Kate Bredeson and Jasmine Mahmoud

(Portland, OR / Seattle, WA)

Reading and conversation, The Diaries of Judith Malina

DESCRIPTION

Theatre historian Kate Bredeson reads from her new book, The Diaries of Judith Malina, volumes 1-4 (Northwestern 2026), an edited volume of radical Jewish anarchist and stage director Judith Malina’s diaries. In these diaries, Malina charts her vision for theatre as a tool to provoke what she calls the Beautiful Nonviolent Anarchist Revolution.

The Diaries of Judith Malina is a four-volume set that publishes, for the first time together, the edited diaries of radical theater director, actor, and activist Judith Malina from 1947 to 1971—the most influential period of her remarkable and storied career. A committed anarchist and pacifist, Malina made theater as a way to engage in revolutionary action. Her diaries showcase her political and social observations, her cultural commentary, her self-reflection, and her wit. This four-volume set invites us to recognize Malina for her accomplishments not only as an artist and an activist but as one of the great literary diarists. 

The reading will include a conversation with theatre historian Jasmine Mahmoud, and time for questions.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Kate Bredeson (she/her) is a theatre historian, translator, dramaturg, and director. Her project as a scholar/artist is to research, document, and practice the ways in which performance can be a tool for radical activism and protest. She has published seven books with Northwestern University Press: The Diaries of Judith Malina, volumes 1-4 (2026); The Inheritor, co-translated with Thalia Wolff (2024); Occupying the Stage: The Theater of May ’68 (2018), and the forthcoming Lamp Back: Plays and Other Grievances by Anthony Hudson (forthcoming, 2026). Bredeson is Professor of Theatre at Reed College.

Jasmine Mahmoud is the Donald E. Petersen Endowed Professor and Assistant Professor of Theatre History and Performance Studies in the School of Drama at the University of Washington, with appointments in Art History and Comparative History of Ideas. Mahmoud’s research engages experimental performance, critical race studies, public policy, and geography, including relationships between theater and gentrification.