Punch and Judy Get Divorced

David Gordon (director, choreographer, and co-writer of Punch and Judy Get Divorced) performed in the companies of James Waring and Yvonne Rainer in the 1960s, and in the 1970s he was a founding member of the improvisational group the Grand Union. In 1971 he formed the Pick Up Performance Company (incorporated in 1978 as a non-profit organization), which helps to support and administer his work in live performance and media. He is a Guggenheim Fellow (1981 and 1987) and has been a panelist and chairman of the dance program panel of the NEA. His video work has appeared on Great Performances, Alive TV, the BBC, and Channel 4/Great Britain. The Mysteries and What's So Funny?, written and directed by Gordon with music by Philip Glass and visual design by Red Grooms, was awarded a Bessie Award and an Obie Award. The script was published in Grove New American Theater. Recently Gordon collaborated with Ain Gordon on The Family Business, which premiered at Dance Theater Workshop in New York City in February 1994, received an Obie Award, and was presented at New York Theatre Workshop and at the Mark Taper Forum in 1995. They collaborated again on the text for Punch and Judy Get Divorced, which premiered at the American Music Theater Festival in Philadelphia in May. He directed and choreographed the original production of Shlemiel the First for the American Repertory Theater and the American Music Theater Festival, as well as the national tours of the show. He received a National Theatre Artist Residency Grant (funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts and administered by TCG) to work with the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, and he directed and choreographed The Firebugs by Max Frisch for their mainstage in 1995. He is currently working with Ain Gordon on a commission from the Mark Taper Forum.

Ain Gordon (co-writer of Punch and Judy Get Divorced) has been writing and directing since 1984. His work has been produced in New York City by Soho Repertory Theater, Dance Theater Workshop (five times), Performance Space 122, Dancing in the Streets, and the Poetry Project at St. Mark's Church. His work has also been presented by Dance Place (Washington, D.C.), the Baltimore Museum of Art, Spirit Square, and the Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival, where he was artist-in-residence. He has collaborated with Gayle Tufts, and Julian Webber, and with Wally Cardona on a project developed at Dansens Hus, Stockholm, Sweden. In June 1993, Gordon directed and wrote original text for Bebe Miller's Nothing Can Happen Only Once, which premiered at the Wexner Center in Ohio. He collaborated with David Gordon (as co-director, co-writer, and performer) in The Family Business, which received an Obie Award. He recently collaborated with David Gordon on the text for Punch and Judy Get Divorced, and they are currently collaborating on a new work commissioned by the Mark Taper Forum. He is a 1992 NYFA Playwriting fellow. His newest play, Wally's Ghost (for which he received an Obie Award in playwrighting), premiered at Soho Rep. in April.

Arnold Weinstein (co-lyricist of Punch and Judy Get Divorced) was lyricist of the American Repertory Theater's world premiere production of Shlemiel the First. His current projects include an adaptation of A View from the Bridge with Arthur Miller and William Bolcom for Lyric Opera of Chicago and the preparation of a Story Theater version of Wind in the Willows for the Mark Taper Forum. His recent projects include Cabaret Songs, published by E. B. Marks, and a collaboration with Robert Altman on the libretto for William Bolcom's opera McTeague for the Lyric Opera of Chicago. With Mr. Bolcom he also collaborated on Dynamite Tonight! and Casino Paradise. Mr. Weinstein has collaborated with artists Larry Rivers, Andy Warhol, Howard Kanovitz, and Marisol, and his plays include the award-winning Red Eye of Love and Ovid's Metamorphoses, which had its premiere at the Yale Repertory Theatre in 1969 and was subsequently presented on Broadway. Mr. Weinstein also wrote the Story Theater series for television. What Did I Do? The Unauthorized Autobiography, his collaboration with Larry Rivers, has just been published by Harper Collins.

David Gordon (director, choreographer, and co-writer of Punch and Judy Get Divorced) performed in the companies of James Waring and Yvonne Rainer in the 1960s, and in the 1970s he was a founding member of the improvisational group the Grand Union. In 1971 he formed the Pick Up Performance Company (incorporated in 1978 as a non-profit organization), which helps to support and administer his work in live performance and media. He is a Guggenheim Fellow (1981 and 1987) and has been a panelist and chairman of the dance program panel of the NEA. His video work has appeared on Great Performances, Alive TV, the BBC, and Channel 4/Great Britain. The Mysteries and What's So Funny?, written and directed by Gordon with music by Philip Glass and visual design by Red Grooms, was awarded a Bessie Award and an Obie Award. The script was published in Grove New American Theater. Recently Gordon collaborated with Ain Gordon on The Family Business, which premiered at Dance Theater Workshop in New York City in February 1994, received an Obie Award, and was presented at New York Theatre Workshop and at the Mark Taper Forum in 1995. They collaborated again on the text for Punch and Judy Get Divorced, which premiered at the American Music Theater Festival in Philadelphia in May. He directed and choreographed the original production of Shlemiel the First for the American Repertory Theater and the American Music Theater Festival, as well as the national tours of the show. He received a National Theatre Artist Residency Grant (funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts and administered by TCG) to work with the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, and he directed and choreographed The Firebugs by Max Frisch for their mainstage in 1995. He is currently working with Ain Gordon on a commission from the Mark Taper Forum.

David Gordon (director, choreographer, and co-writer of Punch and Judy Get Divorced) performed in the companies of James Waring and Yvonne Rainer in the 1960s, and in the 1970s he was a founding member of the improvisational group the Grand Union. In 1971 he formed the Pick Up Performance Company (incorporated in 1978 as a non-profit organization), which helps to support and administer his work in live performance and media. He is a Guggenheim Fellow (1981 and 1987) and has been a panelist and chairman of the dance program panel of the NEA. His video work has appeared on Great Performances, Alive TV, the BBC, and Channel 4/Great Britain. The Mysteries and What's So Funny?, written and directed by Gordon with music by Philip Glass and visual design by Red Grooms, was awarded a Bessie Award and an Obie Award. The script was published in Grove New American Theater. Recently Gordon collaborated with Ain Gordon on The Family Business, which premiered at Dance Theater Workshop in New York City in February 1994, received an Obie Award, and was presented at New York Theatre Workshop and at the Mark Taper Forum in 1995. They collaborated again on the text for Punch and Judy Get Divorced, which premiered at the American Music Theater Festival in Philadelphia in May. He directed and choreographed the original production of Shlemiel the First for the American Repertory Theater and the American Music Theater Festival, as well as the national tours of the show. He received a National Theatre Artist Residency Grant (funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts and administered by TCG) to work with the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, and he directed and choreographed The Firebugs by Max Frisch for their mainstage in 1995. He is currently working with Ain Gordon on a commission from the Mark Taper Forum.

David Gordon (director, choreographer, and co-writer of Punch and Judy Get Divorced) performed in the companies of James Waring and Yvonne Rainer in the 1960s, and in the 1970s he was a founding member of the improvisational group the Grand Union. In 1971 he formed the Pick Up Performance Company (incorporated in 1978 as a non-profit organization), which helps to support and administer his work in live performance and media. He is a Guggenheim Fellow (1981 and 1987) and has been a panelist and chairman of the dance program panel of the NEA. His video work has appeared on Great Performances, Alive TV, the BBC, and Channel 4/Great Britain. The Mysteries and What's So Funny?, written and directed by Gordon with music by Philip Glass and visual design by Red Grooms, was awarded a Bessie Award and an Obie Award. The script was published in Grove New American Theater. Recently Gordon collaborated with Ain Gordon on The Family Business, which premiered at Dance Theater Workshop in New York City in February 1994, received an Obie Award, and was presented at New York Theatre Workshop and at the Mark Taper Forum in 1995. They collaborated again on the text for Punch and Judy Get Divorced, which premiered at the American Music Theater Festival in Philadelphia in May. He directed and choreographed the original production of Shlemiel the First for the American Repertory Theater and the American Music Theater Festival, as well as the national tours of the show. He received a National Theatre Artist Residency Grant (funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts and administered by TCG) to work with the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, and he directed and choreographed The Firebugs by Max Frisch for their mainstage in 1995. He is currently working with Ain Gordon on a commission from the Mark Taper Forum.

Film credits for Adelle Lutz, costume designer of Punch and Judy Get Divorced, include: True Stories, Checking Out, Making Mr. Right, and numerous music videos. Theater credits include the Knee Plays for the CIVIL warS, directed by David Byrne and Robert Wilson, and Leon and Lena (and Lenz), directed by Joanne Akalaitis. She co-directed with Sandy McLeod the video "It's Too Darn Hot for the Red Hot & Blue," seen in thirty-five countries to benefit AIDS organizations. Museum shows include the Victoria & Albert Museum (London), "Fashion and Surrealism" (Fashion Institute of Technology), and "Bloom" (Metropolitan Museum of Art).

Stan Pressner (lighting designer for Punch and Judy Get Divorced) has designed for the New York City Ballet, Lyon Opera Ballet, Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane, Ralph Lemon, Bayerische Staadtsballet, Geneva Ballet, Boston Ballet, Stephen Petronio, and Netherlands Dance Theatre. Recent projects include: Light Shall Light Them (Next Wave Festival), Four Symphonies (Geneva Opera Ballet), The Family Business (Mark Taper Forum), and Robert La Fosse's Rags. He was a 1988 Bessie Award winner for cumulative achievement and American Theatre Wing Design Award nominee in 1988, 1991, and 1994.

Christopher Walker has composed music and designed sound for We Won't Pay! We Won't Pay!, Phaedra, Beckett Trio: Eh Joe, Ghost Trio, and Nacht und Traüme, and An Evening of Beckett, and designed sound for The King Stag, Loot, The Idiots Karamazov, Ivanov, The Cripple of Inishmaan, Charlie in the House of Rue, The Merchant of Venice, Valparaiso, The Taming of the Shrew, The Bacchae, The Wild Duck, Woyzeck, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, The Wild Duck, Alice in Bed, Slaughter City, Buried Child, Ubu Rock, The Threepenny Opera, The Accident, Demons, Waiting for Godot, The Oresteia, Hot 'n' Throbbing, The America Play, A Touch of the Poet, The Cherry Orchard, What the Butler Saw, and Those the River Keeps at the A.R.T. Previously he composed music and designed sound for productions at the Intiman Theatre, the Bathhouse Theatre, and the Alice B. Theatre. He also scores for dance and has composed for the Allegro Dance Festival, the Bumbershoot Festival, and On The Boards.

The Sound of a Voice (Music Director/Conductor). A.R.T.: The Mysteries and What's So Funny? and Punch and Judy Get Divorced (Music Director). Conducted opera and music-theater premieres by composers Philip Glass, Polly Pen, Dan Moses Schreier, Tina Davidson, John Duffy, Leroy Jenkins, Michael John LaChiusa, Edward Barnes, Jonathan Dove, and John Moran. Productions: In the Penal Colony (Classic Stage Company), The Three Willies (the Kitchen), The Night Governess (McCarter Theatre), The Shoulder (Long Wharf Theatre), Billy and Zelda (Opera Delaware), Black Water (Prince Theater), Cymbeline, Henry IV Parts I and II, All's Well That Ends Well, First Lady Suite (New York Shakespeare Festival), The Manson Family (Lincoln Center), Bed and Sofa (Vineyard Theatre). Vocal coach and pianist: premieres of Glass's Orphée, The Making of the Representative for Planet 8, Hydrogen Jukebox, La Belle et la Bête; Anthony Davis's Amistad and Tania; Adam Guettel's Floyd Collins; John Adams' Nixon in China. Solo and joint recitals: Walker Art Center, Diverseworks, Dia Center for the Arts, Alice Tully Hall, the Kitchen. 1998 Obie Award for Sustained Excellence in Music Direction. Degrees in music from University of Illinois, University of Miami (studying with John Wustman and Ivan Davis). Upcoming: Arjuna's Dilemma, an adaptation of the Bhagavad Gita by composer Douglas Cuomo (Music-Theatre Group).

Bruce Coughlin's show orchestrations include Punch and Judy Get Divorced, the current Broadway revival of The King and I, Floyd Collins, Das Barbecü, Casino Paradise, the stage version of Lunch, Pal Joey in Boston, Another Midsummer Night, Romance in Hard Times, Book of the Night, and Where's Dick at the Houston Grand Opera. Album credits include: On the Town (three songs) and Arias and Barcarolles (Bernstein; Michael Tilson Thomas/London Symphony). Film credits include Disney's Fantasia Continued (James Levine/Chicago Symphony). Other album credits: the soundtrack recording of Immortal Beloved for Sony Classical (Sir Georg Solti, conductor).