Shantigar, in association with Pilgrim Theater of Ashfield, presents Jean-Claude van Itallie’s play, "The Tibetan Book of the Dead."

Friday May 16th at 8:00 PM and  Saturday May 17th at 2:30  and 8:00 PM. Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts at Memorial Hall on Main Street.  

Tickets available at bookstores in Greenfield, Shelburne Falls and Brattleboro, or at the door.  Tickets: $18.00 ($15 for seniors and students).

Performances at Northampton Center for the Arts on dates to be announced shortly.

October 27th, 2008 at 8:00 in New York City -- one-night-only special benefit performance  at Ellen Stewart's LaMama Annex, on East 4th Street between 2nd and 3rd Avenues.  "Tibetan Book of the Dead" premiered at LaMama Annex in 1983 to great acclaim.
 
Director: Kim Mancuso.  Cast: Kermit Dunkelberg, Court Dorsey, Susan Thompson. Music: Steve Gorn and John Epp.  Set: Jun Maeda.  Lighting: Sabrina Hamilton. Producers: Harvey Schaktman, Lisa Clark, Rosemary Quinn, Deb Katz, Michael Stuart.

Honorary Benefit Committee: Joyce Aaron, Edward Albee, Karen Allen, Lucie Arnaz, Ava B., Darren Bagert, Alec Baldwin,  Anne Bogart, Robert Brustein, Joan Buck, Kathleen Chalfant, Tina Chen, Martha Coigney, Emilie Conrad, Nancy Cooperstein, Billy Crudup, Rabbi Edward and Merle Feld, Angelina Fiordellisi, Mary Frank, Rita Fredricks, Gerald Freedman,  Barbara Gimbel, Wendy Gimbel, Peter Goldfarb, Steve Gorn, Lee Grant,  William G. Hoffman, James Houghton,  Morgan Jenness, Tony Kushner,  Steven Lang,  Laurence Luckinbill, Judith Malina, Jodie C. McDowell,  Evangeline Morphos, Meredith Monk, Patricia Neal, Paul Newman,  Austin Pendleton, Steven Post, Carol Fox Prescott, Michael Pressman, Harold Prince, Linda Purl,  Roger Rees, Mercedes Ruehl, Rita Fredricks Salzman, Lisa Schubert, Marian Seldes,  Mel Shapiro, Joan Micklin Silver, Laura Simms, Ellen Stewart, David Threlfall, Tulku Thondup, Rinpoche, Christel van Itallie, Betsy von Furstenburg, Lois Walden, Robert Wilson, Joanne Woodward.

Steering Committee: Ronald Rand; chair, John Adams, Lauren Bond.
Silent Art Auction Committee: Gwen Bucci; co-chair, Lil Malinich; co chair, Rebecca Damon, Audra Blaser.
Production Committee: Lisa Clarke, Rosemary Quinn, Harvey Schaktman.
Special thanks to Peter Goldfarb and Wendy Gimbel for hosting Benefit parties. Special thanks also to Michael Stuart. Extra special thanks, as always, to Ellen Stewart.

The benefit performance at LaMama on October 27th will include a silent auction of art by friends of Shantigar, some of them well-known artists. 

Many Tibetan Buddhists believe that to hear The Tibetan Book of the Dead even once in this lifetime confers great blessings, so please come.

For ticket inquiries, please call Shantigar at 413 339 4332 or email us at the address below.

From the back cover of van Itallie’s play, published by North Atlantic books as The Tibetan Book of the Dead for Reading Aloud: 

           “Jean-Claude van Itallie, one of our most original playwrights and a longtime practitioner of Tibetan Buddhism, has taken Guru Padmasambhava’s 8th Century masterpiece, The Great Liberation Through Hearing in the Bardo, or, as it is known in the West, The Tibetan Book of the Dead, and rendered its essential brilliance into deeply moving and inspiring poems meant to be read aloud.  Its sole interest is to pilot us wandering voyagers through the illusory and superstitious realms we call life and death.

            “With constant reminders to pay attention and watch our minds, the poet urges us to come to our senses and remember our Nobly Born true selves completely beyond all designation, all hope and all tears...merging with the clear light bliss, no center, no circumference, an ocean with no boat...  I love this little book.  Read it aloud!” Richard Gere

            “Jean-Claude van Itallie’s presentation of this old classic brings us face to face with the radiance and emptiness of our own minds.  He has made new a relevant – even urgent – text: A guide for the continually arising moments of choice in our living and dying.” Diane di Prima"