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MICHAEL TOWNSEND SMITH has released a truly pocket-size little pink book entitled "How to Be Funny." It consists of 1600 or so exclamations, insights, and observations - or one might say "wisdom and wisecracks" - sentences about the titular theme, ranging from one to ninety-four words, arranged in little sequences like poems . . . You may feel an urge to dispute one of Mister Smith's assertions or arguments, only to find soon after that he lightheartedly disputes it himself, which may be the funniest thing about this very funny, very provocative little book.Robert Patrick

Andy Warhol's Ridiculous Screenplays is a fascinating first-person account of writer Ronald Tavel's experiences collaborating with the artist on his films from the winter of 1964 through the summer of 1967. During this period, Tavel wrote seventeen screenplays for Warhol, including some of the most significant works in the artist's filmography and in American underground film more broadly: "Screen Test #2," "The Life of Juanita Castro," "Horse," "Vinyl," "Kitchen" (all 1965), "Hedy," and two sections of "The Chelsea Girls" (both 1966). The nature of filmmaking in Warhol's Silver Factory of the mid-1960s meant that Tavel's role as screenwriter was not restricted to a film's pre-production. In most cases, he was responsible as well for directing, performing, and facilitating the performance of the screenplays during filming itself.-from the introduction by Marc SiegelIncludes Tavel's essay "The Roots of the Theatre of The Ridiculous in the Scripted Films of Andy Warhol"

In summer 1977 The Living Theatre, which had been touring in Europe for two years with Seven Meditations on Political Sado-Masochism, settled down in Rome and began to create Prometheus. The myth had long been on Julian Beck's mind. Texts were consulted, and members of the company chose and developed characters. After many meetings Beck wove together a text of the first act, exploring the myth. The second act was his own: scenes from the Russian revolution relating Prometheus to the fraught political issues of the present. The third act would be a vigil outside a nearby prison. Following the opening in September 1978, The Living Theatre toured Prometheus for a year, with engagements from Ireland to Greece as well as numerous Italian cities. Beck's beautiful, poetic play The Archaeology of Sleep was realized by The Living Theatre during a 1983 residency at the Maison de la Culture in Nantes, France. It was revived the following year as part of the Living Theatre repertory as the Joyce Theatre in New York.Included with the texts are production credits, photographs, and essays by Tom Walker, actor/archivist of The Living Theatre, Living Theatre actor Ilion Troya, and the author.There is a residue of daily life that the mind keeps sorting and trying to place in a cosmic vision.... I wanted people to see that we go to bed full of hope, because I think that in our sleep-life we have these immortal longings that begin to be expressed. It is my theory that we try every night, as an evolving species, to figure out how we can go on to the next step, the next development of humankind. -Julian Beck

Me & Others is the story of my whole life from birth in Kansas City to vigorous old age in rural Oregon, with eventful interludes in New York City, eastern Connecticut, Taos, and Santa Barbara. I have had great joy and exasperation in getting to know myself and others. I have loved and lost and loved again. I have brought children into the world. I have had ineffable satisfactions in putting on plays, writing and publishing books, and playing music. I wanted to tell it all and say how it was for me.

In July 1957 Julian Beck and Judith Malina, the founders of The Living Theatre, were arrested with Dorothy Day and members of the Catholic Worker community for protesting the civil defense drills in New York City. They were sentenced to thirty days in jail. Julian Beck spent his confinement on Hart Island and in The Tombs in lower Manhattan, keeping notes for a journal at the time and amplifying them over the following two months. The experience led him to examine his role as an artist and subsequently commit his life and art to nonviolent anarchist revolution.

Memoir of a life in theatre by Michael Smith, playwright, critic, producer, lighting designer, a key player in the Off-Off-Broadway theatre movement of the 1960s and beyond.

Collected plays by Robert Heide, with production details, photos, and an introduction and informative notes on the plays by the author. Preface by Michael Townsend Smith.

Writing theatre criticism for The Village Voice from 1957 to 1974, Michael Smith lucked into an extraordinarily dynamic period in American theatre. Broadway-style commercialism was stifling innovation in the early sixties. In response, a new alternative theatre emerged in lofts, storefronts, churches, and coffeehouses radiating out from Greenwich Village. This generous selection of reviews from Smith's "theatre journal" columns in The Voice gives a sense of the range, seriousness, and energy of the brilliantly imaginative artists he encountered in more than a decade of intensive theatre-going,