A Man For All Seasons: A gala honoring BAM’s Joseph V. Melillo
On Thursday night, the Brooklyn Academy of Music presented a special performance at the BAM Harvey Theater to honor Executive Producer Joseph Melillo, who, at the end of 2018, will be stepping down after 35 years from his post as founding director of the Next Wave Festival. During this extraordinary span, Melillo has provided a global platform for more than 7,000 artists from more than 45 countries. And in doing so, he put Brooklyn squarely on the New York City cultural map.
The evening’s highlights included personal stories from artists, friends and colleagues, video clips, short films and special performances. Robert Wilson contributed a new work titled “For Joe a Man Who,” which featured Lucinda Childs, Isabelle Huppert, Jeremy Irons, Chukwudi Iwuji, Nonhlanhla Kheswa, Isabella Rossellini, Carl Hancock Rux, John Turturro and Wilson himself.
Wilson staged the performance by having each actor sit on stage in a chair from his own personal collection. Each performer took a turn standing in place while reciting a monologue from one of their past BAM performances. (For example, Irons did a monologue from O’Neill’s “Long Day’s Journey Into Night,” Turturro performed a monologue from Beckett’s “Endgame,” Lucinda Childs did “Einstein on the Beach” and Isabelle Huppert did Heiner Muller’s “Quartet.”) This unique format made for compelling and memorable theater.
