Living Theater

Experimental US theatre group, 1947–70, founded by Judith Malina and Julian Beck. Committed anarchists, Malina and Beck promoted avant-garde plays and radical dramatic techniques in opposition to the prevailing naturalism and Method acting. They produced works by Gertrude Stein, Paul Goodman, Brecht, and Lorca and won international recognition for such plays as The Connection (1959) by Jack Gelber.

In 1964 they took up ‘voluntary exile’ in Europe. The group production Paradise Now (1968), subverting all dramatic categories, was considered to have expressed the anarchic spirit of the 1960s. In 1970 the the company split into several groups and dispersed.