''The Brig'' is a play written by
Kenneth H. Brown
Kenneth Howard Brown (March 9, 1936 – February 5, 2022) was an American playwright and novelist. His play, The Brig (play), ''The Brig'', won three Obie Awards. It was adapted into film by Jonas Mekas.
Background
Brown was born in New York City, ...
(1936–2022) based on his experiences as a U.S. Marine. It was first performed in New York by
The Living Theatre
The Living Theatre is an American theatre company founded in 1947 and based in New York City. It is the oldest experimental theatre group in the United States. For most of its history it was led by its founders, actress Judith Malina and painter/po ...
on May 13, 1963, with a production filmed in 1964 by
Jonas Mekas
Jonas Mekas (; December 24, 1922 – January 23, 2019) was a Lithuanian-American filmmaker, poet, and artist who has been called "the godfather of American avant-garde cinema". Mekas' work has been exhibited in museums and at festivals worldwi ...
. ''The Brig'' received three
Obie Award
The Obie Awards or Off-Broadway Theater Awards are annual awards originally given by ''The Village Voice'' newspaper to theatre artists and groups in New York City. In September 2014, the awards were jointly presented and administered with the A ...
s in 1964, for Best Production (play), Best Design (
Julian Beck
Julian Beck (May 31, 1925 – September 14, 1985) was an American actor, stage director, poet, and painter. He is best known for co-founding and directing The Living Theatre, as well as his role as Reverend Henry Kane, the malevolent preacher i ...
) and Best Direction (
Judith Malina
Judith Malina (June 4, 1926 – April 10, 2015) was a German-born American actress, director and writer. With her husband, Julian Beck, Malina co-founded The Living Theatre, a radical political theatre troupe that rose to prominence in New York C ...
).
The play depicts a typical day in a U.S. Marine Corps
military prison
A military prison is a prison operated by a military. Military prisons are used variously to house prisoners of war, unlawful combatants, those whose freedom is deemed a national security risk by the military or national authorities, and members ...
called the
brig
A brig is a type of sailing vessel defined by its rig: two masts which are both square rig, square-rigged. Brigs originated in the second half of the 18th century and were a common type of smaller merchant vessel or warship from then until the ...
. Brown spent 30 days in a brig for being
absent without leave
Desertion is the abandonment of a military duty or post without permission (a pass, liberty or leave) and is done with the intention of not returning. This contrasts with unauthorized absence (UA) or absence without leave (AWOL ), which a ...
while serving with the
Third Marines at
Camp Fuji
Combined Arms Training Center (CATC) Camp Fuji is an installation of the United States Marine Corps next to the Japan Ground Self Defense Force JGSDF Camp Takigahara ( ja, 滝ヶ原駐屯地). It is located near the city of Gotemba in Shizuoka ...
, Japan in the 1950s.
''The Brig'' was revived in New York in 2007,
and it received an Obie Special Citation for its ensemble and director Judith Malina. In 2009, it was performed as an unlicensed production at the New World School of the Arts, Theatre Division in
Miami
Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...
, produced by Dean Patrice Bailey and directed by Matthew D. Glass. No legal action was taken.
References
Further reading
*
*
External links
* Greene, Alexis
Reviewat CurtainUp. Retrieved July 25, 2016.
1963 plays
Works about the United States Marine Corps
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