04.09.09 -- Holy Thursday

And there was also a strife among them, which of them should be accounted the greatest. And he said unto them, The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them; and they that exercise authority upon them are called benefactors. But ye shall not be so; but he that is greatest among you, let him be as the younger; and he that is chief, as he that doth serve. For whether is greater, he that sitteth at meat, or he that serveth? Is not he that sitteth at meat? but I am among you as he that serveth. Ye are they which have continued with me in my temptations. And I appoint unto you a kingdom, as my Father hath appointed unto me; That ye may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom, and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel. -- Luke 22:24-30

04.08.09

Christ entering Jerusalem, Giotto, c 1305, Arean Chapel, Padua, Italy

The next day the great crowd that had come for the Feast** heard that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem. They took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting, “Hosanna!” “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” “Blessed is the King of Israel!” (John 12: 12-13)

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Palm Sunday Sunset

04.04.09

On a windy day at the new Yankee Stadium, the Yankees blow away the Windy City's Cubs 10-1.

Yankee Stadium

For a panorama viewing (get dizzy with this one!) of Yankee Stadium, click HERE.

04.01.09

Ship of Fools, Hieronymus Bosch

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Cino

Click here for Wikipedia -- JOE CINO.

Joseph Cino (1931-April 4, 1967), was an Italian-American theatrical producer and café-owner. The beginning of the Off-Off-Broadway theatre movement is generally credited to have begun at Cino’s Caffe Cino.

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03.28.09

Spring over Autumn...

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Ronald Tavel

American humorist and raconteur, novelist, poet, playwright, and screenwriter Ronald Tavel.

“It is with a heavy heart that I write you all to inform you that Ronald Tavel passed away today. He was en route from Berlin to Bangkok when he most likely suffered a heart attack. That is all we know just now. It was his mother's birthday. Things were going so well for him now, it is so surreal. Our family is very small now. Keep well all of you who knew and loved him." Norm and Harvey, March 25, 2009

03.25.09

Crocus in my front yard, yesterday...

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Winter begone!, Spring is here!,
Leave us be and be no more!,
Hie thee to some other where!
We've seen well enough of thee!!!

Carmans River

Carmans River, Southaven County Park, Long Island, New York, March 22, 2009

03.20.09

Spring!

03.18.09

Natasha Richardson

03.18.09

03.17.09

Members of the Irish Brigade of the Confederate Army

03.15.09

Trespassing by Permission Only

You'll find me HERE!

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Now and Then

Wipe-Outs

Click here for wipe-outs to the tune of Blue Moon!

02.24.09

Just a short note -- my computer crashed, so I'm working out of it. Will post later this week. See you!

Cocteau

Prodigal

What do you want with us here. What good have you ever done in your life. You’ve accomplished nothing except to make me want to live long enough to see you with nothing, and that is what you come to us with now -- nothing. Everything you’ve done in life was in the name of cruel vanity -- you’ve nothing to show for your life, nothing. Earthly goods are but empty vessels waiting for a spirit and you have no spirit. You’ve become like the objects with which you have surrounded yourself. Cold, hard and lifeless. You come here to see what you left behind -- did you suppose that it would still be here? Well, look, yes, it is still here, but an empty ship waiting for the captain who abandoned it on the reef of hopeless loneliness. Did you think we would stay the same, waiting for your return -- the prodigal son has returned to find nothing but graveyards in which to kneel and beg forgiveness -- and how can the dead forgive?

How could you have walked away and never returned but til today -- to return as someone no one knows. Where is the boy? Where is he and what have you done with him? Fifty years ago, fifty, and you expect anyone to remember you? Of course we remember -- we remember the heartbreak and the sorrow you caused us all. Not that we were a happy family, but you sealed our doom -- we became the least of all about us. And where were you? Off to the seashore lying in the sun with your fancy friends and their expensive toys -- you were nothing more to them than a white trash whore. You knew it and you let it happen -- and now you return here as though you had accomplished something in life. You’ve accomplished nothing. You are a failure. All you have is pretty pictures of yourself to paint, distortions of reality -- lies and deceptions.

God help you on your deathbed and I hope you have a long and painful one -- I hope you don’t just quickly die and never be found -- I hope you die slowly while others look on like vultures awaiting carrion -- half cadaver and half croaking ogre that you are! No one wants you here! Turn and go! Leave us to our peace you’ve shattered that it may heal and forget again that you exist! It saddens me too much to look upon you -- failure that you are! I am sickened by the sight of you, as are we all! None of us wish you be here -- be gone! Go!

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Swans in Winter Sunset

Swans in winter sunset, Bellport Bay from Smith Point Park, Long Island, photo by Donald, February of 2009

Hanging Out

Bi-Bicentennial

Abraham Lincoln, Charles Darwin's statue, Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England, the Lincoln Memorial, Charles R. Darwin, NY Times puzzle entries -- collage by Donald

From The New York Times Crossword in Gothic, Thursday, February 12, 2009

Two hundred years ago on February 12, 1809, who knew?! ABRAHAM LINCOLN (47A. Notable born 2/12/1809) and CHARLES R DARWIN (28A. Notable born 2/12/1809), REPUBLICAN PARTY (61A. 47-Across led it) and ORIGIN OF SPECIES (17A. Influential work by 28-Across) are the interrelated entries of this February 12, 2009 crossword puzzle. Lincoln and Darwin were born and lived an ocean apart with entirely different careers, but they were both liberators, each in his own way. This timely crossword is an imaginative homage in miniature to two giants of history. Go HERE.

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Snow

My backyard, February 2009
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Full Moon

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Full Moon over Moriches Bay, February 9, 2009

Fairey Arrested

Shepard Fairey Arrested Over Graffiti!

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Cabin Fever

This winter can't be over with soon enough!

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02.05.09

On YouTube -- TV Commercial for Pringles with Brad Pitt

Sirius Rex 1984

U. S. Poe'stage

Jackie Curtis

New page at Donald L. Brooks, Off-Off Broadway and Beyond -- Jackie Curtis, exclusive publicity photograph for The Blue Angel, 1972 and photographs from Euripides' The Trojan Women.

02.01.09

Top Ten Super Bowl Ads 2008 - Commercials from Super Bowl 42

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John Herbert McDowell on SUPERFREAK

I think we have to be extremely careful, and much much slower in assessing what we think, feel or say about Donald Brooks' THE DEATH OF JOE CINO. It is, maybe, the one and only truly unbelievable theater event of all of our last 15 years of ferment. Grotowski, Living, Open -- everybody is left quite thoroughly behind in the face of a concept like this. That anything so monstrous and shocking should really have happened in a public theater defies the imagination.

The fact of its being and secondly the violent reaction to its being, raise incredible questions. As to who we are and where we're at. For one thing: The direct action taken against this show by people who have not seen it, is deeply disturbing -- the worst of all possible betrayals. It plunges us back into McCarthyism and all those thousand years of know-nothing censors -- the people who waged, successfully, campaigns as to what we could see, hear or read: without having seen, heard or read it themselves. Have we reached the first really triumphant point of possible honesty on stage, and screen only to have some of the very people who fought for this freedom for so long, completely invalidate it when the knife thrusts home?

I really don't know what the show is all about. Only the last ten minutes hit me viscerally (the death scene and its fantastic accusations against the living). I do not know Donald Brooks. I think the real title of the show is THE DEATH OF DONALD BROOKS. Given the particular world into which it sprang, the show itself seems like a pretty suicidal gesture. The brilliance of the production has not been much mentioned. I thought that the extraordinary direction pretty much made up for the sleaziness of the writing (and I'm not speaking of the subject matter but the writing as a separate fact). Where has Mr. Brooks directed or not been asked to direct?

What provoked an assault on where we live that hit us with such an astonishing brutality in this year of 1969 -- when we thought we were pretty well beyond such an emotional reaction?I hated this play. Yet I wonder if it is not the ultimate necessary step right now. What does it mean when somebody gets on stage and says and does terrible things about people you love? Maybe the highest function of art is to upset the audience. HELLO DOLLY does not; FORENSIC AND THE NAVIGATORS does. This play upset me immeasurably. Where am I and where is it? I still can't think clearly about it some weeks later. We must think longer about it and where it puts us.

-- John Herbert McDowell, ABEL Magazine, November, 1969
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Off-Off Broadway and Beyond

New and/or expanded links have been added to the opening paragraph of Off-Off Broadway and Beyond (highlighted in color):

Donald L. Brooks is a playwright, director, designer and actor who has worked Off-Off-Broadway with Soren Agenoux, Edward Albee, Ross Alexander, Michael Allinson, Word Baker, ‘Ntoni Bastiano, George Barteneiff, Bhaskar, James Bidgood, Julie Bovasso, Kenny Burgess, Dorothy Cantwell, Al Carmines, Joseph Cino, Jacque Lynn Colton, Ralph Cook, Jackie Curtis, Robert Dahdah, Joseph C. Davies, Divine, Johnny Dodd, Magie Dominic, Roslyn Drexler, Helen Duberstein, Joan Durant, Ethyl Eichelberger, Tom Eyen, Ron Faber, Edie Falco, Crystal Field, Harvey Fierstein, Richard Foreman, María Irene Fornés, Kevin Geer, Amlin Gray, John Guare, James Jennings, George Harris, The Harris Family, Robert Heide, Lee Kissman, Arthur Kopit, H. M. Koutoukas, Russell Krum, Don Kvares, Deborah Lee, Ralph Lee, Rosetta LeNoir, Jacques Levy, Barbara Loden, Lucille Lortel, Charles Ludlam, Gretchen MacLane, Adele Mailer, Bill Maloney, Marshall W. Mason, Taylor Meade, Murray Mednick, John Herbert McDowell, Andy Milligan, Mabou Mines, Meredith Monk, Mario Montez, Tiger Morse, Richard Morse, Larry Myers, Odetta, Ondine, Joel Oppenheimer, Rochelle Owens, Sally Ordway, Robert Patrick, Austin Pendleton, Bernadette Peters, Gerry Ragni, Christopher Reeve, Tim Robbins, Natalie Rogers, Arthur Sainer, Stuart Sherman, Sam Shepard, Michael Smith, Lewis J. Stadlin, Charles Stanley, David Starkweather, Ellen Stewart, Lincoln Swados, Harvey Tavel, Ronald Tavel, Megan Terry, David Tice, John Vaccaro, Jean-Claude van Itallie, Hervé Villechaize, James Waring, Jeff Weiss, Arthur Williams, David Willinger, Lanford Wilson and Mary Woronov. He has been active Off-Off-Broadway continuously for over forty years and is numbered among the innovators of the movement -- indeed, having given the name “Off-Off-Broadway” in jest to a Village Voice writer who subsequently created listings headed as “Off-Off-Broadway”. His plays have often been controversial, most notably “Xircus, the Private Life of Jesus Christ” and "Superfreak, the Death of Joe Cino", both of which he was the author.

(Names and/or titles with color print indicate a link.)

SHOWCASE

New page with lyrics and dialogue for SHOWCASE, musical by Donald L. Brooks -- HERE.

Infinity

For newly published photographs of INFINITY, a play by Donald L. Brooks, go HERE.

Caesar Twins

The Caesar Twins -- YouTube Video

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Superfreak

The ending dialogue and directions from the play
"SUPERFREAK, The Death of Joe Cino" by Donald L. Brooks

JOE CINO AND/OR THE RINGMASTER:

Ladies and gentlemen, “The Death of Joe Cino” written and directed by the Vampire of Cripple Creek with the assistance of everyone!

(A sign descends reading “The Death of Joe Cino” and without pause, rises.)(Ravel’s Bolero has begun to play. The Ringmaster removes his mask, shakes hair, stares into flys -- then into audience, eye to eye. Oedipus Tex, covered with a plastic drop-cloth passes, Cino does not notice. Witch/Pope Screw passes in the opposite direction. Screams. Cino walks as if an animal in a cage about the stage and winds up in the Madness of Lady Light set. A pause. He circles again and again around Euphelia, drags her into the set and caresses her dead body, finally realizing she is dead he pulls the cover over her and withdraws in horror only to see the dead St. Christopher. St. Christopher cuts himself down with a large butcher knife from the noose from which he had been hanging and hands the knife to Cino. St. Christopher kisses Euphelia and carries her offstage. Cino then tries to escape his shadow which is seen on the wall. He faces the audience. He looks again at the audience. He caresses his flesh with the knife feeling the sensuousness of the edge of the blade -- this mime/dance has taken us through the Bolero and upon the final crescendo, Cino cuts his own stomach, wrists and neck, and continues to stab himself during the music’s climax. Thunder and sounds of rain. He falls with one hand in the air holding the knife, as a drowning man. The lights remain, dimming slowly as a sign descends, “The Vampire of Cripple Creek, Part III“.)

(Thunder and rain sounds continue, Witch/Pope Screw enters in the regalia of a Pontiff, selling apples.)

WITCH/POPE SCREW:

Like that? (Sniffs from a vial of nitrate.) It stunk! Cheap theatrical bitch! Actually, I don’t care on way or another. I have my own life to worry about -- besides, I have few emotions -- except sight, sound, touch, taste and smell -- and the only emotion I can feel now is smell -- there is no sound, I don’t intend to touch, I’m not cannibalistic -- and I’m certainly not going to look -- he might not even be there -- I really didn’t notice, was he here tonight? Really, the only emotion I feel is smell -- and it’s blood and it doesn’t come from the stage, it comes from the streets -- I’m going now, and you should do the same -- emotions are wasted upon emotions -- thank God, he’s dead!

Oh… I’m supposed to tell you -- Oedipus lives in Death Valley where he eats shit and never speaks -- before he left, he took over the Cripple Creek Saloon and kept it open nearly a year -- but it was never the same, it’s one thing to have a vampire in the wings and quite another to have one running the show. The trouble with Oedipus was he wasn’t a true vampire, he was just a junkie. Looking for an oasis, he created a poisonous pond and thus Cino died. Goodnight. I know when to leave, I don’t suck out my own blood -- this place is all dried up -- I haven’t seen a virgin arm in weeks -- everyone is bats -- they all suck! So go -- veni, vedi, vamoose! Balls!

(Cackles.)

Oh, again… one very last thing. Have you ever thought, I mean really thought about what it takes to cut your own throat -- have you ever tried it? Oh! The icy blade against your flesh! God, it takes a lot of strength! Try it sometime -- try it!!!

(Hideous cackle, a deep breath, then back to business, as he exits out the front door of the theatre.)

Apples. Fresh red apples. Apples!

(During the time Witch/Pope Screw speaks, the signs of the different plays of the evening slowly descend around the stage, including a new sign in the foreground, “SUPERFREAK” and a spinning skull hung from a string as a spider. As the Witch begins his/her exit selling apples, the Beatles “All You Need Is Love” has begun to play. On the opening fanfare, the signs rise in disorderly fashion, the lights click out one by one and the skull alone remains in a single shaft of white light, spinning slower and slower as the lights fade imperceptibly, creating a hallucinatory glow which disappears completely only upon the song’s final strains of “Greensleeves” -- darkness.)

The End

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01.20.09

Bhashkar

BHASHKAR

Link -- Donald L. Brooks -- Off-Off Broadway and Beyond

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Set Designs

Click on Collage above to go to page for photos of set designs by Donald L. Brooks

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Quote from Robert Patrick

January 13, 2009

Having had a chance to skim DONALD's newly-revised site, I BEG you to take a thorough look at it.

Even if you have seen it in the past, PLEASE look again at this much-enlarged and -augmented version!

http://donaldlbrooks.com/index.html

Actor/writer/director/designer BROOKS shows us 1960s-1970s theatres, many of them forgotten or destroyed, and many, many striking photographs and posters for shows he acted in, wrote, directed, and/or designed. (He won an Obie for his set designs.)

Most of the images exude the exotic aura of a style rife on Off-Off Broadway then, and all but forgotten now - a style enclosing Greek myth, Catholic ritual, Hollywood luridness, Las Vegas glitter, and New York psychedelic complexity. There is even one play starring playwright H.M. Koutoukas himself, the master of this important and influential style, which Koutoukas himself dubbed "tacky glamor," and "Cobra madness."

What's more, among the often large casts are, besides the famous Harvey Fierstein, such Cino People as Joel Thurm, John Herbert MacDowell, Jacque Lynn Colton, Harvey Tavel, Ronny Tavel, and Deborah Lee -- as well as legendary underground stars Mario Montez, Jackie Curtis, and Agosto Machado.

DONALD worked long and hard at the Caffe Cino, and two of these pages cover his bitter play about the Cino, "Superfreak," and the lively reaction of the Off-Off community to it.

Scholars and scanners alike will be enriched, amazed, and entertained by kaleidoscopic flip through a fifty-year career spent on the cutting edge.

-- Robert Patrick

Actor

Click on Collage above to go to page for photos of Donald L. Brooks, member of Actors Equity Association

01.11.09

Donald L. Brooks -- Off-Off Broadway & Beyond,

revised index, new pages...visit!

01.09.09

A Young Girl Defending Herself Against Eros, 1880, William-Adolphe Bouguereau

01.06.09

The Birth of Venus, 1879, Adolphe-William Bouguereau, Musee d’Orsay, Paris

01.05.09

Act of Revenge

See how the white snow sparkles in the sunlight while the cold air greets the hot breath in protest. The last words were but a groan without meaning and the first but a cry of sudden nakedness. Screams in the night and silence by day. Hope without hope and strangers without pity. Lost dreams and thoughts of reprisal stinking like rotted flesh on its way to oblivion among all else come and gone by the way no sooner born but to die. I take this revenge!

from "Act of Revenge" by Donald L. Brooks