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.
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
co-founders: Allan Mann (author/director)
JANE
RICHARDSON MACK jane@janerichardsonmack.com
** Excerpts
from reviews of Allan Mann’s writing for the EARTHLIGHT THEATER
“It is the style of each individual piece that really makes the show. Some have a verbal brilliance that suggest what Pinter or Joyce might have done if they had been born in this country.” George Sim Johnston, Harvard Crimson
“… the troupe makes it
their business to spread joy, light and love in exhilarating amounts … The
light comes from the scripted and improvisational skits they do … each
resulting performance is wonderfully believable and involving … the audience
… comes as close to enjoying a total theatrical experience as it is ever
likely to get.”
Pat Henry, Queens College Phoenix “A dramatic sonata is built on the word ‘mine’ to illustrate possessiveness at work. A very short piece makes the most effective comment on the draft lottery that I’ve seen. The terrors of a child’s world and the corrupting processes involved in growing up are eloquently portrayed. A rudimentary economics lesson teaches a great deal in a few seconds. Exercises in everyday conversation hit home like a miniature Bald Soprano and demonstrate how useless words can be … one leaves Earthlight a little more hopeful, refreshed psychologically and physically, and without any complaints of pretensions unfulfilled … Earthlight offers … a common understanding, a beginning.” Don Shirley, NYU Washington Square Journal “… this troupe … might well take the rock opera out of its rigid all-musical stages and add the dramatic element that is now lacking in the form. ‘Tommy’ and ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’ were fine starting points in the dark. Now let’s shed a little Earthlight on the matter.” T.B., Cash Box
“Its effect is strong
and leaves one feeling … HOPEFUL. It’s something everyone should see.”
Bernard A. Mallon, The Stute (Stevens Inst. Of Technology) “… dialogue witty, deeply satirical, intellectual … the crowd was … gripped by the … speed and depth of the dialogue … In the Human Race skit, the performers are confused by false prophets claiming to be Right, Truth and Enlightenment. All are unable to give direction. Although the search doesn’t seem to yield solution it does raise questions (‘Questions are more dangerous than answers, these days.’) and suggests truth, at least, may be a byproduct of the search … a captivating piece with a lot for the mind in it.” Don Towers, The Red Deer Advocate (Alberta, Canada) “… its offering is nothing less than pure, essential theater .. [they] examined the modern god of gold; racial, religious, national, interplanetary divisions; man as the eternal enemy of man. And in doing so incisively and with great awareness, they glorified humanity at the same time … Allan Mann wrote the unnamed evening …”
Frederic
Milstein, L.A. Times
“Their show is at once
funny, serious, revealing and an artistic whole, and leaves me with a real,
positive sense of human potential …”
Kathy Patterson, Symposium (Northwestern U.) “Nearly 1,000 people were baptized Sunday night at Cahn Auditorium, and the medium was neither fire nor water. It was Earthlight … the best parts of Second City, The Committee, Hair and [the] Living Theater are embodied in this young, fluid and really-together company.” Larry Kaagan, The Daily Northwestern (Northwestern U.)
“… a clever, inventive
and explosive evening of music and thought.”
Bonnie Marranca, Show Business “Mann … stages a changing parade of scenes … There are many styles knotted together in this strenuously dynamic work.” Samuel Hiimportant, Boston Herald Traveler
“Mere listening makes
one aware of their originality …”
Ellen Abby, The Campus (City College of N.Y.) |
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