moshe Feinstein . In the late 20th century, Jewish communities have worked to preserve

9840-418: The neighborhood south of Delancey Street and west of Allen Street has, in large measure, become part of Chinatown . Grand Street is one of the major business and shopping streets of Chinatown. Also contained within the neighborhood are strips of lighting and restaurant supply shops on the Bowery. While the Lower East Side has been a place of successive immigrant populations, many American Jews relate to

9963-568: The neighborhood was slated for demolition under the Cooper Square Urban Renewal Plan of 1956, which was to redevelop the area from Ninth to Delancey Streets from the Bowery/Third Avenue to Chrystie Street /Second Avenue with new privately owned cooperative housing . The United Housing Foundation was selected as the sponsor for the project, which faced great opposition from the community. Neither

10086-421: The next few years record numerous visits to see Valentin perform. Brecht compared Valentin to Charlie Chaplin , for his "virtually complete rejection of mimicry and cheap psychology". Writing in his Messingkauf Dialogues years later, Brecht identified Valentin, along with Wedekind and Büchner , as his "chief influences" at that time: But the man he learnt most from was the clown Valentin , who performed in

10209-486: The north of Delancey Street continued south. Several restaurants, bars, and galleries opened below Delancey Street after 2005, especially around the intersection of Broome and Orchard Streets. The neighborhood's second boutique hotel, Blue Moon Hotel, opened on Orchard Street just south of Delancey Street in early 2006. However, unlike The Hotel on Rivington, the Blue Moon used an existing tenement building, and its exterior

10332-408: The north, by the East River to the east, by Fulton and Franklin Streets to the south, and by Pearl Street and Broadway to the west. This more extensive definition of the neighborhood includes Chinatown , the East Village , and Little Italy . A less extensive definition would have the neighborhood bordered in the south and west by Chinatown , – which extends north to roughly Grand Street – in

10455-422: The oldest neighborhoods of the city, the Lower East Side has long been a lower-class worker neighborhood and often a poor and ethnically diverse section of New York. As well as Irish , Italians , Poles , Ukrainians , and other ethnic groups, it once had a sizeable German population and was known as Little Germany (Kleindeutschland) . Today it is a predominantly Puerto Rican and Dominican community, and in

10578-555: The one started by Jacob Riis 's book How the Other Half Lives continued to attempt to alleviate the problems of the area through settlement houses , such as the Henry Street Settlement , and other welfare and service agencies. The city itself moved to address the problem when it built First Houses , the first such public housing project in the United States, in 1935–1936. The development, located on

10701-659: The original as the Fuzhou cultural center of the New York metropolitan area , and is still rapidly growing in contrast to Manhattan's Little Fuzhou that is shrinking under gentrification . Since the 2010s, the Fuzhou immigrant population and businesses have been declining throughout the whole eastern portion of Manhattan's Chinatown due to gentrification. There is a rapidly increasing influx of high-income, often non-Chinese, professionals moving into this area, including high-end hipster -owned businesses. The neighborhood has become home to numerous contemporary art galleries. One of

10824-462: The original large-scale development nor a 1961 revised proposal was implemented, and it was not until 1991 that an agreement was made to redevelop a small portion of the proposed renewal site. The East Village was once considered the Lower East Side's northwest corner. However, in the 1960s, the demographics of the area above Houston Street began to change as hipsters , musicians, and artists moved in. Newcomers and real estate brokers popularized

10947-558: The percentage of residents who have difficulty paying their rent, is 48% in Community District 3, compared to the boroughwide and citywide rates of 45% and 51%, respectively. Based on this calculation, as of 2018 , Community District 3 was considered to be gentrifying : according to the Community Health Profile, the district was low-income in 1990 and has seen above-median rent growth up to 2010. One of

11070-419: The police) ABC No Rio kept its sense of activism , community, and outsiderness. The product of this open, expansive approach to art was a space for creating new works that did not have links to the art market place and that were able to explore new artistic possibilities. Other outsider galleries sprung up throughout the Lower East Side and East Village—some 200 at the height of the scene in the 1980s, including

11193-774: The population. The racial composition of the Lower East Side changed moderately from 2000 to 2010, with the most significant changes being the White population's increase by 18% (2,514), the Asian population's increase by 10% (1,673), and the Hispanic / Latino population's decrease by 10% (3,219). The minority Black population experienced a slight increase by 1% (41), while the very small population of all other races decreased by 17% (310). The Lower East Side lies in Manhattan Community District 3 , which encompasses

11316-541: The process of gentrification (as documented by the portraits of its residents in the Clinton+Rivington chapter of The Corners Project.) Since the immigration waves from Eastern Europe in the late 19th and early 20th century, the Lower East Side became known as having been a center of Jewish immigrant culture. In her 2000 book Lower East Side Memories: A Jewish Place in America , Hasia Diner explains that

11439-742: The publisher's commission ran out. In 1925 in Mannheim the artistic exhibition Neue Sachlichkeit (" New Objectivity ") had given its name to the new post- Expressionist movement in the German arts. With little to do at the Deutsches Theater, Brecht began to develop his Man Equals Man project, which was to become the first product of "the 'Brecht collective'—that shifting group of friends and collaborators on whom he henceforward depended." This collaborative approach to artistic production, together with aspects of Brecht's writing and style of theatrical production, mark Brecht's work from this period as part of

11562-436: The question of how to dramatize the complex economic relationships of modern capitalism in his unfinished project Joe P. Fleischhacker (which Piscator's theatre announced in its programme for the 1927–28 season). It wasn't until his Saint Joan of the Stockyards (written between 1929 and 1931) that Brecht solved it. In 1928 he discussed with Piscator plans to stage Shakespeare 's Julius Caesar and Brecht's own Drums in

11685-469: The sense that the new subject matter demanded a new dramatic form , the use of songs to interrupt and comment: all these are found in his notes and essays of the 1920s, and he bolstered them by citing such Piscatorial examples as the step-by-step narrative technique of Schweik and the oil interests handled in Konjunktur ('Petroleum resists the five-act form'). Brecht was struggling at the time with

11808-817: The small Madina Masjid, a mosque on First Avenue and 11th Street. The neighborhood still has many historic synagogues, such as the Bialystoker Synagogue , Beth Hamedrash Hagadol , the Eldridge Street Synagogue , Kehila Kedosha Janina (the only Greek synagogue in the Western Hemisphere), the Angel Orensanz Center (the fourth oldest synagogue building in the United States), and various smaller synagogues along East Broadway. Another landmark,

11931-583: The small island of Thurø close to the island of Funen . They later bought their own house in Svendborg on Funen. This Svendborg house at Skovsbo Strand 8 became the Brecht family residence for the next six years. They often received guests there including Walter Benjamin , Hanns Eisler and Ruth Berlau . Brecht also travelled frequently to Copenhagen, Paris, Moscow, New York and London for various projects and collaborations. When war seemed imminent in April 1939, he moved to Stockholm, where he remained for

12054-580: The south side of East 3rd Street between First Avenue and Avenue A , and on the west side of Avenue A between East 2nd and East 3rd Streets, is now considered to be located within the East Village. By the turn of the twentieth century, the neighborhood had become closely associated with radical politics, such as anarchism , socialism , and communism . It was also known as a place where many popular performers had grown up, such as Eddie Cantor , Al Jolson , George and Ira Gershwin , Jimmy Durante , and Irving Berlin . Later, more radical artists such as

12177-513: The surrounding neighborhood. Following the construction of the Hotel on Rivington one block away, several luxury condominiums around Houston, and the New Museum on Bowery , this new wave of construction is another sign that the gentrification cycle is entering a high-luxury phase similar to in SoHo and Nolita in the previous decade. More recently, the gentrification that was previously confined to

12300-463: The theaters are now gone. Songwriter Irving Berlin , actor John Garfield , and singer Eddie Cantor grew up here. Since the mid-20th century, the area has been settled primarily by immigrants, primarily from Latin America , especially Central America and Puerto Rico. They have established their own groceries and shops, marketing goods from their culture and cuisine. Bodegas have replaced Jewish shops, and there are mostly Roman Catholics . In what

12423-447: The theatre as a whole which Brecht set down in his theoretical essay "Emphasis on Sport" and tried to realise by means of the harsh lighting, the boxing-ring stage and other anti-illusionistic devices that henceforward appeared in his own productions. In 1925, Brecht saw two films that had a significant influence on him: Chaplin 's The Gold Rush and Eisenstein 's Battleship Potemkin . Brecht had compared Valentin to Chaplin, and

12546-504: The time one of the leading three or four theatres in the world—brought him to Berlin. In 1923 Brecht's marriage to Zoff began to break down (though they did not divorce until 1927). Brecht had become involved with both Elisabeth Hauptmann and Helene Weigel. Brecht and Weigel's son, Stefan , was born in October 1924. In his role as dramaturg, Brecht had much to stimulate him but little work of his own. Reinhardt staged Shaw 's Saint Joan , Goldoni 's Servant of Two Masters (with

12669-440: The two of them provided models for Galy Gay in Man Equals Man . Brecht later wrote that Chaplin "would in many ways come closer to the epic than to the dramatic theatre's requirements." They met several times during Brecht's time in the United States, and discussed Chaplin's Monsieur Verdoux project, which it is possible Brecht influenced. In 1926 a series of short stories was published under Brecht's name, though Hauptmann

12792-605: The very start Provided with every last sacrament: With newspapers. And tobacco. And brandy To the end mistrustful, lazy and content. Bertolt Brecht, "Of Poor BB" At this time Brecht revised his important "transitional poem", "Of Poor BB". In 1925, his publishers provided him with Elisabeth Hauptmann as an assistant for the completion of his collection of poems, Devotions for the Home ( Hauspostille , eventually published in January 1927). She continued to work with him after

12915-513: The west by Nolita and in the north by the East Village . Historically, the "Lower East Side" referred to the area alongside the East River from about the Manhattan Bridge and Canal Street up to 14th Street , and roughly bounded on the west by Broadway . It included areas known today as East Village , Alphabet City , Chinatown , Bowery , Little Italy , and NoLIta . Parts of the East Village are still known as Loisaida ,

13038-481: The young Brecht an admiration for the iconoclastic dramatist and cabaret star Frank Wedekind . From July 1916, Brecht's newspaper articles began appearing under the new name "Bert Brecht" (his first theatre criticism for the Augsburger Volkswille appeared in October 1919). Brecht was drafted into military service in the autumn of 1918, only to be posted back to Augsburg as a medical orderly in

13161-528: Was 16, World War I broke out. Initially enthusiastic, Brecht soon changed his mind on seeing his classmates "swallowed by the army". Brecht was nearly expelled from school in 1915 for writing an essay in response to the line Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori from the Roman poet Horace , calling it Zweckpropaganda ("cheap propaganda for a specific purpose") and arguing that only an empty-headed person could be persuaded to die for their country. His expulsion

13284-574: Was Brecht's old friend Salka Viertel , whom he had known in the Berlin theatre world of the 1920s. From her house in Santa Monica Canyon, Viertel hosted frequent tea parties and salons where European intellectuals could mingle with Hollywood luminaries. Brecht first met actor Charles Laughton at a Viertel party, and it led to the two men collaborating on the English-language version of Life of Galileo . Although Brecht

13407-490: Was a German theatre practitioner , playwright, and poet. Coming of age during the Weimar Republic , he had his first successes as a playwright in Munich and moved to Berlin in 1924, where he wrote The Threepenny Opera with Elisabeth Hauptmann and Kurt Weill and began a life-long collaboration with the composer Hanns Eisler . Immersed in Marxist thought during this period, Brecht wrote didactic Lehrstücke and became

13530-633: Was a prominent practitioner of the Exilliteratur . He expressed his opposition to the National Socialist and Fascist movements in his famous plays: Life of Galileo , Mother Courage and Her Children , The Good Person of Szechwan , The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui , The Caucasian Chalk Circle , Fear and Misery of the Third Reich , and many others. However, his refusal to speak in support of Carola Neher , who died in

13653-510: Was a successful German actress. In 1923, Brecht wrote a scenario for what was to become a short slapstick film, Mysteries of a Barbershop , directed by Erich Engel and starring Karl Valentin. Despite a lack of success at the time, its experimental inventiveness and the subsequent success of many of its contributors have meant that it is now considered one of the most important films in German film history . In May of that year, Brecht's In

13776-407: Was also called Corlaers Hook under Dutch and British rule and briefly Crown Point during British occupation in the Revolution. It was named after the schoolmaster Jacobus van Corlaer, who settled on this "plantation" that in 1638 was called by a Europeanized version of its Lenape name , Nechtans or Nechtanc . Corlaer sold the plantation to Wilhelmus Hendrickse Beekman (1623–1707), founder of

13899-534: Was closely associated with writing them. Following the production of Man Equals Man in Darmstadt that year, Brecht began studying Marxism and socialism in earnest, under the supervision of Hauptmann. "When I read Marx 's Capital ", a note by Brecht reveals, "I understood my plays." Marx was, it continues, "the only spectator for my plays I'd ever come across." Inspired by the developments in USSR , Brecht wrote

14022-403: Was followed by the quickly thrown together Happy End . It was a personal and a commercial failure. At the time the book was purported to be by the mysterious Dorothy Lane (now known to be Elisabeth Hauptmann, Brecht's secretary and close collaborator). Brecht only claimed authorship of the song texts. Brecht would later use elements of Happy End as the germ for his Saint Joan of the Stockyards ,

14145-541: Was located along the modern Bowery between Prince Street and Astor Place , as well as the "only separate enclave" of this type within Manhattan. These black farmers were some of the earliest settlers of the area. Gradually, during the 17th century, there was an overall consolidation of the boweries and farms into larger parcels, and much of the Lower East Side was then part of the Delancey farm. James Delancey 's pre-Revolutionary farm east of post road leading from

14268-461: Was lower, at 13% and 11%, respectively. As of 2017, the median household income in Community District 3 was $ 39,584, though the median income in the Lower East Side individually was $ 51,649. In 2018, an estimated 18% of Community District 3 residents lived in poverty, compared to 14% in all of Manhattan and 20% in all of New York City. One in twelve residents (8%) were unemployed, compared to 7% in Manhattan and 9% in New York City. Rent burden, or

14391-648: Was not enamored of life in the movie capital, he worked hard to find a place for himself as a screenwriter. He co-wrote the screenplay for the Fritz Lang -directed film Hangmen Also Die! (1943) which was loosely based on the 1942 assassination of Reinhard Heydrich , the Nazi Deputy Reich Protector of the German-occupied Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia . Heydrich had been Heinrich Himmler 's right-hand man in

14514-482: Was occupied by members of the Lenape tribe, who were organized in bands that moved from place to place according to the seasons, fishing on the rivers in the summer, and moving inland in the fall and winter to gather crops and hunt for food. Their main trail took approximately the route of Broadway . One encampment in the Lower East Side area, near Corlears Hook was called Rechtauck or Naghtogack. The population of

14637-454: Was only prevented by the intervention of Romuald Sauer, a priest who also served as a substitute teacher at Brecht's school. On his father's recommendation, Brecht sought to avoid being conscripted into the army by exploiting a loophole which allowed for medical students to be deferred. He subsequently registered for a medical course at Munich University , where he enrolled in 1917. There he studied drama with Arthur Kutscher , who inspired in

14760-472: Was part of the first group of Hollywood film artists to be subpoenaed by the House Un-American Activities Committee for alleged Communist Party affiliations. The day after testifying, he returned to Europe, eventually settling in East Berlin where he co-founded the theatre company Berliner Ensemble with his wife and long-time collaborator, actress Helene Weigel . Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht (as

14883-525: Was subpoenaed in September 1947 by the HUAC. Although he was one of the 19 "unfriendly" witnesses who had declared ahead of time they would not cooperate with the House investigation, Brecht eventually decided to go before the committee and answer questions. He later explained he was following the advice of attorneys and did not want to delay his planned trip to Europe. On 30 October 1947, Brecht testified to

15006-493: Was the location of some of the first tenements built in New York City. Corlears Hook is mentioned on the first page of Chapter 1 of Herman Melville 's Moby Dick , first published in 1851: "Circumambulate the city of a dreamy Sabbath afternoon. Go from Corlears Hook to Coenties Slip , and from thence, by Whitehall, northward. What do you see? ..." and again in Chapter 99—The Doubloon. The original location of Corlears Hook

15129-483: Was to the adaptation of the unfinished episodic comic novel Schweik , which he later described as a "montage from the novel". The Piscator productions influenced Brecht's ideas about staging and design, and alerted him to the radical potentials offered to the " epic " playwright by the development of stage technology (particularly projections). What Brecht took from Piscator "is fairly plain, and he acknowledged it" Willett suggests: The emphasis on Reason and didacticism,

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