My Bookish Friends
A Literary Afternoon
Sunday, March 29 at 2 PM
Farm Arts Collective is launching a literary series in 2026 with book readings and signings by authors we admire and love.
Featuring book readings and conversation with Karen Malpede, LAST RADIANCE & Brad Krumholz, WHY DO ACTORS TRAIN? Moderated by Mimi McGurl.
Meet two authors who will read from their books that weave theatre, politics, embodiment of art, body, intellect, and spirit. An afternoon of readings, conversation, and food.
New York playwright, Karen Malpede says “Last Radiance is my love letter to the cultural avant-garde and pacifist left. This is my love letter to George Bartenieff, Julian Beck and so many more. This is my love letter to all of us who have sought a better world and live to make that happen.”
Theatre practitioner Brad Krumholz engages with contemporary ideas of theatre, neuroscience, psychology, linguistics, and philosophy. Why Do Actors Train? offers a new lens to re-examine the craft of acting, a framework to understand the art form as one that is fundamentally grounded in embodied experience.
Last Radiance: Radical Lives, Bright Deaths by Karen Maplede
After the protagonist's violent father dies a harrowing death, she leaves home determined to become an artist. Her path takes her through the reckless, libertine world of the New York avant-garde and into the deeply committed realm of the ecofeminist pacifist left. There, she bears witness to the bright deaths of Julian Beck and Barbara Deming and finds her life partner: the brilliant actor-producer George Bartenieff. Together, they create boundary-pushing theatre that confronts the biggest issues of our time-war, climate change, collective historical trauma-while unearthing George's past as a hidden child in Nazi Germany. This memoir traces lives lived at full intensity: radical love, fearless art, deep community, and the painful beauty of last things. It invites readers into the underworld of grief and dying, offering lessons in presence, remembrance, and the urgent need to confront a failing medical system with courage and care. New York playwright, Karen Malpede says “Last Radiance is my love letter to the cultural avant-garde and pacifist left. This is my love letter to George Bartenieff, Julian Beck and so many more. This is my love letter to all of us who have sought a better world and live to make that happen.” Publisher of Last Radiance! is Vine Leaves Press.
Why Do Actors Train? (Bloomsbury, 2023) by Brad Krumholz
NACL’s founding artistic director, Brad Krumholz powerfully demystifies the actor-training process by focusing on acting as embodied cognition. Engaging with ideas of contemporary significance from neuroscience, psychology, linguistics, and philosophy, Why Do Actors Train? challenges the outmoded dualistic notions of body and mind that permeate common conceptions of how actors work. In this framework, thought is action and action is thought. Krumholz uses the frame of embodied cognition to analyze which specific skills are being developed through several acting exercises. He bypasses typical acting-coach encouragements to "stop thinking" and "get out of your head," instead insisting that all acting is always already both physical and mental. Through detailed, step-by-step analyses of specific actor-training exercises, the author examines the tools that actors use to bring life and meaning to the stage. This book provides theatre practitioners and scholars alike with a new lens to re-examine the craft of acting, offering a framework to understand the art form as one that is fundamentally grounded in embodied experience. This is a must-read book for anyone interested in the intersections of philosophy, theatre, and psychology, as well as anyone who has ever wondered what the point of seemingly-trivial acting exercises is.
No Reservation Required - Pay What You Can at the Door - Suggested Donation $10