EARTHLIGHT NEWS🌈 BLUES & REVIEWS

WHATS GOIN' ON⁉💥 Earthlight Co-founder/producer Allan Mann Is doing a revival of Earthlight. When I first heard about it in mid-2017 it seemed kind of old school. When Trump was elected and the whole country was turned upside down...I realized the true significance and longevity of this show. Earthlight has both an ethereal and eternal quality, but don't just take it from me - here's what the critics have said:📡 "It {Earthlight} suggests how it {society) is now and what it could be, it leaves me with the real positive sense of human potential.” Symposium (Northwestern U). "leaves one feeling ... HOPEFUL...It's something everyone should see." The State. "Wow, do they celebrate"'...The Boston Herald Traveler. Allan Mann with co-creator Jane Richardson had thegenius, foresight and vision then & still has it now. I can’t wait to see                                                 how he'll do it this time;
                                       

...circa 1970

...circa 2010

Earthlight's 40th reunion took place at the Drake Hotel in San Francisco on Oct. 16, 2010 and Oct. 17 at co-founder and internationally acclaimed artist Lady Jane Richardson Mack's house.

Woodstock 's Original Earthlight

Reunites in San Francisco

Setting the Record Straight  

Critically acclaimed EARTHLIGHT THEATER was the only theater company to perform at the original Woodstock Festival in 1969 and be seen in the Directors Cut of the documentary.  They will reunite after some 40 odd years at Bar Drake in the Sir Francis Drake Hotel at Post & Powell on Saturday, October 16 from 4:30 until 7:00 PM. The press and public are welcome to join in this first stop in this reunion celebration.

          EARTHLIGHT reveals the true story of an era that continues to fascinate us.  They reunite to celebrate their work and set the record straight.  Having been so misrepresented and maligned in Ang Lee's 2009 "Taking Woodstock.", it should have been called "Faking Woodstock."  The LAWeekly said "As dumb a depiction of avant-guard thespians as something Jesse Helms might have said."

          In truth, Earthlight was one of the premiere avant-guard groups in this country between 1969 - 1972. They not only performed at Woodstock but were instrumental in bringing the festival to Bethel, its ultimate venue and setting the tone by insisting Swami Satchidananda open the festival. They were on stage with him as well. They were paid $1,000 ($3,500 by today’s standards).

         They were a group of highly trained actors, transforming time & space, and audiences into new dimensions and receiving rave reviews: 

** "What Joyce or Pinter might have done if they were born in this country"       
                                                                                                                  Harvard Crimson

     "The best parts of Second City, The Committee, Hair and The Living Theater”    
                                                                                                                 The Daily Northwestern 

     "Nothing less than pure essential theatre"                   Los Angeles Times

     "an unquestionable success"                                            Variety

They combined theatrical and spiritual principles and their work is as relevant and needed today as it was in the past.

        After Woodstock, Earthlight moved out to CA and had their own theater in Venice; following that year a run off-Broadway incorporating Dunhill recording artists Pure Love & Pleasure. They opened for Billy Preston, Taj Mahal and worked with David Bennet Cohen of Country Joe and the Fish.  Berkeley based in 1971 they performed in Zellerbach Hall at UC Berkeley and Project Artaud in San Francisco and prepared for the last of their seven national and international tours. The fabled blue bus they travelled in exists in history along with the buses of Ken Keasey and the Hog Farm. 

                    Co-founders, Director, Author & Spiritual Warrior Allan Mann and celebrated Bay Area Artist, Jane Richardson-Mack join Author and Healer, Barbara Wilder, Swiss Actor, Doug Fowley; African Activist Wendy Blakely; the fabulous sisters Diskin, Porscha & Ellyn and others including members of Pure Love & Pleasure (John, Rob and Jackie) to celebrate their past & future.  A book, documentary and stage revival are in the works!   

Most of this started on comic and founding member S. Rachel Lovey’s blog, where Earthlight members continue to find each other & connect through their past to the present. 

http://woodstockandearthlightrevisited.blogspot.com

Who knows what's in store for these members of 60's royalty who are still sooooo pretty?  Join them for a toast on October 16.  They are available for pictures, stories, and interviews.

CONTACT MEDIA CO-ORDINATOR

S. RACHEL LOVEY (310) 926- 5689  srachellovey@hotmail.com

        

Earthlight did have it’s reunion on Oct. 16 & 17 and it was as fabulous as I imagined it to be. And we came together from all over the world, almost. Well Doug Fowley, the late Kim Fowley's brother came from Switzerland, Wendy from Africa , Jacque from Oaklahoma, Barbara (Porsha) from Oregon and everyone else from L.A. and San Francisco area. Most of these folks had responded to the Blog which made it even more exciting for me. (Check original comments on Blog) The experience really challenged the old adage “you can’t go home again.” “For one brief shining moment” we did time travel and for a nostalgia freak like myself, it was grand. The fact that the main party was held at co-founder Jane's house overlooking the hills of Marine was a perfect setting.
One of the surprise additions was David Mcanally,the co-lead singer of Pure Love and Pleasure, the Dunhill recording group that Earthlight joined up with after Woodstock. In fact all the musicians showed with instruments which only brought the whole experience literally back from the past. Sadly David past away a few years later. No one had heard much from Eva Nicholson, who was never in the show but was the girlfriend of Richard Williams. He was famous for his nude scene in Earthlight (very tasteful of course) who became a psychic minister & whom we never heard from after that...any ideas? Boy that Eva could sing and Jane did pretty well herself. I did a stand-up comedy routine and handed out awards to Allan, Jane, & Porscha (Ellyn Diskin's sister) who was never in the show. She was more like a mascot. Very capable as an entrepreneur, showering us with that NY spirit and essential to making the reunion happen. Sadly she passed away as well in the last few years. Everyone else got an Honorable Mention. Stan Goldstein, Chief of Staff at Woodstock and our sound engineer Off-Broadway, interviewed everyone on film. I was pretty stoned & stoked by the whole experience and I was missing a lot of teeth (which I’ve since had fixed). Sadly, Stan passed a few years ago as well. Let’s face it getting older(as they say)is not for sissies. Only good thing about all these people passing; It does make me look good, all I have to do is breathe. I don't take their passing lightly, I did dearly love these people. I hope I am taking advantage of the gift they left: this life, as we know it, will end eventually for all of us...Give it your best.