Digital Archive Project

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RECENT EXHIBITIONS about SQUAT THEATRE
Kovacs Endre photos in the Ludwig Museum

::invitation::
:: see PHOTOS OF THE EXHIBITION::

A Photography Exhibition by Endre Kovács
KASSÁK HOUSE STUDIO - SQUAT THEATRE
Photos of the History of the Hungarian Underground Theatre
Ludwig Museum Budapest - Museum of Contemporary Art (09.09. - 10.10.2004) OPENING
Budapest 1969-1976
Squat Theatre was founded by a group of artists, writers, designers, musicians in Budapest and expelled from Hungary in January 1976 for their radical aesthetical views. After a few years of work in Europe, Squat Theatre settled in New York in 1977.
timeline , Biennale de Paris 1975
PHOTOS OF THE GROUP
photos of the group
TOP: Anna Koos, Agnes Santha, Klara Palotai, Eszter Balint, Boris Major MIDDLE: Peter Halasz, Eric Daillie, Peter Berg, Stephan Balint, Eva Buchmuller BOTTOM:Rebeka Major, Galus Halasz, Simon Daillie, Cora Fisher

Squat Theatre in 1980 - from the archives of Gabor Altorjay
TOP: Anna Koos, Agnes Santha, Klara Palotai, Eszter Balint, Boris Major
MIDDLE: Peter Halasz, Eric Daillie, Peter Berg, Stephan Balint, Eva Buchmuller
BOTTOM:Rebecca Major, Galus Halasz, Simon Daillie, Cora Fisher

Squat Theatre's building on 23rd street
The BUILDING at 256 West 23rd street
(photos, history, related material)
PHOTOS/NEWS: INDIVIDUAL MEMBERS OF THE GROUP
Eszter Balint on the set of Stranger Than Paradise (1985)

Eszter Balint on the set of "Stranger Than Paradise", a film by Jim Jarmush
photo by Stephen Torton (1985)
NEWS ABOUT PETER HALASZ (1943 - 2006)

link to Laszlo Najmanyi's: Peter Halasz Virtual Memorial

IPUT Superintendant Tamas St. Auby delivers his eulogy to Peter Halasz
plays by Squat Theatre


PLAYS BY SQUAT THEATRE


TEXTS, DOCUMENTS, MANIFESTOS
ORIGINAL MUSIC IN SQUAT THEATRE PLAYS
Yossi Gutman, DNA, Lounge Lizards, Nico and others
SQUAT THEATRE SPECIAL EVENTS

Mr. Dead & Mrs. Free's Cafe, an installation by Squat Theatre at PS 1, Klara Palotai, Peter Berg
Mr. Dead & Mrs. Free's Cafe
an installation at PS1 - page from PS1 publication Bold Headline,Klara Palotai [left], guest [at the table], and Peter Berg [in the background]

bibliography

LIST OF ARTICLES, REVIEWS, BOOKS

Squat Theatre members: Stephan Balint, Anna Koos, Peter Berg, Marianne Balint (1977)

Carl Schoettler,"Exiles In Search for the New Theatre: Squat Making US Debut at UMBC",
The Baltimore Evening Sun, July 9, 1977
(first row) Stephan Balint, Anna Koos, Peter Berg [Breznyik],
(second row) Marianne Balint

FESTIVAL CATALOGUES, PUBLICITY MATERIALS

Pig! Child! Fire! in Shiraz, Anna Koos and Judy HalaszShiraz Festival, 1977
Anna Koos and Galus Halasz in Pig! CHild! Fire!, Shiraz Art Festival 1977; & catalogue

Catalogue, Theater der Nationen, Hamburg (1979) Pig! Child! Fire! by Squat Theatre - Agnes Santha Festival International de Theatre Bruxelles (1979)
Agnes Santha,in Pig! CHild! Fire! Festival der Nationen, Hamburg (1979);
Bruxelles catalogue (1979)

Andy Warhol's Last Love (Stephan Balint in Andy Warhol's mask)Stephan Balint in Rome, under the banner of the play "Andy Warhol's Last Love" by Squat Theatre

Stephan Balint in Andy Warhol's Last Love, Rome (1979)
bibliography
ARTICLES & REVIEWS
(facsimile copies, full texts & images, website links)
Theater Heute facsimile pages
Squat Theater Explodes Conventions by Roger Copeland, New York Times,
Peter Halasz in Mr. Dead & Mrs. Free (1980)
Richard Schechner book cover with Peter Halasz in Mr. Dead & Mrs. Free
Squat Theatre and The Art of Living,
by Don Shewey, On the Next Wave, (October 1987)
PHOTO ESSAYS (by photographers)

Photo by Roe Dibona: Andy Warhol's Last Love by Squat Theatre
photo by Roe DiBona: Andy Warhol's Last Love, 1978
(street scene in NYC: Rebecca Major and passers-by)

Squat Theatre Rock, Blues & Jazz Club
CONCERTS AT SQUAT THEATRE
(recordings, photos, articles, obits)
MEMORIES / REFLECTIONS

from Michael Shore's via e-mail: "I thought we DID write you guys up every time Sun Ra played at Squat! :) To me, of course, there was no musical experience in the known universe to compare with Ra's, and as I did write time after time after time in my Soho Weekly News "Music Picks," there was no better place to experience him than Squat: a house band as big as the cosmos itself, in a house so cozy and unpretentious it felt like home?....read full text in concerts 1980

Chronological list of concerts between 1979-1981
Week-by-week CHRONOLOGY OF CONCERTS between 1979-1981
SQUAT THEATRE DOCUMENTS IN LIBRARIES / SPECIAL COLLECTIONS

UC Davis Manuscript Collections - Performing Arts Department of Special Collection, University of California at Davis
Squat Theatre's poster for Andy Warhol's Last Love "

"Audio-visual materials, correspondence, ephemera, financial records, legal documents, photographs, programs, promotional materials, and scripts, providing an extensive historical record of the expatriate Hungarian theatre troupe from the time of its inception in Budapest in 1969 to its activities in the avant-garde theatre scene in New York City during the 1980's."


Mark Amitin files in Bobst Library, NYU
 The Mark Amitin collection in Fales Library, Bobst, New York University

Squat Theatre poster in the exhibition

Visions for a Changing Theatre [Exhibition / Symposium] > catalogue

Symposium on radical theatre as viewed through the lens of Mark Hall Amitin's work as a producer, manager, director, writer and teacher from the late 1960s through the 1990s.

About this archive:

The Squat Theatre Digital Archive collects all materials relevant to Squat Theatre,
an avantgarde theatre company active in New York between 1977 and 1985.
Their three major plays were staged in the storefront of the house where they lived
and won several prizes in New York and abroad, including the Obie Award in 1980
for Best New American play for Mr. Dead & Mrs. Free.

The theatre's home on West 23rd Street also became known under the name of
Squat Theatre's Jazz, Blues and Rock Club between 1979 and 1981, and by the movie
house they ran in the early 1980s.

This website archives photos, texts, catalogues, programs, playbills, postcards,
invitations, correspondence, scripts, music, video and film clips, production stills
relavant to Squat Theatre, including concert tickets, movie flyers, ads, and other
production ephemera - including your artifacts, personal recollections and memories
about plays or concerts at Squat Theatre.

(Please hit the "contact us" button to send us your comments, and material for the
archive.) The ever increasing list of publications is part of the extensive bibliography.

In recent years new exhibitions reframed the history of Squat Theatre, presented
photo collections about plays and members of the group, or included archival material
from Squat Theatre's plays and concerts.

You can navigate this internet archive by entering the main sections of the collection
or you can use this page or the sidebar as a guide if you prefer to wander around
through random entry points of interest.

Squat Theatre Digital Archive {concept/design by Klara Palotai 2003-2006}