Theatre, Film & TV Poems by Michael
Benedikt
& Info. on 20th-Century European & US Play
Anthologies Edited by M.B.
[Last Modified 1/04, 9/03 & 3/03.
New in 3/03: All
Poems revised.]
Brief Print Media Bio of
Poet-Editor Benedikt
S i t e C o n t e n t s
(1)
Poems
about Entertainment World & Showbiz:
'Applause' 'Mysteries Of The Appetite' 'Airwaves'
& ' Rita & Ringo'
With 2 prose poems: 'The Mae West
Time Loop' & 'Visual Ears'
Featuring 3 Homages to Federico
Fellini--Opening sections of Microfictions-in-progress re Entertainment
World & Showbiz
(Like Italian Film Director Fellini's best-known films, fantasies on the
erotic side about struggling showbiz people).
Also here:
Links at this site to info
re 3 Showbiz poem Mini-Sites -- 'Of The
Colorf
ul Taganka Troupe
in Soviet Russia, l957';
'Of Orson Welles War of The Worlds' (poem-in-progress)
& 'Folonari Red Wine' (poem re a struggling rock
singer)
New: These
2 Links run directly to2 New-in-'04
sites re leading New Wave French Film Director
Jean-Luc Godard:
Translation of Scenario for
A Woman
Is A Woman & Essay on
Alphaville
(2)
20th-Century Theatre Anthologies Edited by MB including
French, German, Spanish & American Plays
Brief descriptions, 4 anthologies of Surrealist &
Surrealist-influenced drama from 'The Theater of The Absurd.'
Poetic Theater & 'Black Humor' from France, Germany, & Spain +
anti-Naturalistic plays from USA.
With Graphics of book jackets & playwright names & titles
& dates of plays.
Includes One-Act Plays. Gives Agent Contact for French play
performance-rights.
Click icon below for Antho-Info
Article at about.com re Benedikt & Websites
1.
When audience-members applaud, during a speech or theatrical
performance
or while attending a spectator sport,
etc.,
They're being even more generous with their energies than they think--if,
when they applaud, they do think--
Since what they're doing then
Is accelerating the death, by the millions
Of skin-cells in the surface, or dermis, of their hands; & many other
skin-cells too
Which unfortunately--like all the other cells within the body which
we destroy in various bruising ways--
are replaced at slower & slower rates
the older a person gets!
2.
& So, aside from the sheer physical energy applauders
enthusiastically spend & expend,
& which they might put to other &
perhaps more productive uses, such as patting their pets
or caressing their lovers or maybe even
polishing up their crockery
Or else--who knows what?--perhaps grabbing pens & pencils & drawing
up drafts
of their Last Wills &
Testaments
Applause, for the dedicated audience-member, is not only generous
But involves genuine personal sacrifice!
3.
I'm not sure of what the solution to that little problem of personal
self-attrition is--
particularly for those audience-members
who are especially health-conscious;
Unless perhaps, to show their appreciation for a performance that's
outstanding--
& particularly a performance that's
so outstanding it could cause all concerned
(as well as all those unconcerned), to
clap to a degree that virtually risks extinction--
What audience-members (particularly those who are especially health-conscious)
should do
Is go light on the applause--or else perhaps skip it
altogether--& stand up en masse & simply
shout in unison Hooray!" or "Right On!"
or even, perhaps, "Bravo!"
MYSTERIES OF THE APPETITE
I wonder sometimes
Whether our well-known Human Intellectual Curiosity About
Nature--reflected in part by
the ever-increasing numbers of programs
shown on both Educational & Commercial TV,
about Animal Life & Zoology (programs
with names such as "Wild Kingdom," "Wild
America," "Nature" & the like)
Most of which, rather oddly I think, tend to turn up on TV sometime around
dinnertime on
Sunday--
Is really so "Intellectual" or "Disinterested" a curiosity, as at first may
seem!
Yes, I really wonder sometimes whether the reason why such highly
educational programs exist--
Programs which after all inform us in great detail about such things as the
intimate habits of all kinds of animals,
giving us veritable storehouses of information
about such traits as the typical colors, including
the seasonal colorations, of their coats;
their characteristic means of camouflage when
frequenting various different terrains;
just where they forage for food & when; & just where
& when they're likely to be found
when awake or asleep, or off-guard during mating
Not to mention the locations of their lairs & hiding-places, & nests
& other sites
where they keep their nutrient-rich eggs
& raise their tender babies--
Isn't because, in some still-primitive parts of our cave-evolved psyches
We may be secretly interested in trapping, killing, & eating those very
same animals
--& Subconsciously, in case of some terrible emergency which
just might sometime befall this planet,
may actually be planning to do
just that!
AIRWAVES
1.
The difference between FM (or "Frequency-Modulated" Radio),
& AM (or "Amplitude Modulated") Radio, in my
opinion,
is that when you're just tuning around
& twiddling dials on FM
You're far more likely to encounter programs transcending the
imperatives
of mere bottom-line, base experience
than you are on AM;
& Far more frequently, hear people on FM
expressing sentiments which are elevated,
& sometimes, even, a certain nobility
of character!
--Could that perhaps be because
compared to the radio frequencies on which AM programs
are broadcast
the radio frequencies on which FM programs
are broadcast
Are literally, higher?
2.
Similarly, the difference between the Educational TV which, in
most local viewing areas
around the USA, graces channels on the upper or UHF
("Ultra-High" Frequency") bands,
& Commercial TV, which always wallows in the channels
broadcasting
on the lower, or VHF (merely "Very High Frequency")
bands, in my opinion,
is that when you're just tuning around
& twiddling dials on UHF
You're far more likely to encounter programs transcending the
imperatives
of mere bottom-line, base experience
than you are on VHF;
& Far more frequently, hear & see people on UHF
expressing sentiments which are elevated;
& sometimes, even, a certain nobility
of character!
--Could that perhaps be because
compared to the TV frequencies on which VHF programs
are broadcast,
the TV frequencies on which UHF programs
are broadcast,
Are also literally, higher?
3.
About Cable TV
I haven't formed an opinion yet;
Because the transmission-methods used by Cable are hybrid, relative to
frequency,
--& Because of course
The Cable-TV Industry
Is still in its infancy.
"Applause," "Mysteries of The Appetite," & "Airwaves" © l998 by Michael Benedikt. Webversions © 2003. All rights reseved.
for Rita Tushingham & Ringo Starr
1.
It's obviously dangerous in poetry, if you want your poems to last,
to risk making
reference after reference
Which just might not make much sense
To readers, just a few years later! After all, isn't it difficult
enough for a poet to write
poems which have a chance to last for a long
time, anyhow
Without stacking the deck against himself or herself that way, in the here
& now?
2.
Such risky--since alas potentially senseless!--poetic references,
it's clear,
Would include allusions to various half-forgotten, bygone times, & relatively
unknown places
& Similarly interesting things, unfamiliar to even most informed people
today;
--On the other hand, there are also references not too far-flung,
but perhaps too
familiar to consider
Such as much contemporary slang & other such probably temporary,
potentially
obscure nomenclatures
Which might seem strange as Sanskrit to readers, by even the very near
future
--& Perhaps chief among the latter, are references to stage & screen
stars
all the rage at any given present
moment!
3.
Let us make a little leap then, into just the recent historical
past
& Look at the problems, re making references to a couple of individuals
I can think of
Which--if we'd been writing poetry involving them just a few decades ago--we'd
now face:
For example, let's pretend that we're writing in the year l963
A.D;
& that somehow you or I have suddenly perceived
something of significance--
or at least that we think is
significant--about two rising pop-stars
& That we'd like very urgently to "Communicate To
Eternity"...
--Say, for example, that we suddenly perceived back there in '63
That Rita Tushingham, the charmingly winsome actress starring in
the then-brand-new
British film, A Taste of Honey (then just
making her debut as rising star, thanks to
her stirring portrayal of a runaway girl befriended
by a sensitive homosexual);
& Ringo Starr, the charmingly winsome, brand
new drummer for the British
Rock-&-Roll band "The Beatles" (then just
making his debut as rising star, too,
thanks to both his stirring drumming in tunes
like the Beatles' first 45 RPM single
"Love Me Do," & also his somewhat startling
hairdo)--
Both of whom, that year at least, displayed rather whimsically off-beat
& (I for one think) curiously endearing,
quasi-"Unisex" faces--
Share a certain rather striking physical resemblance!
& Let's pretend too, that the reason why we're absolutely
convinced
that the resemblance of those two talented stars
is significant,
Is because we've come to believe that the quasi-"Unisex " look we think they
share
Foretells nothing less than the much-forecasted, long overdue & final
(truly final)
Decline & Fall Of The Entire British Colonial
Empire!
--What with the traditional emphasis of that formerly vast global
enterprise
on distinctly masculine values & all
When, for prior century after century, it dominated practically the whole
wide world
& Was regarded, conventionally, as most "Successful."
4.
& Let us suppose then, that following our sudden realizations
& quasi-epiphanies, madly inspired
With our eyes rolling around wildly, our tongue hanging out, & our hair
standing up
on end despite the breeze,
One of us rushes to our clattery, old-fashioned, pre-computer-era
typewriter,
To make at least a temporary little household racket, by writing a poem about
all that;
Since although happily & deservingly, charmingly winsome Ringo
is still quite well known, both as
singer & actor
The equally charmingly winsome Rita has already, alas & double alas,
even as I write this--
& despite other, later, stellar & stirring
performances in such films as Doctor
Zhivago (l965)--been mostly & unjustly
forgotten today
Instead of having contributed an interesting insight on 20th century World
History
back in '63, as we expected,
Wouldn't we, then--if we'd referred only casually & without much further
explanation
to her (but not to him) in our
creation--
Have been practically dooming our poem to oblivion?
5.
Possibly! But since the majority of any poet's works will of course,
alas (& double-alas!)
probably be totally forgotten anyway,
Among others which he or she has higher hopes for (those poems, for
example,
intended to last at least as long as King Tut's
tomb!)
Let this poem too, praising the continuing stardom of Ringo Starr,
but deploring
among other things the fall from popular favor
of that fine actress,
Rita Tushingham,
Risk being mistaken by some for a "throwaway" poem
Such as a writer will sometimes whimsically produce, designed
specifically for
the light amusement of himself or herself &
perhaps a few old friends,
--& Also, of course, hopefully lots of others!
Notes '02 to 'Rita & Ringo'
Actress Rita Tushingham's latest film, after
prolonged absence from The Silver Screen, is still Under The
Skin (l997).
For a Tushingham filmography, please use Search Box at:
http://www.eonline.com/Search/Results/1,1049,,00.html
Ringo Starr's latest CDs are I Wanna Be Santa Claus ('99),
Anthology/10 Year Anniversary ('01), & King Biscuit Flower
Hour ('02).
For a Ringo Starr filmography, use Search Box at:
http://www.moviefinder.com/people/0,33,14898,00.html
A little-known, underappreciated, very amusing l960's film starring Ringo
Starr (a.k.a. Richard Starkey): The Magic Christian (l969).
With scenario based on a novel by Terry Southern, it's available on a Video
One Canada Videotape.
"Rita & Ringo" first appeared in The Michigan Quarterly
Review, © l996 by Michael Benedikt. With thanks to MQR
Editor
Laurence Goldstein for his editorial suggestions. Webversion © l998
by Michael Benedikt.
[Mae West]
THE MAE WEST TIME LOOP
( 1 ) Since the start of World War II the regulation life-jacket worn by sailors, from admirals and hot-shot naval pilots down to humble deck-swabbers, has been called the "'Mae West' Life-Jacket." The reason why it's called a "Mae West" involves a kind of rough, military humor; and a not particularly subtle joke at the expense of a major American movie-star--blonde, shapely, busty movie actress Mae West, who was perhaps the first of America's modern, truly full-fledged, film "sex-goddesses." Mae West was also renowned (and, in certain Hollywood circles, somewhat feared) for her exceptional intelligence; and for projecting a rather risque humor in such pre-war films such as My Little Chickadee (l940), co-starring W.C. Fields; and She Done Him Wrong (l933), her very first film, in which she seductively uttered to Cary Grant a mildly suggestive line once considered totally scandalous: "Why don't you come up and see me sometime?" ( 2 ) In any event The Mae West Life-Jacket, named after Mae West, is made of synthetic rubber or vinyl and is worn around the neck rather like a horsecollar--it's bright yellow, and the bulk of it hangs down a sailor's front, between neck and waist. So as to buoy up sinking sailors in a seagoing emergency, it's inflatable to over ten times normal size! ( 3 ) In 1941, at the start of World War II, sexy Mae West was at the very peak of her popularity. But by l945 when World War II was over, despite the millions of pin-ups which still adorned countless miltary lockers, Mae West's national popularity had shrunken considerably--American movie-fans having come to prefer, among the "cut-backs" of wartime, a somewhat leaner look in their movie-stars, too. And soon, fame being fickle, West was displaced still further by still later rising stars in the "Sex Goddess" category. Notably, by pretty, talented young Marilyn Monroe, who ballooned to stardom in the early l950's, and who soon gave rise to a host of imitators of her own particular brand of busty blonde beauty--imitators such as the far less talented, and therefore perhaps justly mostly forgotten Jayne Mansfield. ( 4 ) That was when, as an avid young Hollywood film fan and also as a teenager of somewhat philosophical bent, I first discovered the "Mae West Time Loop"; and gave it its name. ( 5 ) I first identified this phenomenon after seeing Marilyn Monroe in her first film, Blackboard Jungle (1950). Walking out of the ornately-decorated "Movie-Palace" in which I'd seen that film--and feeling rather self-conscious because I remember that I was wondering on that particular Saturday night whether I'd slicked down my hair enough by applying enough grease to it--it occured to me that the young Marilyn reminded me of a movie-star I'd seen before. But I couldn't quite figure out just who. 1920's-30's film siren Jean Harlow perhaps, whom I'd seen a few still photos of in various movie magazines? After all, many Hollywood columnists at the time claimed that the young Monroe literally looked like Harlow. But still, I wondered. (I must confess that another factor encouraging my doubts was that at that particular time--although I'd seen re-runs of several films starring Mae West--I'd never seen even a single, solitary film by Jean Harlow). ( 6 ) At last, after giving this weighty topic a lot more thought--a not unpleasureable form of activity, when compared for example to the demands on a teenager's thinking-time made by mountains of homework assigned to him in such subjects as American History, Social Studies, and Algebra--I came to what I considered to be a truly momentous conclusion. I concluded that the original model for the "Blonde Bombshell" aspect of Marilyn Monroe (a quality which Monroe later cultivated, and which at the time won the hearts of millions of American men and perhaps as many as a few dozen American women), was not , as all those Hollywood columnists claimed, Jean Harlow (deceased in l937)--but rather the one, the only, the inimitable (& still extant) Mae West! ( 7 ) The final knot in the loop was tied a few nights later when, coming home from work I noticed--on the cover of a copy of "Movie Fan Fun" magazine at a local newstand which I then instantly purchased (out of a sense of nostalgia for my teenage interest in film scholarship I suppose)--a photograph of Mae West at the premiere of her next-to-last movie, Myra Breckenridge (1970). There she was again! Mae West, in the limelight once again and surrounded by armies of photographers with their flashbulbs. And, despite various superficial and purely chronological signs of age, looking almost as fresh and astonishingly glamorous as ever! That amazed me since--due to the loathesomely strict Hollywood censorship codes prevalent in the l940's and l950's and which even carried over into the mid-l960's--for several decades sexy, funny, intelligent Mae West hadn't appeared in films at all; and. I suppose some misguided people might say, thus hadn't looked like anyone at all--hadn't existed, even! It was then that--making a final, great quantum leap of imagination--I came to my final, and most truly momentous conclusion of all. ( 8 ) I concluded that the aura of glamour which radiated from Mae West even after so many decades, was not the result of any attempt on her part to imitate the way the young Marilyn Monroe looked (which I for one had come to think of as being rather like Mae West), much less the result of any effort on her part to look like any of the Marilyn Monroe imitators (such as Jayne Mansfield); but rather that the reason why Mae West looked so glamorous was because that otherwise ancient actress (who was 77 in l970), was looping back to looking exactly like herself--i.e., the original, the incomparable, the one and only Mae West! ( 9 ) Ah, to have the courage to skip Marilyn Monroe entirely and to return without reference to imitators, to one's own origins!--that's what I call creating a "Mae West Time Loop." ( 10 ) Of course, it's true that any person who--instead of following current fashion--dares to be true to himself or herself alone, can at any given moment weave, braid, or otherwise create such a time-loop. ( 11 ) In short: May God bless and keep you, Oh our first and still reigning Sex-Goddess of the Modern American Screen, Mae West.
Notes '02 to 'Mae
West'
Although it's true that The Rolling Stones now include new versions
of "oldies but goodies" on most of their albums, the most recent collection
of "Greatest Hits" by Mick Jagger and The Rolling Stones is Rewind
(l984). A videotape of Rewind
is available on Vestron Video. The Stones' latest CDs are No Security
(l998) and Some Girls (2001).
VISUAL EARS
OR, THE JOY OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY
Lying down in bed the other day I thought I felt something I couldn't quite define, moving around somewhere in the vicinity of the left side of my head. It stirred in a stately way, with a definite and regular rhythm and pulse--a little like Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in the waltz sequence in the film Top Hat (1935). Then I realized it was only my left ear, pressed very hard against my pillow, and through which blood was flowing so as to increase and decrease lobe size just slightly with each and every additional heartbeat. Rolling over, I pressed the opposite side of my head against the pillow and felt around to discover whether, under similar conditions, the same dance-like motion would occur on the other side of my head, too. Sure enough, there it was. Ah, how orderly Nature is! I thought. How excellent that the effect should be so symmetrical! And so once again I found myself marveling at the wonders of Nature. For a moment, I even felt like one of the great inventors of boons to Humanity--like Galileo inventing the telescope, Newton defining gravity, Columbus discovering America; or America's Ronald MacDonald inventing MacDonald's and then internationalizing the hamburger. After all, hadn't I discovered--on my very own and without any assistance whatsoever and totally independent of any earlier researches by others--nothing less than The Correct Methodology For Hearing Ears? After that truly great achievement, I was of course feeling justifiably proud of myself, and raring to go out, kick up my heels, and celebrate--but since due to my exhaustive researches on that particular night it was getting kind of late, I settled for resting on my laurels by simply rolling over and trying to go back to sleep again. That was when a host of still more intricate, still more demandingly scientific questions arose in my mind. Were there perhaps still other, alternative methods of hearing ears which--in my undue haste to congratulate myself, perhaps with an eye to winning next year's Nobel Prize in Science for my monumental work--I had somehow overlooked? For example, couldn't one also listen to one ear with one's other, opposite ear? Or perhaps, listen with both one's inner ears, to both one's outer ears? And if--exhausted as I was--I went so far as to attempt to spring to my feet and then stagger over to a mirror, would I perhaps be able to actually see the rhythmic changes in my ears as--excitedly and full of the joy of discovery as hoofer Gregory Hines and ballet-dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov discovering the joys of tap-dancing together in the film White Nights (l985)--with ever-increasing excitement my restless, relentlessly investigative heart beat on and on? I found that idea so thrilling and enchanting, yet somehow so soothing, that I immediately fell asleep--only to spend the rest of the night tossing and turning. And the next morning, feeling like Einstein, I awoke with a terrible nosebleed.
"The Mae West Time Loop" & "Visual Ears" from Mole
Notes by Michael Benedikt (Wesleyan University Press, l971)
© l971 Michael Benedikt, who is presently sole owner of copyright.
Webversions "The Mae West Time Loop" © 2000 by Michael Benedikt &
"Visual Ears" © l999 by Michael Benedikt. Revisions ©
2003.
Top of Site Top of Poems Top Prose Poems
MICROFICTIONS-IN-PROGRESS RE ENTERTAINMENT WORLD & SHOWBIZ
THREE HOMAGES TO FELLINI
Fantasies In Honor of 20th-Century Italian Film Director Federico Fellini
Given just below: Titles & thumbnail
scenarios of our 3 Fellini tributes.
New in '03: After Scenarios are the
opening sections of each Hommage. All 3, re struggling showbiz people
& on the erotic side
(1)
The Rising Young Actress, Terri
Korn--A seasoned Broadway theater
critic's capacity for objectivity is compromised
by strong feelings evoked in him by plays acted in by a sprite-like young
starlet who reminds him of his very first love.
(2)
The Blue
Doves; or Tami, A Headstrong
Performer--Idiosyncratic star
of Alaskan ice-dancing trio
insists on figure-skating topless, as jealous partners seethe.
(3)
Zampini, The Pornographic
Clown--At late-night circus
performances for adults,
a Sicilian circus-clown introduces erotic toys into his juggling
act.
(Fantasies when complete, will each be about a page or two)
Thumbnail Scenarios for "The Rising Young Actress Terri Korn" "The Blue Doves" & "Zampini The Pornographic Clown" © 2001 by Michael Benedikt
THE RISING YOUNG ACTRESS, TERRI KORN
OR, A STAR IS BORN
We’ve all seen her act and--as our enthusiastic reviews doubtless reflect--most of us on the Broadway theater beat have found her hard to resist, despite the customary reserve of our critical demeanor. With her boyish Joan-of-Arc hairdo, tragically truncated jet-black locks and strikingly pale white skin she performs only intensely dramatic roles--yet petite, sensitive young Terri Korn has the delightfully playful face of a pixie! The corners of her eyes and tips of her ears tilt up--like those of a sprite! And, as my fellow critics and I can also clearly see from our privileged positions in the front row seats located just beneath the footlights, despite her rather full, "bee-stung" lips, the corners of Terri's mouth tilt up as well! The latter feature giving her face-- for all its youthful charm and despite the fact that she claims to have just turned 18--the hieratic smile and the mature, goddess-like look of one who even at her relatively young age has already Seen It All And Done It All--and yet lived to tell the story! Her jet-black eyelashes are exceptionally long--so that whenever she opens wide her pale blue-green eyes for her enraptured audiences, her face takes on a doll-like look of sudden alarm--as if, again and again, she were recalling having seen things somewhere along the line that she shouldn't have seen and that perhaps that none of us should have seen--those sights being quite dreadful or minimally at least quite scandalous....
OR, TAMI, A HEADSTRONG PERFORMER
"The Blue Doves--Women Ice-Skaters of Renown" as they rather ambitiously if somewhat overstatedly bill themselves, are a trio of ice-dancers known--indeed virtually notorious--in a far-off corner of Alaska populated mainly by Eskimos of the Kaguyak tribe, traveling fur-traders, itinerant loggers, wistfully nostalgic, grizzled old gold-panners and local bush pilots and their families. Still, despite their local Alaskan fame, thus far The Blue Doves have remained virtually unknown elsewhere... The Blue Doves have non-stage names of course, but to their adoring Eskimo and other fans they're simply known as "Rusty"--for her striking, flaming red hair; "Suki"--for her Asian good looks; and as the inimitable, untamable, "Tami." It's Tami, tallest of the three, around whom their act literally "revolves." For Tami s the centerpiece of their most popular number, "The Windmill"--that eye-catching, classic trio figure-skating maneuver in which a central skater grasps each of her two partners by one hand and then rotates faster and faster until gradually the blades of her partners' skates leave the surface of the ice--so that finally their whirling bodies spin outflung several feet above the floor of the ice-rink and almost parallel to it! Yes, as their audiences begin rhythmically clapping harder and harder with each turn and chanting the name of the tall, powerful dancer pirouetting between her partners and anchoring their daredevil spins, it's clearly Tami for whom those thunderous reactions are mostly meant... All three Doves are already in their early 30's--decidedly "mature'' as ice-dancers go. But despite the accolades they've received, despite financial rewards sufficient to enable them to earn a living and to keep their act together, all three are painfully aware of the fact that even after a decade and a half, their act has yet to "really get going" or achieve "Maximum Potential."... The reason why The Blue Doves haven't yet surfaced in the public eye and gained the mass-audience, "family crowd" popularity they so richly deserve is that--while their costumes are dazzling (particularly the eye-catching, splendidly voluminous blue chinchilla jackets and sky-blue leotards strewn with starry rhinestones from which the troupe is said to have derived its name), their ice-skating accomplished and their performances of their eye-catching choreographic routines flawless, Tami has an unusual--if indeed not absolutely insane--idiosyncrasy. For Tami absolutely insists on skating without wearing the top of her sky-blue leotard, and with her voluminous blue chinchilla jacket flung wide open--in other words, topless and nude to the waist! Yes!--while her partners wear the tops of their azure leotards fastened snugly around their necks, affixed with prim little gold silk neckbands knotted up neatly into bows, Tami--who fancies herself a bit of an "artiste"--wears only the gold silk neckband and just skips the rest....
THE INDECENCIES OF
ZAMPINI, THE PORNOGRAPHIC CLOWN
During conservative times, most performers feel obliged to "clean up their
acts." But due to his rebellious, contrary nature Zampini, a popular circus
clown in "The Circus of The Stars"--a small, struggling touring Italian circus
troupe in Northern Sicily whose "gimmick" was playing to adult audiences
at late-night performances in tents located at the outskirts of towns, admitting
children only to afternoon sideshows where kids could avail themselves
of such relatively innocent treats as sugar-enhanced cotton candy and overpriced,
freshly-made Italian ices--decided to make his act a whole lot "dirtier."
At Showtime, instead of making his entrances in the Big Top relatively
inconspicuously as he used to do--at the rear of circus-parades while waving
around balloons of assorted shapes and sizes or while carrying rubber baseball
bats and other such props which he'd then whack his fellow circus clowns
over their heads with--he began making his entrances more ostentatiously.
Yes!--by scurrying towards the fronts of circus parades and waving over his
head dildos of assorted shapes and sizes--aiming them especially at such
circus-parade marchers as scantily clad, ethereal-looking magicians' assistants
and at the muscular, still more scantily-clad members (both male and female)
of high-wire acts. And his folly grew still worse yet, as evenings wore on!
Instead of bending over meekly to pluck an imaginary flower from the edge
of the center ring as he used to do while letting his pants fall down (which
he'd formerly pull up promptly out of real or feigned embarrassment) he wouldn't
pull them up at all--and while starring acts did their best to continue their
routines beneath The Big Top as usual, he'd stumble around in
the background with his baggy clown boxer-shorts with the big pink hearts
on them around his knees. Instead of using multicolored balls or juggling
clubs to perform with, he'd station himself at various points in the arena
and juggle assortments of sado-masochistic paraphernalia such as whips,
spanking-paddles, and ball-gags. And when in a particularly risqué
or impertinent mood, daring Zampini would go so far as to climax his antics
by unzipping his fly and letting an implicit ejaculation of butterflies fly
out! All of this while--despite certain misgivings about the extremes
to which Zampini took his slapstick clown routines--late-night crowds laughed
uproariously.
But still worse yet from the point of view of
those of us who like myself prize propriety and restraint in all
things, were his finales. Towards the close of evenings, instead
of running around the edge of the arena throwing candy-bars into the
crowd, he'd prance around flinging handfuls of condoms into their midst--finally
disporting himself in the center ring and reigning supreme there beneath
the spotlights, while astonished magicians and their assistants, envious
wire-walkers, and disgruntled lion tamers looked on from the sidelines in
jealousy and amazement.…
These Webversions of "The Rising Young Actress Terri Korn;
or A Star Is Born" "The Blue Doves; or Tami, A Headstrong Performer"
& "The Indecencies of Zampini, The Porno. Clown" © 2003 by Michael
Benedikt. All Rights Reserved.
Any similarity to persons living, demised, or in in-between states such as
catatonic or cryogenic suspension, is purely coincidental.
MORE OF THE 3 FANTASIES TO COME TO THIS THEATER SITE--OR TO A LINKED MINI-SITE--IN '04
In the meantime, here's an Off-Site Link to a page of verse re
a show-biz figure (a rock vocalist):
'Folonari Red Wine'
And here's an On-Site Link to further info re Site including
'Folonari'--The
Thesaurus & Other New Verse
And, speaking of erotic fantasies, here's another Off-Site Link
to a preposterously popular page of
Dark Love Poems
And here's another On-Site Link to further info re Site including
'Dark Love Poems'
page--Early
Poetry Books--Body & Sky
Top of Site Top of Poems Top of Fantasies
Click down for Theatre Antho.-Info
Complete Bio. in Who's Who in America, Who's Who in Entertainment, etc
Note: Many of Benedikt's books are now briefly represented at various websites
Contemporary US poet, editor & translator Michael Benedikt has published five collections of poetry: The Badminton at Great Barrington; or Gustave Mahler & The Chattanooga Choo-Choo (Univ. Pittsburgh Press, l980); poetry books published by Wesleyan U. Press are Night Cries (prose poems, l976); Mole Notes (prose poems, l971); Sky (l970); and The Body (l968). Anthologies of poetry under his editorship are The Prose Poem: An International Anthology (Dell/Laurel, l976); and The Poetry of Surrealism (Little-Brown, l975). Benedikt is a former Associate Editor of Art News and Art International, and a former Poetry Editor of The Paris Review. Selections from his tenure as Poetry Ed. appear in The Paris Review Anthology (Norton, l990). He's currently a Contributing Editor for American Poetry Review. His poetry in verse & in prose has appeared in 65+ anthologies of US poetry. He's taught as Visiting Prof. at Bennington, Sarah Lawrence, Hampshire, and Vassar College/s; and at Boston University; & since l962 has resided in Manhattan. In l986 he gave an audiotaped reading from his poetry at invitation of Literature Division of Library of Congress. Most recent readings at several Barnes & Noble 'Superstores' in NY Metro area.
Benedikt's Theatre Anthologies include 3 anthos. of 20th-Century European plays from "The Theater of The Absurd" published by E. P. Dutton & Co. in Dutton drama series. Co-edited with theater critic George E. Wellwarth: Modern French Theatre: The Avant-Garde, Dada, & Surrealism (l964; in UK, issued as Modern French Plays, Faber & Faber, Ltd., l966); Post-War German Theatre (l967; in UK, MacMillan & Co., Ltd., l967); & Modern Spanish Theatre (l969). Many plays in these anthos.--which focus on Surrealist & Surrealist-influenced drama--appear in translations by Benedikt. He's also the editor of Theatre Experiment, a collection of 20th cent. American anti-naturalistic drama & scripts of "Happenings" (Doubleday, l967). In USA, all 4 volumes of plays were issued in both hardcover & paperback editions.
Theatre Anthologies ed. M.B.--Descriptions & Play/Playwright Names
Note: All 4 of these 20th century
theater anthologies are OP (currently out-of-print)--but are still available
via Web booksellers
& via brick-&-mortar stores selling rare/used books, & in various
libraries. All plays in translation, many by Benedikt
Agent for French play translation performing rights, adoption of
plays for other anthologies, etc:
Georges Borchardt, Inc., 136 E. 57th St., N.Y.., N.Y. 10022
[212-753-5785--Fax: 212-838-6518]
MODERN FRENCH THEATRE: THE AVANT-GARDE, DADA, & SURREALISM. Gen'l Introduction by Benedikt to roots of 20th-century Surrealist drama in France, and the related drama of the "Theater Of The Absurd" which flourished in France and elsewhere during the l950's, l960's & l970's--and which continues to be highly influential today. Also, Mini-Introductions to 17 key plays with a dark or "black" humor. Included in this volume are plays by: Alfred Jarry (King Ubu, l896); Guillaume Apollinaire (The Breasts of Tiresias, l917); Jean Cocteau (The Wedding on The Eiffel Tower, 1921); Raymond Radiguet (The Pelicans, 1921); Tristan Tzara (The Gas Heart, 1920); Andre Breton/Phillippe Soupault (If You Please, l920); Armand Salacrou (A Circus Story, 1922); Louis Aragon (The Mirror-Wardrobe One Fine Evening, 1923); Antonin Artaud (Jet of Blood, l925); Roger Vitrac (The Mysteries of Love, l924); Rene Daumal (En Gggarrrde!, l924); Roger Gilbert-Lecomte (The Odyssey of Ulysses The Palmiped, l924), Robert Desnos (La Place de l'Etoile, 1927-1944); Jean Anouilh/Jean Aurenche (Humulus The Mute, l929); Jean Tardieu (One Way For Another, l951); Robert Pinget (Architruc, l961); and Eugene Ionesco (The Painting, l954).
[One-act plays in this volume: Cocteau, Aragon,
Artaud, Daumal, Lecomte, Anouilh/Aurenche, Tardieu, Pinget, & Ionesco.
Also shorter plays: those by Radiguet & Tzara.]
Play by Jarry co-translated by Benedikt &
Wellwarth. Other plays translated by Benedikt in this volume:
Cocteau, Radiguet, Tzara, Aragon, Daumal, Gilbert-LeComte, Anouilh/Aurenche,
Desnos & Pinget
POST-WAR GERMAN THEATRE. General Introduction by George E. Wellwarth, re background of anti-naturalistic theatre in Post-World-War II Germany. Gen'l Intro includes Mini-Introductions to 11 key protest and other plays included in this volume by: Georg Kaiser (The Raft of the Medusa, l943); Wolfgang Borchert (The Outsider, l946); Erwin Sylvanus (Dr. Korczak and the Children, l957); Friedrich Durrenmatt (Incident at Twilight, l959); Max Frisch (The Great Fury of Philip Hotz, l958); Tankred Dorst (Freedom for Clemens, l961); Carl Lazlo (Let's Eat Hair and The Chinese Icebox, l956); Gunter Grass (Rocking Back & Forth, l960); Wolfgang Hildesheimer (Nightpiece, l962); and Peter Weiss (The Tower, l948).
[One-act plays in this volume: Lazlo, Frisch, Grass & Weiss]
Plays translated by Benedikt in this volume: Borchert, Frisch, Grass & Weiss
MODERN SPANISH THEATRE. General Introduction by Michael Benedikt, re the roots of l9th & 20th century anti-naturalistic, nationalist "poetic theatre" in Spain. Also Mini-Introductions to 8 key Surrealist-"Absurdist" plays included in this volume by: Ramon Maria del Valle-Inclan (Divine Words, l913); Federico Garcia Lorca (The Shoemaker's Prodigious Wife, 1930); Miguel Mihura (Three Top Hats, l932); Alejandro Casona (Suicide Prohibited in Springtime, l937); Rafael Alberti (Night and War in The Prado Museum, l956); Fernando Arrabal (First Communion, l962); Lauro Olmo (The News Item, l963); and Jose-Maria Bellido (Football, l963).
[One-act plays in this volume: Arrabal & Olmo]
Play translated by Benedikt in this volume--from the French: Arrabal.
THEATRE EXPERIMENT. General Introduction by M.B. re background of anti-naturalistic stagecraft & theater in USA. Mini-lntroductions to the 13 key plays included in this volume, including plays by: Thornton Wilder, William Saroyan, Ring Lardner, Wallace Stevens, E.E. Cummings, Gertrude Stein, Paul Goodman, Robert Lowell, Kenneth Koch, Rosalyn Drexler, Jack Richardson, Russell Edson, and Ruth Krauss. Also, brief Intros. to 3 major "Happening"-type events of the l960's--scripts by Robert Whitman, Carolee Schneemann, & Allan Kaprow in collaboration with Charles Frazier.
[One-act plays in US experimental theater volume: info forthcoming. Cover image at top of site]
Below: Playbill, 3 Poetry Events
organized by MB & performed at NYC's 92nd St "Y" Poetry Center,
1969.
Incl. 'Box,' a multi-media collaboration by Benedikt with sculptor
Charles Frazier & dancer Linda Tarnay.
(Other Events by poet/art critic John Perreault & sculptor Marjorie
Strider).
Playbill cover design based on painting by Jim Dine: 'Midsummer Wall,' l966. Courtesy Sonnabend Gallery, NYC.
Below: Scene fom Benedikt's 'Box, a collaboration with Charles Frazier & Linda Tarnay
Linda Tarnay in Finale. Photo (& giant,
flexible, foam-rubber letters) by sculptor Charles
Frazier.
Info on this, & other Benedikt pocket events integrating poetry,
theatre, dance & the visual arts, is given at
Body &
Sky
--one of the links given at close of this site. To leave this
site & go directly to page of Body-Sky Site
with pocket events info:
Thematic
Index to Body and Sky.
Below: Playbill, short play
by MB performed at Cafe Cino, Manhattan, mid-l960's:
'The Vaseline Photographer--A Morality Play'
Top of Site Top of Poems Top of Fantasies Top of Anthologies
OTHER BENEDIKT
LINKS
Most sites have a return-link to this
site
'The Compleat Michael Benedikt--Poet Laureate of the
Net'
Info at About.com re Background of Benedikt
Websites
(Article posted by About.com 4/99)
Academy of American Poets--Michael
Benedikt
Includes a complete bio. & a poem from each of Benedikt's 5 published
poetry books except for
Mole Notes, 2 poems from which appear at this Theatre, Film
& TV site
(Pages posted by Academy 5/99)
Interview at E-Zine
Thermopylae:
'Writers Talk About 2000'
On Literature, Technology & The Web
(Interview posted by Thermopylae 4/00)
SHOWBIZ-RELATED SITES
'Of
The C o
l o
r f
u l Taganka Troupe
in Soviet Russia, l957'--about an iconoclastic theater company
& its sparkling performance before stuffed-shirt Moscow officials in
politically & artistically repressive times
Note for fans of Russian Theatre: After repressive Stalin Years
& aftermath, T. Troupe reunited in Moscow,
& flourishes afresh at Moscow's Taganka Theater today. (BTW, Taganka's
a district in Moscow).
'Of
Orson Welles Remarkable l938 Radio Broadcast, The War Of The Worlds'--about
program that shook a Nation
(Subtext at above 2 mini-sites: State Arts
Censorship)
'Folonari Red Wine' Page of
Thesaurus
& Other New Verse--a site with selections from work-in-progress entitled
OF:
SITES IN GENERAL
Early
Poetry Books--The Body (l968) and Sky (1970).
Home Page of multi-paged site. Has Y2K-era updates of verse
from MB's
first 2 poetry books. Includes a
Selected
Poems page with
'Some Litanies,' 4
poem-playlets. &, a page of
Dark Love Poems.
Thematic
Index of topics in both books includes
photos/info re Benedikt's later l960's Theater
Events. New:
Sky-page
New:
Desnos 2.
Other poems, & opening stanzas of Desnos' detective-story ballad
'Fantomas'
Opening Acts of Desnos' play La Place de l'Etoile scheduled
to appear in '04.
PROSE POEMS
The Fantasies
of Aloysius Bertrand--lst French Prose Poet.
Intro. & 10 Selected Translations. Includes the 3 poems on which
Ravel based his piano suite, 'Gaspard de la Nuit.'
Sound files with Ravel's Bertrand-based music temporarily
disabled
WORKS-IN-PROGRESS
Early versions of most poems in works-in-progress 1st appeared in various US literary magazines
The Thesaurus & Other New Verse. Selections from manuscript-in-progress entitled OF:.
Poems from
Boston & Cambridge, a.k.a. Modern Cat Poetry--Alice's Pages from
Boston & Cambridge.
Verse about literary life & academia, incl. Xmas cat-poem from
mss.-in-progress entitled Transitions
(Formerly known as 'Modern Cat Poetry--Alice's Pages from Boston
& Cambirdge.'
Yes, tens of thousands of purely personal "cat-sites" to the contrary, there
is such a thing as "Modern Cat Poetry"--
"cat poetry" using all the resources of Modern Poetry.
With Poem-in-progress re Donald Hall & Jane Kenyon, & poem-cycle
"Teenage Passions."
Note: Transitions is
mainly narrative poems. OF: has poems in several
genres.
4 MINI-SITES WITH OTHER POEMS FROM TRANSITIONS
'Of An Only Child's World'--growing up siblingless on a siblingless planet
'A m er ic an Vi br at io ns'--19th-century USA's heretofore unsung Female Erotic Pioneers
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