McClure, The Beard

Here's 10-year old news item on a 1999-2000 performance of The Beard. During the 1960s Lenny Bruce http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0115533/ rage over rights of artistic free speech, poet/playwright Michael McClure's http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0566022/  controversial play "The Beard" premiered on December 18, 1965, at the Actor's Workshop of San Francisco. It starred Richard as Billy the Kid and Billie Dixon http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0228767/ as 'Jean Harlow'. The next few performances of the play took place at The Committee, a San Francisco theater nightclub. The play was secretly tape-recorded by the San Francisco Police Department, Billie and Richard were arrested backstage one night after a performance allegedly for using "blue" language. The actors were charged with "obscenity", then "conspiracy to commit a felony," and ultimately with "lewd and dissolute conduct in a public place." The American Civil Liberties Union took on the case, and the charges were eventually dismissed in what was considered a precedent for artistic expression rights. "The Beard" was originally agreed by McClure to be made into a film by Andy Warhol http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0912238/ but he withdrew permission on the advice of attorneys. Warhol made the film anyway in 1966 starring two of his actor/groupies, Mary Woronov http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001862/ and Gerard Malanga http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0538922/, and gave the only print to McClure as a gift. The movie was never released.
http://www.nytheatre-wire.com/beard.htm


http://www.nytheatre-wire.com/beard.htm