Joseph Chaikin: Poetry Readings, Part 1

Equally celebrated for his commitment to avant garde theater as he was to poetry, this program documents the late director, Joseph Chaikin, reading a compilation of poems at the WBAI studios in 1976. All of the selected works are by pivotal writers, each contributing a diverse take on the literary form, from political to cultural and emotional perspectives.

Chaikin calls out Pablo Neruda's fears, whispers Wallace Stevens's words of desire, and declaims the words of Cesar Vallejo, crying out in pain: “If my bride were dead my suffering would still be the same. Today I am in pain from higher up.”

Joseph Chaikin (1935-2003) was a celebrated founder of New York's The Open Theater and The Winter Project. He worked closely with The Living Theater and San Francisco's Magic Theater. As a playwright, actor, and director, he has influenced today's off off broadway productions. Chaikin is perhaps best known for producing and directing Viet Rock and The Serpent. His book, The Presence of The Actor was first published in 1972 by Theatre Communications Group and reprinted in 1991. In 2010, he was posthumously inducted into The American Theater Hall of Fame.

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