Three early plays by Kenneth Bernard, comprising The Monkeys of the Organ Grinder (13 pp.), The Adjustment (10 pp.), and Black Power's Going to Get You (17 pp.), together in a contemporary black Studio Duplicating Service binder with gilt lettering and brass fasteners. Reproduction typescripts, separately paginated, with individual title leaves. Bernard's address at 788 Riverside Drive, New York, and telephone number appear on the scripts. Unmarked. Light, uniform toning to the paper; rubbing, bumping, and creasing to the binder, particularly at the extremities.
An uncommon gathering of three early theatrical works by Kenneth Bernard (1930–2020), experimental playwright, poet, and novelist closely associated with John Vaccaro's Play-House of the Ridiculous and Ellen Stewart's La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club. A distinctive presence in the New York theatrical avant-garde of the late 1960s, Bernard developed a dramatic language characterized by grotesque comedy, sexual and social transgression, absurdist dialogue, and the subversion of conventional theatrical forms. His plays were integral to the development of the anarchic aesthetic of the Ridiculous movement.
All three plays were registered for copyright in the first months of 1968: The Monkeys of the Organ Grinder on January 18, and The Adjustment and Black Power's Going to Get You on March 11. The close correspondence between the recorded lengths of the copyright registrations and the present typescripts suggests that these reproduce substantially the same early textual versions.
The Monkeys of the Organ Grinder, the principal work in the collection, received its first performance at the New Theatre Workshop on February 17, 1969, directed by John Vaccaro, with a cast including Crystal Field, William Ostroff, Frank Dudley, and Jack Aaron. It was subsequently performed by the Wherehouse–La MaMa London Troupe, in its American debut, at Brecht West in New Brunswick, New Jersey, and at La MaMa E.T.C. in New York, September 24–30, 1970, again under Vaccaro's direction. A grotesque theatrical fantasia involving a bearded lady, a prostitute, a picture slasher, a hunchback, an organ grinder, and a policeman, the play combines violence, sexual provocation, and surreal comedy in a sequence culminating in a macabre photographic tableau. It was first published in Bernard's Night Club & Other Plays (Winter House, 1971).
Comparison with the first published text establishes a virtually verbatim correspondence, with minor textual variants, including differences in the spelling of dialogue and a stage direction, together with the conventional substitution of printed italics for typescript underlining. Notably, the typescript's "Fucken drowned" becomes "Fuckin drowned" in the printed edition, while "setting up exercises" becomes "sitting up exercises." These variants are consistent with an early theatrical text preceding its preparation for publication.
The two accompanying works, The Adjustment and Black Power's Going to Get You, are considerably more obscure, with no identified commercial publication or documented performance history. Their inclusion is particularly significant, preserving two apparently unpublished plays from Bernard's formative period as an experimental dramatist. Both were copyrighted in March 1968, contemporaneously with the emergence of his work in the Off-Off-Broadway theater.
The professional theatrical binding, contemporaneous address and telephone information, uniformity of the typescripts, and accumulated patina of the materials strongly suggest an early circulating copy, apparently assembled circa 1968–1970, before the first book publication of The Monkeys of the Organ Grinder. The binder's gilt-lettered cover identifies only that play, suggesting that the additional scripts were supplied as companion works for theatrical consideration. Although the precise circumstances of its circulation are undocumented, the grouping is consistent with material prepared for submission to directors, producers, or experimental theater companies.
An evocative survival from the formative years of the Play-House of the Ridiculous and the Off-Off-Broadway avant-garde, preserving three closely related early works in their apparent original-period theatrical format. A germane resource for the history of experimental American drama, La MaMa, John Vaccaro, and the literary and performance culture of late-1960s New York.
Three early plays by Kenneth Bernard, comprising The Monkeys of the Organ Grinder (13 pp.), The Adjustment (10 pp.), and Black Power's Going to Get You (17 pp.), together in a contemporary black Studio Duplicating Service binder with gilt lettering and brass fasteners. Reproduction typescripts, separately paginated, with individual title leaves. Bernard's address at 788 Riverside Drive, New York, and telephone number appear on the scripts. Unmarked. Light, uniform toning to the paper; rubbing, bumping, and creasing to the binder, particularly at the extremities.
An uncommon gathering of three early theatrical works by Kenneth Bernard (1930–2020), experimental playwright, poet, and novelist closely associated with John Vaccaro's Play-House of the Ridiculous and Ellen Stewart's La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club. A distinctive presence in the New York theatrical avant-garde of the late 1960s, Bernard developed a dramatic language characterized by grotesque comedy, sexual and social transgression, absurdist dialogue, and the subversion of conventional theatrical forms. His plays were integral to the development of the anarchic aesthetic of the Ridiculous movement.
All three plays were registered for copyright in the first months of 1968: The Monkeys of the Organ Grinder on January 18, and The Adjustment and Black Power's Going to Get You on March 11. The close correspondence between the recorded lengths of the copyright registrations and the present typescripts suggests that these reproduce substantially the same early textual versions.
The Monkeys of the Organ Grinder, the principal work in the collection, received its first performance at the New Theatre Workshop on February 17, 1969, directed by John Vaccaro, with a cast including Crystal Field, William Ostroff, Frank Dudley, and Jack Aaron. It was subsequently performed by the Wherehouse–La MaMa London Troupe, in its American debut, at Brecht West in New Brunswick, New Jersey, and at La MaMa E.T.C. in New York, September 24–30, 1970, again under Vaccaro's direction. A grotesque theatrical fantasia involving a bearded lady, a prostitute, a picture slasher, a hunchback, an organ grinder, and a policeman, the play combines violence, sexual provocation, and surreal comedy in a sequence culminating in a macabre photographic tableau. It was first published in Bernard's Night Club & Other Plays (Winter House, 1971).
Comparison with the first published text establishes a virtually verbatim correspondence, with minor textual variants, including differences in the spelling of dialogue and a stage direction, together with the conventional substitution of printed italics for typescript underlining. Notably, the typescript's "Fucken drowned" becomes "Fuckin drowned" in the printed edition, while "setting up exercises" becomes "sitting up exercises." These variants are consistent with an early theatrical text preceding its preparation for publication.
The two accompanying works, The Adjustment and Black Power's Going to Get You, are considerably more obscure, with no identified commercial publication or documented performance history. Their inclusion is particularly significant, preserving two apparently unpublished plays from Bernard's formative period as an experimental dramatist. Both were copyrighted in March 1968, contemporaneously with the emergence of his work in the Off-Off-Broadway theater.
The professional theatrical binding, contemporaneous address and telephone information, uniformity of the typescripts, and accumulated patina of the materials strongly suggest an early circulating copy, apparently assembled circa 1968–1970, before the first book publication of The Monkeys of the Organ Grinder. The binder's gilt-lettered cover identifies only that play, suggesting that the additional scripts were supplied as companion works for theatrical consideration. Although the precise circumstances of its circulation are undocumented, the grouping is consistent with material prepared for submission to directors, producers, or experimental theater companies.
An evocative survival from the formative years of the Play-House of the Ridiculous and the Off-Off-Broadway avant-garde, preserving three closely related early works in their apparent original-period theatrical format. A germane resource for the history of experimental American drama, La MaMa, John Vaccaro, and the literary and performance culture of late-1960s New York.
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