May | Center Theatre Group

Samuel Beckett wrote plays and poetry, novels and short stories, criticism and nonfiction, TV scripts and radio teleplays. But despite coming of age alongside the art of cinema, he was not a filmmaker. With one notable—largely forgotten—exception: in 1964, seven years after the premiere of Endgame (which plays the Kirk Douglas Thea...

Samuel Beckett’s Adventure in ‘Film’

On June 5, 1951, a Latino African-American surfer named Nick Gabaldon paddled 12 or 13 miles north from the Santa Monica-Venice border to the Malibu Pier—a journey that cost him his life. Gabaldon had taught himself to surf at the Ink Well, a section of beach at the end of the Santa Monica Pier reserved for African-Americans; he couldn&#...

Richard Montoya and Roger Guenveur Smith Excavate ‘American Venice’

Samuel Beckett once wrote, Every word is like an unnecessary stain on silence and nothingness So it might be a little odd to imagine him joking with a friend about translating his book Pour finir encore et autres foirades “Wet Fart” (It was published in English as Fizzles). However, even a cursory glance at Beckett’s life will reveal a ma...

Will the Real Samuel Beckett Please Stand Up?