Barbara Garson (born July 7, 1941,
Brooklyn
Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...
) is an American playwright, author and
social activist
Activism (or Advocacy) consists of efforts to promote, impede, direct or intervene in social, political, economic or environmental reform with the desire to make changes in society toward a perceived greater good. Forms of activism range ...
, perhaps best known for the play ''
MacBird!''
Education and personal life
Garson attended the
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant un ...
, where she earned a B.A. specializing in Classical History in 1964. She was active in the
Free Speech Movement
The Free Speech Movement (FSM) was a massive, long-lasting student protest which took place during the 1964–65 academic year on the campus of the University of California, Berkeley. The Movement was informally under the central leadership of Be ...
, as the editor of ''The Free Speech Movement Newsletter'', which was printed on an offset press that she herself had restored. She was one of 800 arrested on December 2, 1964 at a sit-in at Sproul Hall, Berkeley, following the "Machine Speech" by
Mario Savio
Mario Savio (December 8, 1942 – November 6, 1996) was an American activist and a key member of the Berkeley Free Speech Movement. He is most famous for his passionate speeches, especially the "Bodies Upon the Gears" address given at Spro ...
.
In 1968, Garson had a child, Juliet, and in 1969 she went to work at
The Shelter Half, an anti-war GI coffee house near
Fort Lewis Army base in
Tacoma, Washington
Tacoma ( ) is the county seat of Pierce County, Washington, United States. A port city, it is situated along Washington's Puget Sound, southwest of Seattle, northeast of the state capital, Olympia, and northwest of Mount Rainier National Pa ...
. In the early 1970s, she moved to Manhattan, publishing short, humorous essays and theater reviews primarily for ''
The Village Voice
''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newspaper, alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf (publisher), Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, th ...
'' as well as plays.
''MacBird!''
Garson's most famous work, ''
MacBird!'', a 1966 counterculture drama/political parody of ''Macbeth'' is "one of the most controversial plays produced in the 1960s".
[''Contemporary Authors: New Revision Series'', vol.110. Detroit: Gale, 2002.] It was originally intended for an
anti-war teach-in
A teach-in is similar to a general educational forum on any complicated issue, usually an issue involving current political affairs. The main difference between a teach-in and a seminar is the refusal to limit the discussion to a specific time fr ...
at Berkeley. The first edition, which was self-published on the same offset press as the ''Free Speech Movement Newsletter'', had sold over 200,000 copies by 1967 when the play opened in New York in a production starring
Stacy Keach
Walter Stacy Keach Jr. (born June 2, 1941) is an American actor and narrator. He has played mainly dramatic roles throughout his career, often in law enforcement or as a private detective. His most prominent role was as Mickey Spillane's fiction ...
,
William Devane
William Joseph Devane (born September 5, 1939) is an American actor. He is known for his role as Greg Sumner on the primetime soap opera ''Knots Landing'' (1983–1993) and as James Heller on the Fox serial dramas '' 24'' (2001–2010) and '' ...
,
Cleavon Little
Cleavon Jake Little (June 1, 1939 – October 22, 1992) was an American stage, film, and television actor. He began his career in the late 1960s on the stage. In 1970, he starred in the Broadway production of '' Purlie'', for which he earned both ...
, and
Rue McClanahan
Eddi-Rue McClanahan (February 21, 1934 – June 3, 2010) was an American actress and comedian best known for her roles on television as Vivian Harmon on '' Maude'' (1972–78), Aunt Fran Crowley on '' Mama's Family'' (1983–84), and Blanche ...
. While these then-unknown actors went on to become fixtures in American theater, movies and television, the author "disappeared from public view at the height of fame". The play has since seen over 300 productions worldwide and sold over half a million copies".
''MacBird!'' is remembered as an attack on then-U.S. President
Lyndon Johnson. In fact, it presented Johnson's predecessor,
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK and the nickname Jack, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until his assassination ...
, and his would-be successor
Robert F. Kennedy
Robert Francis Kennedy (November 20, 1925June 6, 1968), also known by his initials RFK and by the nickname Bobby, was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 64th United States Attorney General from January 1961 to September 1964, ...
as equally unacceptable but more dangerously alluring. Garson wanted her fellow 1960s activists to step away from the Democratic Party and create their own institutions, including a third party. To that end, she could sometimes be seen outside of California theaters where ''MacBird!'' was playing, gathering signatures to put the
Peace and Freedom Party on the ballot. Critical reaction was mixed and the play "has had advocates and detractors of equal stature."
Dwight Macdonald, in ''
The New York Review of Books
''The New York Review of Books'' (or ''NYREV'' or ''NYRB'') is a semi-monthly magazine with articles on literature, culture, economics, science and current affairs. Published in New York City, it is inspired by the idea that the discussion of i ...
'', called it "the funniest, toughest-minded most ingenious political satire I've read in years…"
Robert Brustein
Robert Sanford Brustein (born April 21, 1927) is an American theatrical critic, producer, playwright, writer, and educator. He founded both the Yale Repertory Theatre in New Haven, Connecticut, and the American Repertory Theatre in Cambridge, Ma ...
wrote that "Although this play is bound to start a storm of protest (not all of it unjustified) and may even be suppressed by some government agency, it will probably go down as one of the brutally provocative works in the American theater as well as one of the most grimly amusing," and praised Garson as "an extraordinarily gifted parodist."
Other plays
Garson's next full-length play, ''Going Co-op'' (1972), was a comedy about residents of an
Upper West Side
The Upper West Side (UWS) is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It is bounded by Central Park on the east, the Hudson River on the west, West 59th Street to the south, and West 110th Street to the north. The Upper West ...
apartment house going co-op and a floundering left wing political collective that comes home to help organize the tenants who cannot afford to change from renters to owners. It was written with
Fred Gardner, who is credited with founding the first of the Vietnam-era GI Coffee Houses.
Garson's musical children's play ''The Dinosaur Door'', set on a class trip to the
Natural History Museum
A natural history museum or museum of natural history is a scientific institution with natural history collections that include current and historical records of animals, plants, fungi, ecosystems, geology, paleontology, climatology, and more. ...
, was performed at the
Theater for the New City
Theater for the New City, founded in 1971 and known familiarly as "TNC", is one of New York City's leading off-off-Broadway theaters, known for radical political plays and community commitment. Productions at TNC have won 43 Obie Awards and the P ...
in 1976. It featured a cast of children including seven-year-old Mark Vincent, now known as the action hero
Vin Diesel
Mark Sinclair (born July 18, 1967), known professionally as Vin Diesel, is an American actor. One of the world's highest-grossing actors, he is best known for playing Dominic Toretto in the ''Fast & Furious'' franchise.
Diesel began auditio ...
. It was awarded an
Obie for playwriting in 1977.
A
Village Voice
''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, the ''Voice'' began as a platform for the cr ...
review said about ''The Dinosaur Door'': "What's so marvelous is the richness of this stew, the... world behind the exhibits and the absolutely on-the-mark funny, sympathetic kids—each special and practical, each a person in his own or her own right. I liked the satirical but warmly affectionate eye with which Garson sees every character and the show's tenderly complex relationships. I like that Garson is not chary with ideas because she is writing for kids."
A teleplay of ''The Dinosaur Door'' was commissioned by producer-director
Joyce Chopra
Joyce Chopra (; born October 27, 1936) is an American director.
She was married to American stage and screenwriter Tom Cole until his death on February 23, 2009.
Life and career
Chopra was one of three siblings born in New York City to Abraha ...
in 1982, but no film of the play was made.
A full-length play, ''The Department'' (1983), written for and performed by the organizing group Women Office Workers (WOW), is set in a bank's back office that is about to be automated. ''The Department'', though a light farce, sets out many of the problems that Garson expands on in her 1989 book ''The Electronic Sweatshop''.
Non-fiction
In addition to plays, Garson is the author of four non-fiction books:
* ''All the Livelong Day: The Meaning and Demeaning of Routine Work'', Doubleday, New York, 1975.; Expanded edition, Penguin, 1994.
* ''The Electronic Sweatshop: How Computers Are Transforming the Office of the Future into the Factory of the Past'', Simon & Schuster, N.Y., 1988.
* ''Money Makes the World Go Around: One Investor Tracks Her Cash Through the Global Economy'', Viking, N.Y., 2001.
* ''Down the Up Escalator: How the 99 Percent Live in the Great Recession'', Doubleday, N.Y., 2013.
These books address complex phenomena of capitalism through dramatic anecdotes and interviews. Each describes a historical turning point through the voices of a range of people who may or may not fully grasp the changes happening in their own lives.
In ''Money Makes the World Go Around'', Garson explicates the global economy by depositing her book advance in a one branch small town bank, and then following that money's theoretical path around the world. At one point, her money was invested in Suez, the French company that owned Johannesburg's water system. When protesters were arrested for opposing price increases and water shut offs, Garson organized a "shareholders" demonstration on their behalf in front of the South African consulate in New York City.
Garson insists that activism is essential to her writing. But her plays and non-fiction feature layered characters and plot twists that are often irrelevant or even inimical to liberal and socialist tenets. Indeed, ''Money Makes the World Go Around'' was largely ignored by the
anti-globalization movement
The anti-globalization movement or counter-globalization movement, is a social movement critical of economic globalization. The movement is also commonly referred to as the global justice movement, alter-globalization movement, anti-globalis ...
within which Garson was active, while a ''
The Wall Street Journal
''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...
'' review said "Ms. Garson recounts her travels with a disarmingly balanced combination of amazement and social concern" and
Business Week said "...her voice is so persistently good-natured and her intelligence so obvious that by the end of this curious capitalist's
Baedeker
Verlag Karl Baedeker, founded by Karl Baedeker on July 1, 1827, is a German publisher and pioneer in the business of worldwide travel guides. The guides, often referred to simply as " Baedekers" (a term sometimes used to refer to similar works fro ...
you can't help but trust her gentle judgments."
Her latest book, ''Down the Up Escalator: How the 99 Percent Live in the Great Recession'', is concerned with the effects of the
Great Recession
The Great Recession was a period of marked general decline, i.e. a recession, observed in national economies globally that occurred from late 2007 into 2009. The scale and timing of the recession varied from country to country (see map). At ...
"reshaping people's lives and prospects".
[''Kirkus Reviews''. February 1, 2013.] Kirkus Reviews admires Garson's "brutal clarity" and calls it a "skillful presentation that lifts the veil".
George Packer, writing in ''
The New Yorker
''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...
'', says of Garson, "she's written several books of social reportage about work and money, and this steady engagement over many decades has honed an appealing voice: wry, modest, realistic...like a sympathetic but slightly critical friend, ready with a hug and unable not to give advice."
Garson is the author of over 150 articles in publications including ''
Harper's'', ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'', ''
McCalls'', ''
Newsweek
''Newsweek'' is an American weekly online news magazine co-owned 50 percent each by Dev Pragad, its president and CEO, and Johnathan Davis, who has no operational role at ''Newsweek''. Founded as a weekly print magazine in 1933, it was widely ...
'', ''
Geo'', ''
The Village Voice
''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newspaper, alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf (publisher), Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, th ...
'', ''Ms'', ''
The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
,
The Boston Globe
''The Boston Globe'' is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes, and has a total circulation of close to 300,000 print and digital subscribers. ''The Boston Glob ...
'', ''
The Baltimore Sun
''The Baltimore Sun'' is the largest general-circulation daily newspaper based in the U.S. state of Maryland and provides coverage of local and regional news, events, issues, people, and industries.
Founded in 1837, it is currently owned by T ...
'', ''
Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the U ...
'', ''
The Denver Post
''The Denver Post'' is a daily newspaper and website published in Denver, Colorado. As of June 2022, it has an average print circulation of 57,265. In 2016, its website received roughly six million monthly unique visitors generating more than 13 ...
'', ''
The Australian
''The Australian'', with its Saturday edition, ''The Weekend Australian'', is a broadsheet newspaper published by News Corp Australia since 14 July 1964.Bruns, Axel. "3.1. The active audience: Transforming journalism from gatekeeping to gatew ...
'', ''
Newsday'', ''
Modern Maturity
''AARP: The Magazine'' is an American bi-monthly magazine, published by AARP, which focuses on aging-related issues.
History and operations
In 1958, AARP began publishing a magazine titled ''Modern Maturity.'' ''Modern Maturity'' was later sp ...
'', ''
Mother Jones
Mary G. Harris Jones (1837 (baptized) – November 30, 1930), known as Mother Jones from 1897 onwards, was an Irish-born American schoolteacher and dressmaker who became a prominent union organizer, community organizer, and activist. She h ...
'', ''
The Arizona Republic
''The Arizona Republic'' is an American daily newspaper published in Phoenix. Circulated throughout Arizona, it is the state's largest newspaper. Since 2000, it has been owned by the Gannett newspaper chain. Copies are sold at $2 daily or at $3 ...
'', ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'', ''
The Nation
''The Nation'' is an American liberal biweekly magazine that covers political and cultural news, opinion, and analysis. It was founded on July 6, 1865, as a successor to William Lloyd Garrison's '' The Liberator'', an abolitionist newspaper t ...
'', ''
Il Posto'',
Znet
Z Communications is a left-wing activist-oriented media group founded in 1986 by Michael Albert and Lydia Sargent.Max Elbaum''Revolution in the Air: Sixties Radicals Turn to Lenin, Mao and Che'' London, England, UK; New York, New York, US: Vers ...
and ''The Nation''s tomdispatch.com.
Awards
Garson was awarded an
Obie for ''The Dinosaur Door'' and a Special Commission from the New York State Council on the Arts, for the Creation of Plays for Younger audiences. She has received a Guggenheim Fellowship, a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, a Louis M. Rabinowitz Foundation Grant, the New York Public Library Books to Remember award and Library Journal's Best Business Books of 1989 award, and a MacArthur Foundation Grant for reading and writing.
Later activism
In the 1992 U.S. Presidential election, Garson was the running mate for
J. Quinn Brisben
John Quinn Brisben (September 6, 1934 – April 17, 2012) was an American teacher, author, and political activist from Chicago, Illinois. Brisben was on the Socialist Party USA's presidential ticket twice. He was the party's vice-presidential n ...
on the
Socialist Party USA
The Socialist Party USA, officially the Socialist Party of the United States of America,"The article of this organization shall be the Socialist Party of the United States of America, hereinafter called 'the Party'". Art. I of th"Constitution o ...
ticket, replacing Bill Edwards, who died during the race. In August 1992, she received a message on her answering machine: "We're sorry to tell you that the Socialist Vice-Presidential candidate, Bill Edwards, has died. We would like your help in writing a press release for the newspapers. And also, would you like to run for Vice President?", which she initially believed to be a joke.
[Teltsch, K. "Chronicle". ''The New York Times''. August 28, 1992.]
Garson was active in the protest movement against corporate globalization and the protests in advance of the
Iraq War
{{Infobox military conflict
, conflict = Iraq War {{Nobold, {{lang, ar, حرب العراق (Arabic) {{Nobold, {{lang, ku, شەڕی عێراق ( Kurdish)
, partof = the Iraq conflict and the War on terror
, image ...
.
She was in attendance at
Zuccotti Park
Zuccotti Park (formerly Liberty Plaza Park) is a publicly accessible park in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan, New York City. It is located in a privately owned public space (POPS) controlled by Brookfield Properties and Goldman Sachs ...
during the
Occupy Wall Street
Occupy Wall Street (OWS) was a protest movement against economic inequality and the influence of money in politics that began in Zuccotti Park, located in New York City's Wall Street financial district, in September 2011. It gave rise to t ...
protests in 2011.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Garson, Barbara
1941 births
Living people
American essayists
American political writers
American socialists
Writers from Brooklyn
Socialist Party USA vice presidential nominees
1992 United States vice-presidential candidates
20th-century American politicians
Female candidates for Vice President of the United States
American women poets
American women essayists
American women dramatists and playwrights
Socialist Party USA politicians from New York (state)
20th-century American women politicians
21st-century American women