Al Carmines
Encyclopedia
Reverend Alvin Allison "Al" Carmines, Jr. (July 25, 1936 – August 9, 2005) was a key figure in the expansion of Off-Off-Broadway
theatre in the 1960s.
Carmines was born in Hampton, Virginia
. Although his musical talent appeared early, he decided to enter the ministry, attending Swarthmore College
, majoring in English and philosophy, and then Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York
, earning a bachelor of divinity in 1961 and a master of sacred theology in 1963.
Carmines was hired by Howard Moody as an assistant minister at Judson Memorial Church
on Washington Square Park, New York, to found a theater in the sanctuary of the Greenwich Village
church in conjunction with playwright Robert Nichols. He began composing in 1962 and acted as well. His Bible study group grew into the Rauschenbusch Memorial Church of Christ, with Carmines as pastor.
Carmines taught at Union Theological Seminary and received the Vernon Rice Award for his performance and the Drama Desk Award
for Lyrics and Music and was awarded the Obie award
for Life Time Achievements.
Carmines is perhaps best remembered in the church for the hymn "Many Gifts, One Spirit" #114 in the United Methodist Hymnal. He was commissioned by the United Methodist Women to write this hymn for their General Assembly in 1974.
Carmines' musicals reflected his eclectic interests, including:
Carmines' Judson Poets' Theater, with other burgeoning theatres Café Cino, La MaMa E.T.C. and Theatre Genesis were experimental and vibrant challenges to the commercialization and conformity of Off Broadway and Broadway houses.
His 1973 musical The Faggot was a success d'estime which transferred from the Judson Memorial Church to the Truck and Warehouse Theatre and ran for 203 performances.
In 1977, he had a cerebral aneurysm that required months of therapy. He underwent surgery a second time in 1985, which only then cured his crippling headaches. He died in St. Vincent's Hospital in New York, survived by his partner Paul Rounsaville.
Carmines found as much spiritual meaning in the theater as the church: "If you want to know how to live, go to church. If you want to know how your life is in its deepest roots, go to the theater."
Off-Off-Broadway
Off-Off-Broadway theatrical productions in New York City are those in theatres that are smaller than Broadway and Off-Broadway theatres. Off-Off-Broadway theaters are often defined as theaters that have fewer than 100 seats, though the term can be used for any show in the New York City area that...
theatre in the 1960s.
Carmines was born in Hampton, Virginia
Hampton, Virginia
Hampton is an independent city that is not part of any county in Southeast Virginia. Its population is 137,436. As one of the seven major cities that compose the Hampton Roads metropolitan area, it is on the southeastern end of the Virginia Peninsula. Located on the Hampton Roads Beltway, it hosts...
. Although his musical talent appeared early, he decided to enter the ministry, attending Swarthmore College
Swarthmore College
Swarthmore College is a private, independent, liberal arts college in the United States with an enrollment of about 1,500 students. The college is located in the borough of Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, 11 miles southwest of Philadelphia....
, majoring in English and philosophy, and then Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York
Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York
Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York is a preeminent independent graduate school of theology, located in Manhattan between Claremont Avenue and Broadway, 120th to 122nd Streets. The seminary was founded in 1836 under the Presbyterian Church, and is affiliated with nearby Columbia...
, earning a bachelor of divinity in 1961 and a master of sacred theology in 1963.
Carmines was hired by Howard Moody as an assistant minister at Judson Memorial Church
Judson Memorial Church
The Judson Memorial Church is located on Washington Square South between Thompson and Sullivan Streets, opposite Washington Square Park, in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of the Manhattan borough of New York City...
on Washington Square Park, New York, to found a theater in the sanctuary of the Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village, , , , .in New York often simply called "the Village", is a largely residential neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City. A large majority of the district is home to upper middle class families...
church in conjunction with playwright Robert Nichols. He began composing in 1962 and acted as well. His Bible study group grew into the Rauschenbusch Memorial Church of Christ, with Carmines as pastor.
Carmines taught at Union Theological Seminary and received the Vernon Rice Award for his performance and the Drama Desk Award
Drama Desk Award
The Drama Desk Awards, which are given annually in a number of categories, are the only major New York theater honors for which productions on Broadway, Off-Broadway, Off-Off-Broadway compete against each other in the same category...
for Lyrics and Music and was awarded the Obie award
Obie Award
The Obie Awards or Off-Broadway Theater Awards are annual awards given by The Village Voice newspaper to theatre artists and groups in New York City...
for Life Time Achievements.
Carmines is perhaps best remembered in the church for the hymn "Many Gifts, One Spirit" #114 in the United Methodist Hymnal. He was commissioned by the United Methodist Women to write this hymn for their General Assembly in 1974.
Carmines' musicals reflected his eclectic interests, including:
- Abraham LincolnAbraham LincolnAbraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...
, - ChristmasChristmasChristmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday generally celebrated on December 25 by billions of people around the world. It is a Christian feast that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, liturgically closing the Advent season and initiating the season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days...
, - Gertrude SteinGertrude SteinGertrude Stein was an American writer, poet and art collector who spent most of her life in France.-Early life:...
, - AristophanesAristophanesAristophanes , son of Philippus, of the deme Cydathenaus, was a comic playwright of ancient Athens. Eleven of his forty plays survive virtually complete...
, - Winnie the Pooh,
- gayGayGay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....
relationships, and - St. JoanJoan of ArcSaint Joan of Arc, nicknamed "The Maid of Orléans" , is a national heroine of France and a Roman Catholic saint. A peasant girl born in eastern France who claimed divine guidance, she led the French army to several important victories during the Hundred Years' War, which paved the way for the...
.
Carmines' Judson Poets' Theater, with other burgeoning theatres Café Cino, La MaMa E.T.C. and Theatre Genesis were experimental and vibrant challenges to the commercialization and conformity of Off Broadway and Broadway houses.
His 1973 musical The Faggot was a success d'estime which transferred from the Judson Memorial Church to the Truck and Warehouse Theatre and ran for 203 performances.
In 1977, he had a cerebral aneurysm that required months of therapy. He underwent surgery a second time in 1985, which only then cured his crippling headaches. He died in St. Vincent's Hospital in New York, survived by his partner Paul Rounsaville.
Carmines found as much spiritual meaning in the theater as the church: "If you want to know how to live, go to church. If you want to know how your life is in its deepest roots, go to the theater."
Theatre credits
- What Happened (1963) - composer; a setting for the works of Gertrude Stein
- Home MoviesHome Movies (musical)Home Movies is an Obie Award-winning 1964 Off-Off-Broadway musical written by Rosalyn Drexler. It was scored by Al Carmines who played the role of Father Shenanigans. It opened from March 20 until March 30, 1964 at Carmines' Judson Poets' Theater, located at Judson Memorial Church in Greenwich...
/Softly Consider the Nearness (1964) - composer, actor - Patter for a Soft Shoe Dance (1964) - composer
- Sing Ho for a Bear (1966) - composer, actor (as Winnie the Pooh)
- Gorilla Queen (1967) - composer, lyricist
- San Francisco's Burning (1967) - composer
- Song of Songs - composer; a cantata based on the Bible
- The Sayings of Mao Tse-tungMao ZedongMao Zedong, also transliterated as Mao Tse-tung , and commonly referred to as Chairman Mao , was a Chinese Communist revolutionary, guerrilla warfare strategist, Marxist political philosopher, and leader of the Chinese Revolution...
(1968) - composer; another cantata - In CirclesGertrude SteinGertrude Stein was an American writer, poet and art collector who spent most of her life in France.-Early life:...
(1968) - composer, actor - Peace (1969) - composer; an adaptation from AristophanesAristophanesAristophanes , son of Philippus, of the deme Cydathenaus, was a comic playwright of ancient Athens. Eleven of his forty plays survive virtually complete...
- Christmas Rappings (from 1969) - lyrics, music, actor, director; annual Xmas show held at Judson Memorial Church, and eventually taped for a television special
- PromenadePromenade (musical)Promenade is an experimental musical with book and lyrics by María Irene Fornés and music by Rev. Al Carmines. The show itself, although a musical comedy, originally produced off-broadway by Edgar Lansbury & Joseph Beruh, falls more into the category of Theatre of the Absurd...
(1969) - composer, musical director - The Urban Crisis (1969) - composer, lyricist; a "secular oratorio"
- About Time (1970) - composer; another oratorio
- W.C. (1971) - composer, lyricist; a musical based on the life of W. C. FieldsW. C. FieldsWilliam Claude Dukenfield , better known as W. C. Fields, was an American comedian, actor, juggler and writer...
, which starred Mickey RooneyMickey RooneyMickey Rooney is an American film actor and entertainer whose film, television, and stage appearances span nearly his entire lifetime. He has won multiple awards, including an Honorary Academy Award, a Golden Globe and an Emmy Award...
and Bernadette PetersBernadette PetersBernadette Peters is an American actress, singer and children's book author from Ozone Park, Queens, New York. Over the course of a career that has spanned five decades, she has starred in musical theatre, films and television, as well as performing in solo concerts and recordings...
but closed out-of-town - The Journey of Snow White (1971) - composer, lyricist
- The Duel (1972); composer, lyricist; an opera based on the lives of Alexander HamiltonAlexander HamiltonAlexander Hamilton was a Founding Father, soldier, economist, political philosopher, one of America's first constitutional lawyers and the first United States Secretary of the Treasury...
and Aaron BurrAaron BurrAaron Burr, Jr. was an important political figure in the early history of the United States of America. After serving as a Continental Army officer in the Revolutionary War, Burr became a successful lawyer and politician... - Joan (1972) - librettist, composer, lyricist, actor, director
- A Look at the Fifties (1972) - composer, lyricist;
- The Faggot (1973) - composer, lyricist, director, actor
- Listen to me (1974) - composer; another Gertrude Stein adaptation
- T.S. Eliot: Midwinter Vigil(ante) (1981) - composer, lyricist, director; last show at Judson Church
- Romance Language (1984) - actor (as Walt Whitman)
- The Comedy of ErrorsThe Comedy of ErrorsThe Comedy of Errors is one of William Shakespeare's earliest plays. It is his shortest and one of his most farcical comedies, with a major part of the humour coming from slapstick and mistaken identity, in addition to puns and word play. The Comedy of Errors is one of only two of Shakespeare's...
(1992) - actor (as Duke/Balthazar) - Maslova (1992) - composer, lyricist
- Martyrs and Lullabies (1996) - an operaOperaOpera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
featuring Dietrich BonhoefferDietrich BonhoefferDietrich Bonhoeffer was a German Lutheran pastor, theologian and martyr. He was a participant in the German resistance movement against Nazism and a founding member of the Confessing Church. He was involved in plans by members of the Abwehr to assassinate Adolf Hitler...
, Gertrude SteinGertrude SteinGertrude Stein was an American writer, poet and art collector who spent most of her life in France.-Early life:...
, and Bessie SmithBessie SmithBessie Smith was an American blues singer.Sometimes referred to as The Empress of the Blues, Smith was the most popular female blues singer of the 1920s and 1930s...
.
Awards and nominations
- 1964 Obie Award for Best Music - for Home Movies/Softly Consider the Nearness
- 1968 Drama Desk Award (Vernon Rice-Drama Desk Award) - the music from In Circles
- 1968 Obie Award for Best Musical - for In Circles
- 1969 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Music - for Peace
- 1974 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Lyrics - for The Faggot
- 1974 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Music - for The Faggot
- 2003 Robert Chesley Award for gay and lesbian Playwriting