 Egypt, I think it was, really just calming people down and calming things down. That may be the hidden sort of structural thing, but it was that, you know, that great willingness to open her arms and to make it so simple, because it really was very simple. I talked about Ellen, who I knew for many years, and Ellen and Martha were great friends, and never once did Ellen Stewart come to me and say, Philip, I have this wonderful show you've got to come see called The Yellow House. It was always, guess what Leo Shapiro is doing next? Right. Come see Leo. And Martha really did respond to individuals that was right at the core of the ethos of what ITI is about this very simple thing, you know. We meet each other and we change. It's pretty powerful. Great. And it all started with this great picture of this great young woman. Great. Well that's fantastic. I guess we'll talk to some more people for a few more minutes. Good. Thanks. Thanks. I think next up we were going to talk to Ann Bogart. My daughter. His daughter, Ann Bogart. Everyone knows Ann as, oh, you're right. She's one of the assistant, one of the artistic directors of Citi Company, and she's currently at Columbia University. How are you? Good. Good. So do you have any particular thoughts? I know you're going to be speaking in about 20 minutes or something, but do you have any particular thoughts that you'd like to share about Martha and the importance? Yeah, well, when you asked Philip, who was Martha, what did she do? I mean, I know, you know, everyone knows the answer to that. I thought, what would my answer to that be? And so I thought, you know what she was? She was what, who was it, who categorized all human beings into like five or six different categories? Was it Malcolm Gladwell or somebody? Yeah. And one of those was somebody called a maven. And the maven is the person who is the seed for plants that grow. And I think it's true with Martha. If you looked at a lot of movements in the American Theater over the last 40 years, you would find Martha at the bottom of it. And she wouldn't claim it because she would say, no, no, no, that happened because other people, but she was the person who, and I think, I think it's true what Philip said, that it was very simple. She just made everything very simple. Well, of course, it was never like that's difficult, creepy imitation of very good. Of course, we should all just take it on and carry it forward. Well, of course. And she was that person who said, well, of course. And things started to happen. And then she denied having anything to do with it later on. Is that true? She was in her own way modest. And she was not a grandstanding person at all. She was a great party thrower. She put people together who never would have met otherwise unless they had met them through Martha. She was a maven and a connector. What is it they also call it in the world of Jewish marriage? What is it? Somebody who gets people to marry each other? A yenta. She was a yenta in many ways, not in terms of literal marriages, but in terms of artistic marriages. And again, if you asked her if it was because of her, she would probably laugh. And she wouldn't say, of course, to that. She'd say, no, no, no, these people got together. So we'll miss her. And I think it's our obligation to look at exactly what she did and to answer your questions as clearly as we can and say, that's what we carry forward. Those are the memes. Those are the tropes. That's what's alive still. And one can one can do that by identifying what those things are. Can you do it now? Can you do what she does? What she did? Of course. You have to say it. I of course tremble at the thought of saying that because it's not it's we all know actually it's not so simple. But nothing is simple. And we live in a very, very complex time. But there have to be people who have that positivism and that sense of can do and the humor that is actually the motor behind it that allows things to happen without that humor. Again, Philip is somebody who also shares that sense of humor. If you can't laugh at the difficulties and throw your arms up and just move forward in a state of everybody else's stuckness, you know, then that's the kind of thing we need to take on from her example. Great. Great. Well, thank you. Okay. I guess next up would be Jim O'Quinn. Why not? He's got a drink in his hand. Why not? And of course, many of you will know Jim as the editor of American theater. What are you called now? Are you like they've labeled me founding editor founding editor? That's what he was. He was founding editor of American theater magazine. And currently resides in New Orleans. Do you have any thoughts about? Well, I watched all those years. I can never be as eloquent as Anne, of course. And all the things she said are absolutely true. But I watched Martha all those years, you know, make enormous difference in the theater and bringing internationalism into the American. Yeah, that because I mean, you would have a you would have a certain viewpoint about that being at the core of the American theater in a certain way, because of TCG. What what did did she influence American theater in a certain sort of way? Do you think I mean, did she do something? What did she do something specifically to the American theater? Well, I think without her, there would be a lot less cross cross feeding, you know, it's changed from times to time. There were in the 80s, for instance, there was lots of back and forth in the 90s became kind of xenophobic and closed off. And then it changed again. But Martha was always there pushing and she would she would kept well, you know, I remember lots of specific things has anyone mentioned the brownies? No, no one's mentioned Martha made the best brownies, best chocolate brownies that anybody ever made, even my grandmother could match them. And she would bring them to TCG big boxes off. And we would all we would all be, you know, at our computers with dirty chocolate stained fingers, you know, after that, and everybody would line up for them. But and she always wanted people to, you know, be, be well supplied and happy and you know, and the main, aside from the professional relationship that I had with her when she would come by and and when we did work things together. The time I got to the most intimate time I ever spent with Martha was when we took a four hour road trip up from New York, just she and I in a rental car to go to double edge theater, which was one of her up in Western Massachusetts, which was one of her favorite companies in a place that she loved. And so I had Martha all to myself for four solid hours. And we talked and talked and talked. And she talked more than I talked. Because she was a hell of a talker. And, and I remember that time with enormous affection. And, and, you know, I don't know how to summarize. I couldn't begin to summarize what what she did. Yeah. But as Anne said, she'll be great. Thanks. I actually wanted to get Will Wadsworth up here, if I could, to give a sort of different perspective about about Martha. Will is his Martha's nephew. Good to see you too. And I just thought maybe you could give us we all kind of know the professional end of things with Martha, but perhaps you could talk a little bit about who she where she came from as a, you know, from the family tree kind of thing. I suppose there's something like that. Obviously, we don't we can't go into the genealogy of the Wadsworth family necessarily, but but but but you you have some thoughts, I think, about about her upbringing and where she came from and that sort of thing. Well, I got to know her really best when she was on her last decline, after two strokes, and I was sort of a on site caretaker. And she had more situational awareness than almost anyone I knew after two strokes. So she always knew what people were feeling. She had huge empathy and was able to relate to anyone. And she struggled. I mean, part of the cause of those strokes was kind of a deep sadness that she had for many years after her husband died and various other things. And she struggled with drinks. She was she had a drink in her hand from the day she was born because her father was a wonderful cocktail host. And social fun was the name of the game in our family. But she she struggled with alcoholism a little bit later. And that was part of the greatness of her that she really understood the struggle of life, the struggle of other people, the great empathy she had for people. And towards the end of her life, she learned the lessons of alcohol and got free of it. But for her, the way to improve the world and to improve people was one day at a time, one action at a time, and one person at a time. That was Martha through through and through she was a very present oriented person, very contact oriented. And a lot of that sort of at the root of that that people don't see and don't know is her deep deep faith. She had faith in people. She had incredible confidence in herself because of her. She was born kind of with a silver spoon, went to Vassar was surrounded by very self entitled people. And that and was the main trade of the family through the generations was that women need to be educated and they were educated from 1636 to the present. And they've got college educations as soon as we found colleges in this country. And Wadsworth men love smart women. So it's that's what she came out of she came out not only entitled but authorized to be herself fully. And I think she she was willing to act that out. And she used that background for a good cause. It wasn't as you say she wasn't a proud person. She knew her weaknesses. And I think that Rudy, her husband gave her a lot of strength to face the international scene, which she might have otherwise without Rosamund Gilder there, she might not have ever gone there. But together they had a synergy that allowed her to say yes, you can take an international role. But she was sort of born to it to some extent and educated to into it. But she took it much further because she was the first post war generation woman. She was in a Wadsworth experiment post war. The war ruined the extended family. And a lot of families drifted through World War one thinking nothing had happened because America wasn't bombed or shot at. And but the war, she lost an uncle. And her two brothers were faced World War two. She was young and it was didn't affect her. But she was going to have fun. And everyone came back from the war ready for fun. So you also told me once about you thought there was a she had almost a crisis of faith at one point. And that was around the time when she actually when she went to when she went to ITI actually, I think we see right now with the heroin epidemic in America and these other things that young people like to live and they like to experiment like to try things. And she was ready for living. She lived hard. She was at theater all night, worked all day. Partied hard was in transformative theater workshops that were very transformative. They really woke her up actors. She's at the actors studio and she met great actors and love them. And she would she would do anything for a fellow actor. Acting was more her actor friends. And earth like you her friends in theater were more important to her than her family to be honest. She had the family background. She was a loyal family member. But her theater family was the was the family. And that was her great strength, I think because she treated everyone like she had been treated in her family. And she took everyone into her family. So that's just sorry to broadcast but I've been thinking a lot about it. And I've been thinking about her in the deeper context of the family. I think hard drinking and hard living and trying things out in the sexual revolution or presexual revolution drove her into a black pit. As she was getting other actors into the workplace and drinking a lot and seeing theater a lot and not knowing where she was completely didn't her lifestyle wasn't adding up to something until Rosamond Gilder and some other very wise theater people took her that took her under their wing and she began to get a direction. But at the root of that, like all my ancestors who have fallen, they had a very strong Puritan Protestant background. We had three ministers in the two ministers in the family. They came over for religious reasons. They stayed religious. So the the Puritanism in the family and the Presbyterian church every Sunday and so forth that she grew up with. She went back to the church. She went back to St. Clements, which was an experimental religious and church theater community. And she her letters about that to the Presbyterian minister of her father's church are worth reading because she said I found my family. I found my spiritual home at St. Clements. And I'm not disrespecting the spiritual home I came from and I'm writing to tell you that I'm fine. You know what I mean? You know, so she found a balance between the new world and the old world through St. Clements and through her faith. So she had a deep, deep Christian faith. And I think that was the root of her coming out of it was the root of her understanding all the other people with faith. She wasn't prejudiced at all. And she was in a church that welcomed LGBT families way before way before AIDS. She was she was way ahead of the curve on all that she had no she was strong in her own faith and she just rediscovered her own faith. So through that, I think she was able to reach out to people of other faiths with that great confidence and that great faith in God. She was never religious or phony religious. But as she said, the only two days I need God are on Monday morning and Thursday afternoon. And since we're all in church on Sunday, since we're all in church on Sunday, I think God should take a seven the day off on the seventh day. So is that kind of a religion? But it was important to her. And I think I think it helped. Yeah, and it was around the same time that she it was funny because I think it's it happened around the same time as when she encountered a rose. And it was all sort of happened to the same sort of coalesced to be a complete idiot. I think that God or the universe works that way that once you make that leap of trust, then you can do anything. Yeah, you're free, you can step out, you can you can display yourself or or not, you can be quiet and shut up, you know, which would be the wiser course. Well, that's great. It gives us gives us a certain insight into her that I don't think is a lot of people have, which is great. Yeah, she had a private life, but theater was her real life. She really put her whole heart into it. Thanks. I think we're going to wrap this up for right now. For we have to change over to actually do the the event. So we'll be kind of pausing for about eight minutes, I think as we as we set things up and do that transition. So hang on, we'll be back in about eight minutes. Thanks. Everybody knows what this is. It just came up from the archives downstairs. And I was asked by Mia to ring it to start today. And I feel very honored. I've heard it hundreds of times, as you all have. Can we hear me now? We can hear me now. All right. I won't go back. This is the right place for this ceremony to happen. And Martha and Ellen were great friends. They made a long journey together. And when we were looking where to land this top of the list and the first people in were La Mama. So Mia is in Italy right now and can't be with us. But just a few words from the managing director, Mary Fulham, please. Thank you all so much. You know, as Philip said, you know, Ellen and Martha were very close and we're so honored that that this memorial is here tonight and we'd like to welcome all of you, her colleagues and especially her family to remember Martha's remarkable life tonight here in the Ellen Stewart Theater. So we just, on behalf of all of us at La Mama, the entire team, we just want to welcome you and say how much we love Martha. Thank you so much. Right now, I was going to introduce Stephen Zinser Wadsworth. I spent the afternoon with about two dozen of Martha's blood relations. And the notion of getting her theater family and her family, family together really got more exciting as every minute that I spent with them this afternoon. I hope afterwards you'll get to spend some time with them. Martha's sister is here who I believe announced that she was 94 years old. She was Martha's big sister. It's great to have you here. And Stephen asked, Stephen wanted to go first because he's getting on a plane. He's so good. Please welcome, representing Wadsworth Clan, a man I first met at Sundance probably a decade ago, Stephen Zinser Wadsworth. Thank you. I know. Sorry to cut it so close. As noted, I am getting on a plane. And of course, I wasn't ready. But I'm really glad to be here on behalf of Martha and on behalf of the Wadsworth Clan at large. So my name is Stephen Wadsworth Zinser. My work professionally is Stephen Wadsworth. My grandmother was the only sibling of Martha's father, which makes me Martha's first cousin once removed, in a room full of various siblings, first and second cousins, once and twice removed, and of course all our theater sisters and brothers. And none of us at all removed from Martha, really, except by her death, which didn't really work for me. I mean, it seems very unlikely knowing Martha that she's supine in a pine crate or reduced to ashes in an urn hardly enough to hold one of her bracelets. And also I felt very close to her as I thought about her since she died. And I don't think that's going to stop. She was a particularly vivid cousin and her close relationship with my late father, John Zinser, brought her into our sphere in the 60s and 70s when I was growing up, trailing brilliantly colored scarves and trading droll urbanities with my droll urban father. They took care of each other in the 60s when they each saw very hard times and delighted, as Martha seems always to have done, no matter how down her chips were, in having a drink, telling old stories, doing animal impressions, and heaving with laughter. If her close friend and colleague Edward Albee had collaborated, say, with George S. Kaufman, they might have written Martha. At least as she appeared to me then, wondrously complex, biting, hilarious, dear, easily moved and clearly no stranger to dark places. It took one to no one. Martha was born June 21st, 1933, the fourth child of Charles Wadsworth III, and Martha Clay Hollister, a shiny, witty, handsome pair. As Martha said, toasting them on their 50th wedding anniversary, they produced, quote, they produced four very noisy, talkative, stage-stealing, messy, enthusiastic shouters. Anyone who has survived the participate or perish character of a little Wadsworth gathering will bear me out. Martha was fully nine years younger than the next youngest sibling. Her sister Elizabeth, who is here tonight, and grew up, in a certain sense, alone. Where her siblings came of age after Pearl Harbor, Martha came of age after Hiroshima. And upon graduating in drama from Vassar in 1954, was clearly bursting with an actor's need to tell stories and bear witness. She came from a long line of storytellers and their stories, and I can only speak for the Wadsworth side. Charles I was the Reverend Charles Wadsworth, Emily Dickinson met, and was deeply moved by. He was a media superstar when print was the only media. Minister of the Arch Street Church in Philadelphia, a famously eloquent writer and thinker in the age of expansion, widely read charismatic. He was lured west to help organize lawless San Francisco during the Civil War years and embodied the courageous political awareness that is a running Wadsworth motif and was very Martha. When he said, God bless the president of the United States and half of his parishioners walked out of the church. Charles II was also a preacher and Charles III, father to George I, Charles IV, Elizabeth I, and Martha II, majored in nuclear chemistry at Harvard and worked for the chemical warfare department in World War I. All that had to be kept secret, of course, and for a person with the moral sophistication of this enlightened preacher's son and grandson, it must have been a heavy weight. Working for a chemical firm sometime after the war, he took lunch on a locker room bench one day, and when he got up his pants were burned through by something on the seat, so he decided to change careers. Martha wrote it for parents' home. Between the silence and the storms, there was that which made the thunder productive, humor. Humor often hiding pain or covering feelings, but mostly a humor that never really could hide love or anger or concern. That home was ultimately in Pellum, New York, where Martha's parents were ensconced towards the end of their lives, to which their children and grandchildren returned regularly, and where during a seemingly endless cocktail hour there was noise, talk, stage ceiling, and very fun shouting in which my father was a full participant. One of the stars was Charles IV, who wanted to be, was an actor. But Charles III would not allow that. It all looked like love to me though, and the other star was Martha. She was made of theater. She was, in fact. She had played every role in the theater. She went to theater camp in Colorado where her prescient advisor said of her, quote, Martha has so many gifts it is hard to know in which field she should give the most of her time and energy. The entire staff find her highly interesting, intelligent, and witty. She wrote, produced, directed, and acted at Vassar, and left there wanting to be an actress. She did summer stock in Ogunquit, acting and stage managing. She became Elia Kazan and Lee Strasberg's student and factotomet, the actor's studio in its Marlon Brando, Paul Newman, Carl Mulden days, and seems to have been the only person who could successfully wrangle the perennially late Marilyn Monroe into coming to class on time. At Actors, there are other Marilyn Monroe stories for another time. At Actors Studio, she worked and networked closely with its general administrator and producer, Roger Stevens. She then worked as gopher secretary and networker, extraordinaire for the late, for the legendary agent Gilbert Parker. All the while honing and merging her miraculous humor and diplomatic skills. And somehow, and I wish I had further details about this, managed to squeeze in a three-month European vacation with Paul and Julia Child. The mind reels. Ultimately though, she struck out on her own as an actor to be and, well, she struck out. She'd also learned a lot about drinking at Actors Studio and in the work speed company of the theater business, so she did a little bit too much of that and floundered in the early 60s, which is when my dad helped her out. And she repaid that favor in spades with her love and support and hilarity when he needed it in the second part of that decade, and I also have to say whenever I spoke to her, she repaid it. Things got really, really good for her after that. Rosamund Gilder needed someone to organize an international theater conference in New York, quick like a bunny, and Martha was the perfect person. All of her gifts came together. Rosamund Gilder's vision and the power of the international theater community in a cold war world grabbed Martha and Martha grabbed back. Finally aligned with a calling that spoke to the biggest things in life, had a thrilling cast of theater artists from everywhere, and played 24-7 for the rest of her career. Martha took over the directorship of the International Theater Institute, and I'm sure we'll hear more about her work as the evening goes on, and she let congresses in during the cold war get this. Budapest, London, Moscow, West Berlin, Stockholm, Sofia, Madrid, Toronto, Montreal, Havana, Helsinki, Istanbul, Munich, Caracas, Seoul, Marseille, Athens, Manila, and Beijing. After 9-11, Martha attended six theater conferences in Cairo. In 1998, Martha and ITI got a special Tony Award exactly 40 years after Rosamund Gilder got hers. Her success hinged on her passion for the theater, her love of people, never enough hugs, never enough brownies, her wicked tenacity, and her effortless social graces, home to home, and her eye on the prize dream of peace here, there, and everywhere. Little wonder that having found her feet as a professional, she also found herself in love with and soon enough married to the brilliant and remarkable Rodolphe Quinier, a French war hero and conspicuous citizen of the world who, and this was a major point of interest for me, had dated chair. This is a man who could have had a chair but chose Martha. Who wouldn't? Which is a comment somewhat on Martha. Little wonder that, yes. During rough times in the 60s, Martha also found solace and much needed sense of community at St. Clemens Church, which served the theater community both as haven of prayer and playhouse. Her mantra, she said, was let us play. And sure enough, she prayed and played and was instrumental in building up the theatrical wing of the church, again in every possible role. Church, she wrote once, is like an old lady trying desperately to chaperone the Beatles. You know, this is the granddaughter and great granddaughter of some serious creatures. Martha was an independent, fully modern woman who fought against her own weaknesses, with and against her heritage, and for her entitlement in a man's world, wielding her candor, confidence, and heat-seeking wit. And all this, bravely and admirably, before the feminist movement made it okay. She burned, in the words of Walter Pader, with a hard, gem-like flame. Even after her first stroke on the way back from the Beijing conference in 2011, her sharply perceptive mind and effortless sardonic humor were up front. Her nephew, Will, who was her loving and heroic caregiver, along with his wife Jane, and organizer in her last years, writes touchingly about them. He really got to know her only then. These are his words. I never saw the power, Martha, rather the more essential, pared-down person. In some ways, I was lucky, because she was alcohol-free, less cranky, less bitter, and her primary traits of empathy, humor, doggedness, and huge situational awareness all became the staples that she lived by. The first stroke removed her ability to plan and to take initiatives, and she lost her short-term memory. This resulted in Sundowners Syndrome, where she would become disoriented and agitated every evening, and felt that she had to go somewhere. She also developed this underlying feeling late at night that she needed to go home, so she would pack her bags and repack them between two and five a.m. every night in preparation. One evening, after work, I visited around 7 p.m., and found her in the lobby of 1200 Fifth Avenue, beautifully dressed, as though for an opera. I asked her where she was going, and she said to the Vassar Reunion Party. Another night, she had her suitcase all packed and in hand, and was well dressed for travel. She happened to get past the doorman somehow, and I met her on the corner of 102nd and 5th, heading towards Grand Central to take a train home to Pelham. We lived with such a touching thing, when I think of those times there, and that incredible energy and embelliance of that household. We lived, says Will, still going on, we lived for three months worrying every evening, she would go home to pop and rammy only to rediscover that they were dead. There's another story that he told me when he and Jane took, I guess, her father and Martha on a vacation, and her father was in a very crotchety old guy place, and was of 12 minds about what he wanted to do when, and Martha sat quietly and peacefully in the car, and both, as the hours rolled by, these guys were looking at both of them with sort of increasingly frantic concern about how they were doing, because it was intense for them, and Martha was totally some quiet and docile, and the gentleman was really in a state of just hogging the time and hogging the energy, and hogging the attention, and just meeting, meeting, meeting, and at one point Will said to Martha, are you okay? And she said, with perfect timing, I think you better take care of Mr. Wonderful. You know, just that little hint of a smile. Martha was classically wadsworthy. There was a certain rigor of thought and belief, a finely honed skepticism, but an old age of enlightenment, skepticism, the best kind, and verbal acuity and humor, rye, dry, and right in the eye. Two of our earliest ancestors were responsible for hiding a copy of the Connecticut Charter from the British in an oak tree in Hartford, hence the Charter Oak Bridge, and a legacy, at least as imagined by Martha and my father, of righteous fury, take charge initiative, and a sort of reckless, naughty cleverness. What I learned from Martha was that we all, everyone, everywhere, had to keep putting the Charter in that oak. We don't get something for nothing. Citizenship isn't a hand cream or a shoe you might be rich enough to buy. We all, everyone, everywhere, have to feed the meter to pay it forward, to keep reinvesting through action in the beautiful idea. Being citizens of this country, of any other or the world or any other community, we have responsibilities to protect communication, whether of big ideas, private truths, or national imperatives, to celebrate difference in acts of communion, be they a church, in the theater, or across a table, to step into the difficult conversation and challenge all sentient beings to listen to one another at a conference, a festival, or an embassy. It's all one. Martha was a great writer. Let me close with two quotes. In 1996, she said, of post-Cold War America, what we didn't bargain for in the U.S. was our national allergy to the rest of the world, if there is not a war to hold our attention. In 1967, she said, of being in a family, all have seemed to hold the hope that everything would be okay. The knowledge that the hope is sort of impossible and the security to watch and see and keep on doing the business of life. Acknowledge the abrasion, acclaim the wrath, accelerate the independence, and approve the effort. Night night, Martha. Stephen was now supposed to introduce Barbara Lanciers, the director of the Trust for Mutual Understanding, who helped us do this today. And Barbara had a death in the family yesterday and is in Milwaukee right now. So I'm going to get to follow this by reading Barbara's statement that she wrote when she knew she couldn't be here. Friends, family, colleagues, and fellow loved ones of Martha, I wish I could be there with you this evening to honor a woman who truly embodied the spirit of trust and mutual understanding of creating deep, long-lasting friendships across borders. I'm writing these words wearing two intertwined hats. The first is the director of the Trust for Mutual Understanding, a foundation that supported Martha's work through the International Theater Institute for many decades. The second is a theater practitioner who sat at her feet and learned from her the importance of global connectedness and collaboration well before I entered the world of philanthropy. I'll speak through Philip wearing that second hat first. It was Philip who introduced me to Martha when I was a young graduate student. A group of classmates and I were opening a performance at the ontological hysteric theater at St. Mark's Church. Just before the show started Philip walked in with a fabulous Martha Guagnet and sat down in the audience. I knew who she was who didn't but I'd never seen her in person. She was wearing her signature orange lipstick, orange scarf, and matching shoes and handbag. I was terribly nervous to meet her and told her so as we exchanged our first words after the performances. She squeezed my hand kindly and said oh dear there's no need to be nervous. We're part of the same family. Which family is that? The family of theater of course. To Martha if you were a theater person you were a friend which also meant that you were family. So that's when I officially joined Martha's extended family and she proceeded to open up to my view of community to include the global theater community. Now switching to that first step I should tell you in the spirit of full transparency that the trust for mutual understanding would not be what it is now if our founding trustees Richard Lanier, Elizabeth McCormick, and Don O'Brien had not encountered Martha Guagnet as they were working with TMU's anonymous donor to set up the foundation. Last year was TMU's 30th anniversary. In preparation for our anniversary events I was digging through those treasure trove of historical documents and I came across the minutes from the first official meeting of the trustees which took place November 4, 1985. At that point the director the direction of the foundation and its guidelines and programmatic priorities were still very much in development. Among the short list of organizations discussed at the meeting was ITI. A summary of a seminal conversation between Martha and TMU trustee and longtime director Richard Lanier was highlighted in these minutes. Martha probably in the way Martha always did, humbly, and with a touch of right humor gave Richard some advice. Number one, networks are important and should be supported. Two, organizations are good but the individuals are the actual doers and they need to be supported. Number three, always answer your own phone. Don't make grants that are restricted and number five, theater people can change the world. The trustees must have taken this advice to heart because ITI under Martha's leadership was among TMU's very first grantees. Martha's influence can be felt far and wide from just about every corner of the world. Martha was a person of words combined with actions. She was a person of substance, of kindness, of strength. She believed in friendship above all else and she believed that friendship can be found even in the harshest of circumstances. I like to think that all of us at TMU strive to be a little like Martha. Think a little bit like Martha. Do a little bit like Martha every day. We are all, everyone here and everyone watching, most fortunate to be counted among the members of Martha's very large and boisterous global family of theater people, Barbara Lansears. I had the good fortune to introduce Barbara to Martha and I think I might have introduced you to Martha and Bogart. I know you met her a long time ago. I think at Iowa Theater Lab, Focus Moon and Bogart, a long-time friend and partner of Martha Coine. I'm so glad you solved that, Philip, because I was trying to remember when I first met Martha and I think your writing was the Iowa Theater Lab in the 70s. But my memory, now I have to adjust it because I have a different memory but I think you're right, but the memory I have conjured up is seeing Martha at various events and I think one of them was at the theater festival in Catskill for the Iowa Theater Lab. It was called, what was the name of it? August Moon. But also I remember the first time I got to go to a TCG conference or other conferences and she was always there and I looked at her and I admired her and I thought she was so grown up and so sophisticated and then I followed her around a little bit before I met her and got to be friends with her and I watched her because after these fabulous conferences she would go to a fabulous hotel with a lot of other people who seemed rather sophisticated and they would sit at round tables and drink martinis or other drinks and she would lean back in her chair with that elegant slender body and she would regale tables with tails and I was so impressed and then to my great thrill I was actually invited to her table and got to sit at her tables at these various conferences and events and festivals and listen to her stories and they were never self-aggrandizing at all as a matter of fact I do believe that she is at the heart of many many many initiatives that happened in the last 40 50 years in this country in the theater and she would not admit it if you try to accuse her of being the insider of these great things that would happen in the theater she would say oh no no this was so and so and so and so they got together but she was actually behind it planning it getting people together I believe that she you know was was plotting actually constantly but what I've learned after a while is that maybe she wasn't so grown up I mean look at this picture I actually learned that she had a childlike quality to her that was incredibly seductive and attractive and successful in terms of getting what she wanted when she had something in mind to get it done she got it done and she appealed to people and I think not in a negative feminine a way that one is a feminist would say that's a negative thing is to use her childish wiles but she did it in a really wily way and that it was actually genuine that she was always a child in some sense and with a child's delight and an enthusiasm that was contagious and towards the end and she was a board member of city company for a number of years at the end of her life and she was always and it was pointed out by phil earlier in a discussion her her point of view was it's so simple just it's so simple of course you'll take this initiative and and she very much brought to our board meetings her and we have a number of board members in with us here tonight you'll remember this she brought not her not only her sense of humor but her sense of of course we're going to do this of course and even after her first stroke and and and she came to a board meeting and I don't know how much she was really with it but ultimately she was because there would be lots of discussion and sort of difficult twisted things that were discussed you know how hard board meetings can be or you just think this is impossible and she sat after her her stroke she would show up with her brownies her delicious brownies and we would eat her brownies and she would laugh at the end of whatever our dispute was and she'd say of course we can do this and that never stopped her humor never stopped and her attitude never stopped and I just want to take a moment before I say one final thing I'd like to share with you that Martha's caregivers towards the end should have halo so I know Kevin Bitterman who would bring her to the board meetings I know bring her everywhere so that she could still participate as a fully sentient seemingly sentient human being towards the end and and certainly her family will as as Stephen has mentioned are in what they allowed her to the quality of her life is is immeasurable because of them that's that's huge and so finally I've been thinking a lot about the word resonance because you know there's a lot of emphasis in the American theater about as a as an artist you know you have to have a signature or maybe the innovative or new or novel and I never found that to be particularly interesting but the word that has I'm thinking about these days is resonant that I'd like to make work that is resonant so I started looking up the word resonant it turns out that it not only means creating meaning of others it also means in physics that it's a kind of people can correct me later who know what they're talking about it's something about energy and a certain movement of molecules that communicate to another entity and give them that movement correct me please but it's I'm gonna study this more in other words that that that a you could say the easiest example is is a production like Hamilton is resonant because it's created movement in others and there's great deal of of of resonance that's communicated from one to the other and I would like to suggest that Martha's great gift was her resonance and then in us she has set up a lot of movement and it behooves us I think Stephen mentioned earlier to carry forward her sense of it's simple of course we have to do it of course it's not simple of course it's complicated everything is twisted and difficult and becoming more difficult every year to get things done in the theater but can we keep alive the what she what she gave us was which is is a sense of movement forward and a sense of it's simple of course we can do this thank you very much and I'd like to introduce you to Amelia Ketchapero who I'm excited to speak with us because in the end the last chapter of Martha's time with ITI was with TCG and TCG took in ITI and Martha and they became an entity and I know Amelia you had a great deal to do with that working and also worked closely with her so Amelia thank you 721 and happy hour is over top terrace miles above the clouds it's sunny always 72 degrees Fahrenheit 20 Celsius always happy hour and always just before sunset Martha and Ellen Stewart are holding court in a corner and Mack Lowry has just ordered another round of drinks a waiter brings Martha a Martha vodka, Campari, OJ and a splash of soda large bosons of orchids and tulips are scattered around the terrace two of the Lola's are stationed beside the buffet table waiting for a Swedish meatball to fall out of the chain Rudy's distracted by De Gaulle who's just asked him to check his pulse Fouad Alshanti is combing his hair at the mirror by the door and Marilyn is drawn to his cologne Jean-Pierre Guentgenay has just finished telling Martha and Ellen a joke in French but Fidel is sulking because he doesn't understand the punchline a united humanity is speaking Hungarian Russian Arabic Korean Polish Catalan Mandarin and no one needs a translator at Martha's party above the clouds it's ever sunny ever happy hour and ever just before sunset it's just after Labor Day in 1999 and I'm in the old TCG office on Lexington I hear an unfamiliar voice blowing down the hall warm and throaty and when I look out a tall woman with a sherbet colored real Pashmina has just rounded the corner it's my first glimpse of Martha and her global inflected style that makes shawls and crystal and gold wire necklaces I thought that's who I want to be when I grow up but at that moment I had no idea who she really was what she had accomplished or how many people she influenced a friend once told me something that I think is right for Martha to some women are meant to have one or two biological children but others are meant to have hundreds just not out of their own bodies Martha had generations of children not only in the US but spread across the world I mean here tonight is Ann and it's Philip and Kevin Bitterman and I saw Nancy Rhodes earlier so many so many Michael Fields at Del Arte Blue Lake who wrote a beautiful tribute in American Theater Magazine captured the essence of Martha as a global catalytic force constant co-conspirator in a field she had chosen I'm was in via ITI cover room for those who personally knew and appreciated her like me I am grateful because she contributed a lot for a better integration of African countries in the ITI world wide it is an unforgettable souvenir for us Georgette Gebara Lebanon with me it all began when my center sent me to represent Lebanon at the Venezuela Congress in 1995 right after we emerged from our horrible war for some reason she took me under her wing and this developed into a rich warm friendship in between meetings our short escapades for exotic meals heart to heart chats often naughty and oh that very special dinner with Alona Copen in that magic place at the foot of the Acropolis where the view is incredible Jennifer Walpole formally of the general secretary at ITI worldwide every time Martha arrived at the general secretary at in Paris it was an event I can see her now just recovered from jet lag opening the door with an armful of flowers or an exotic orchid or two and after asking without a hint of condescension but with the genuine humility of the great if she could help out in the office she whisked us off for lunch at her favorite Italian restaurant a moment of celebration joie de vivre and light belief before the long meetings began and many many more in Manila Berlin Reykjavik Moscow Tehran Barcelona Paris Zagreb Istanbul and of course in New York Martha embody ITI both worldwide in the US she and her mentor Rosamund Gilder who Stephen mentioned earlier developed the US center of ITI which Martha then held together for an incredible 35 years before finding its current home at TCG 20 years after Rosamund Gilder's term as president of ITI worldwide Martha became the second of only two women both from the US to hold the position of president and finally also that of lifelong president of honor of ITI worldwide UNESCO recognized her strong conviction of the life-saving value of cultural exchange in 1995 the head of the UNESCO culture sector Madeline Gobiol insisted on making the trip to Venezuela to present UNESCO's highest cultural award the Picasso Medal personally to Martha during the ITI World Congress today the Martha Juanier collection of books and articles which were lovingly overseen by Martha's longtime Immanuelist Lewis resides at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts Martha across between Susan B. Anthony and Joan of Arc as Nancy Rhodes said had the ear of the ITI old boy network and deeply understood the often obscure obtuse and mysterious inner workings of ITI my first ITI World Congress was in Athens 2002 I was so excited that Martha and Joan Channing quite think is here tonight championed me to attend and being an over chief or I was anxious to prepare for the event that was going to be several days I asked Martha how best to prepare and she said just brush up your French and bring good gifts to this day I arrived at ITI meetings with New York chocolates to compensate for my bad French in fact it was Martha who first told me that old joke you know what do you call someone who speaks three languages try what do you call somebody who speaks two languages bilingual what do you call somebody who speaks one language American in later years I come to associate banana bread and brownies with Martha I think of our apartment with photos and travel mementos covering the walls and tables I think of a fire in the belly fueled and refueled by people-to-people connections and a deep belief the arts can accomplish things that our governments governments more than often cannot I'm proud to be one of Martha's global children and can only hope that I'm doing right by her I'm hoping for an invite to Martha's party on the rooftop terrace above the clouds where it is ever sunny ever happy hour and ever just before sunset on behalf of Teresa Irene Kevin Bitterman and all at TCG a deep deep thank you for a life well lived Martha spent her whole life with ITI and I think it's really a very appropriate tell us that part of the story we have two other people here that go back further the first is a good friend of Martha's from Poland very accomplished translator a critic a member of the executive committee from Poland and sort of a real animator of the Polish ITI Martha's good friend Margaret Semmel Margaret it's very difficult to speak now so many good words have already been said so all the other means I'm a bit tongue-tied but I'm going to say first of all that of course whoever came under Martha's spells and Martha's spell was influence whoever came along the way was influenced by her my professional life was very very influenced by Martha too I met her first in 1974 there was a young theater critic I came to this country on a visit to my relatives and I had a letter of recommendation to the American ITI so I walked into the office there with the letter from Ziggy as she called Zygmunt Hübner who was the head of the Polish ITI and I met this very very elegant woman and I thought that she would be sending me off to Broadway theaters and so on and immediately she started making phone calls and I ended up visiting Robert Anton does anybody remember I ended up visiting the New Recon Poets Cafe and seeing for colored girls considering suicide so that was my first encounter which was with American theater which was initiated by Martha this ended up this this resulted in a series of essays on American theater in the Polish general called Dialog which well is a little bit similar to TDR it's quite influential in Poland but that was what came out of that trip my next encounter was in 1976 and that was the result of those articles which I wrote in that time Martha arranged for me to come to the Baltimore theater festival and that's when I met this gentleman and I also met a Martha which was completely different in blue jeans and a t-shirt which was also yes yes indeed completely different really was there as well and well she was also introducing new theater to people I remember her introducing Bob Wilson who was quite a nobody at that time yet well a lot was happening there but when Martha brought me into this country she decided well that's not enough you can't just go to the Baltimore theater festival you must see more you must see more you must get in touch with people so where did she send me she sent me off to the Wilma project in Philadelphia she sent me off to new harmony to an arts conference and what she did was typical Martha if you come here you have to get totally immersed you have to get in touch with all the people because it was it that Barbara Nancy said mark quoting Martha that it's individual personal contacts which make theater happen and that was typical Martha just get the person in touch with other people so it resulted again in a whole set of articles about American theater and placed me in the position where I am today that means knowing something about American theater translating American plays and here I must say also that Martha was a tremendous influence in that too because she always helped me get the rights to American plays now those would deal with American play agents know what I'm talking about but more they use all her strings and all her possibilities to help me get hold of that saying that Martha was generous would be it's such an understatement that I can't even say it but I profited enormously from her welcoming me in her home because afterwards whenever I came to New York she would take me and I would stay with her and I experienced her hospitality very important thing was about Martha in her international activities that Martha understood Europe which from this perspective means a lot and she also understood the political and economic problems which we were encountering behind the iron curtain coming to this country we were allowed to bring five dollars now yes that's what we're about to travel so now you understand what it meant for Martha to put me into all sorts of places where I could get to know American theater not only me I was only one of the dozens of people from Eastern Europe that Martha would help along in getting to know American theater I almost I also must say that she was extremely sensitive to what was happening across the water so for a long time she collaborated with the previous president of the ITI Janusz Warmiński who also came from Poland I remember her asking me as he was sort of running through the office of who is that guy that of Berminsky that vermin she was very very cautious but once she learned about his do you remember that then you were there too you remember that okay so once you found out who Mr Berminsky was I think those two were a wonderful team and in the international works the two of them managed to have a lot of things done and Martha with her remarkable diplomatic skills which were mentioned here in her wit and her humor and also her remarkable straightforwardness managed to get us from under our dear friends from the DDR from their wings from under the wings I would say that Martha was extremely important as an ambassador of American theater for us across the ocean when she sent people from this country to visit Europe we really got the crème de la crème so she put us in touch with John Jory and we started I mean us meaning the Polish ITI we started a relationship with the human festival she brought over Joe Papp I think a lot of Ellen's initiatives were also initiated and supported greatly by Martha's actions it's difficult to say how many of those happens because happened because Martha was there behind it I've mentioned already the plays which Martha helped sort of export to Poland and from Poland also to other countries in that part of the world I also remember very vividly a group of American theater directors which included Oscar Eustace, is Oscar here by any chance Robert Marx, Adrian Hall and this group came to Poland at the very very break of martial law Martha thought that theater is my part of the world is very vivid is very important is very strong and it's very important for people in this country to get to learn what it what it was like and I agree that that was a good lesson for both the Polish theater going public and also the Americas I have one image of Martha which is I mentioned this elegant lady I mentioned Martha in blue jeans I mentioned Martha in at home as a host and everybody knows what Martha was like as a host but there was also a moment that wasn't my final encounter with Martha but it stayed very vividly in my memory Martha came together with Ellen to a festival in Lublin in Poland which was organized by Wodek Stanieski also a great admirer of Martha and someone who's greatly indebted to her Martha came with Ellen Ellen wasn't feeling very well and that's an understatement Ellen was feeling very very badly Martha who wasn't all that much younger was there all the time she made sure that Ellen had the proper food she went running around town to buy a vacuum flask she made sure so that she could have the drink she wanted that Ellen was comfortable at every moment that she was spending in Lublin and I saw Martha this grand day serving theater and that's the final image which I want to have Martha because she was always there to serve people of the theater thank you that period of the last 20 years of the Cold War and then that strange period of post-Cold War which is a story that really hasn't been told there were some nasty nasty times that were happening in that region Martha helped ITI through some very difficult times with a real partner a gentleman who's here with us tonight he served as the secretary general of ITI for the entire length of her presidency and beyond I know they used to talk every day who's based in Paris and that was a working relationship and a friendship that I know meant the world to her and I'm so happy to introduce to you Andre Louis Baranetti he'll be speaking in French and his son Jean Marie you're translating so please welcome Andre Louis Baranetti I can't speak in English or like I don't want to impose you my English because it's not better since long years it's strange for me to write a text for Martha because I'm not sad when I think of her I'm so happy to have met her she was one of those people who make you a little more intelligent and if I can say it I took advantage of it for more than 20 years it feels very strange to me to write this for Martha's memorial because I am never sad when I think of her I rejoice so much in having met her Martha was one of those few people who make you feel smarter and she made me smarter for more than 20 years It was in 1983 that I was elected Secretary General of the International Institute of the Theatre and the entire block of East at the last moment had voted against me except for Poland already Solidarnoche why to report this anecdote in 1983 I was elected General Secretary of the ITI Worldwide and the whole Eastern block had voted against me except Poland thanks to Solidarnoche let us remember that French President Mitterrand had just ordered the expulsion of 47 members of the soviet embassy why are we calling this just to remind us of the political part played at the time by the ITI first and foremost by Martha she had regular contacts with the whole theater artists of Eastern countries without announcing what she thought she accepted and maintained relationships with all these people Martha did accept and maintain connections with many theater artists from the Eastern block without ever giving up on her principles political principles these artists were very grateful about it and they liked her as much as she liked them how many of these people were able to travel to the States thanks to her help she was she was like a peace worker but it didn't go without any misunderstanding some parts of American society were not ready for this I would like to recall a major incident which happened at the festival of the theater of nations in Baltimore in 1986 when the former president of the International Theater of the theater Wallace O'Hinka the Nigerian Nobel Prize who was then president of the International Theater of the theater with what doubt she found on the political orientation of the show I asked him to go see the show in London he came back by telling me that it was a brutal anti-communist on the first degree what to do the British National Theater directed by Peter Hall was supposed to present Animal Form by George Hall Orwell Wallace O'Hinka Nobel Prize from Nigeria was chairperson of the ITI Worldwide Worldwide back then and he had serious reservations about the show so I asked him to go see it in London then he told me that the show was a basic anti-communist piece what could we do Peter Hall, on the way to Baltimore stopped in New York and gave a press conference and he announced that his show was censored in Baltimore finally after much negotiations negotiating we decided that Animal Form wouldn't be part of the official programming of the festival and would be presented at the opening ceremony instead all were content but on his way to Baltimore Peter Hall organized a press conference in New York and he declared that his show had been censored by the festival it was a huge scandal which we could not ignore I think that's how it was I had to go several times to Washington to try to sort it out the U.S. information and the national endowment for the arts had just canceled their funding for the festival and the countries from the eastern bloc had officially protested except the USSR interestingly enough some countries even decided to boycott the festival Martha was doing her best to calm everyone down she was amazing one Czechoslovak theater director, Pavleka was attacked on all sides as he had decided to ignore the boycott and maintain his show Martha defended him tooth and nail the show was a huge success and our honor was safe Martha was elected the next president of the International Theater Institute and was renewed three times a week only today to have exercised four successive mandates the following year Martha was elected chairperson of ITI Worldwide she would be elected three times in a row which is a record I am fortunately don't have enough time to recall all the battles we fought together she was an iron lady she never get up to say goodbye I am fortunately don't have enough time to recall all the battles we fought together She was an iron lady. She never got up on the democratic values, but always kept in touch with the other side. I would like to commend her husband, Rodolf, who was a powerful prisoner on her side. Did you know that three months before the end of World War II, Rodolf Coignet was asked by the general de Gaulle to negotiate the liberation of the French women who had been deported to the concentration camp of Ravensburg. Another way of saying that with Mr. and Mrs. Coignet, the bar was set very high. Martha was an iron lady to indicate a good direction in an often obscure world. And then, on the cake, it was never sad. We are very happy. See you soon, Martha. We had so many laughter. See ya, Martha. Martha should have the last word. But before I give Martha the stage, I'm really glad you read some of the communications that TCG, ITI has been getting. I've been getting a lot. I'm only going to read you three. Very short one from Bulgaria. I think I've got a dozen emails from Bulgaria the last five days. But this is from a dear friend of Martha's who was an actor and then became the Minister of Culture and was responsible for Edward Alviz, the goat who is Sylvia, to be first produced there. Stefan Danilov. A remarkable woman has left us. A woman with an enormous heart and love with theater and the arts. A great and two friend of Bulgaria. I love that woman because she embodied the most important values of our modern humanity. Love of mankind and the ability to acknowledge without haughtiness the talent that knows no borders. And then a short note from Peter Brooke from Martha's Day, July 11th, 2016. All the world's a stage, vivified, refreshed, and helped with loving care over the years by Martha. When someone's life work proves they are irreplaceable, quite simply they can't be replaced. But Martha's work is a living reminder and example. Peter Brooke, Paris. And the last thing before I give the stage to Martha is a note I got from Vodek Stanjewski, the Polish director of Garganica, who was calling me saying he was going to try to get here, try to get here. And two nights ago he wrote this, I want you to know that here in Garganica we commemorate Martha Kvane's name before every public performance this weekend. I'm speaking about her to our public, and we the actors and the musicians are singing a song of her memory. So that's happening tonight in Lublin, Poland, and now we're going to let Martha have the last word. How many Russians have I fallen in love with since I worked at the National Theater Institute? There's probably too many to count, but one of the first ones that I met and remained a sort of touchstone in a way was Mikhail Solyev, because he was the head of the Soviet delegation when they came to New York for the Congress. In that sense he was the first official ITI person from Russia that I really met. And he stayed, I knew him through a period of about 15 years because he was the executive committee representatives from Moscow and I was, as of 71, the center from New York. But it was just his sense of being, he was a very clear Soviet representative, but he also was a wonderful older actor. And he was one of the people that showed the power of theater to climb through national differences and just get down to getting the work done, and he was completely official when it needed to be, but he was an extraordinary friend and human being when he was talking about theater. And he was very clear, I mean it was a pleasure, like Margaret Thatcher said about Gorbachev, I work in the business together and Mikhail, even though he was very solid on one side and I was pretty solid on the other, we didn't let it get in the way of getting the work done because theater was going to solve everything anyway. And he was, I remember he was quite official and he was not overly forthcoming, he did not take stage and stuff, but one of the executive committee meetings in Paris was coincided with his 80th birthday. So the French woman that was head of ITI and I planned a surprise and at the break in the morning meeting I said there is a young person here who has an important birthday and we need to stop and pay attention to it. And Gabrielle brought in a tray full of champagne glasses and a couple of bottles in and Selyov burst into tears. I mean he was, it didn't show too much but he was just completely bobercy and it was, that's where his heart, that's where his identity rested really was in his affection for theater people and his sentimentality and that's why he said theater people know better how to make peace than anyone else. Did you ever see him perform? No, unfortunately. The only time I saw him perform was the last plenary session at the Congress in New York which took place the same week as the Six Day War in the Middle East and on the Friday of that week about 60 or 70 of us went over to the United Nations to watch the emergency of General Assembly and the next morning Selyov got up in the closing session of the Congress and said all week we have been discussing and arguing and deciding about theater in the world and yesterday we went over to watch the diplomats deal with the Middle East and we watched for an hour or so and he paused like an old actor and said we are the diplomats. We meet at what could be the end of the world but we make peace. We are the diplomats. It got a huge laugh but it was true. It really was one of the things that I was going to do the Congress and pop up afterwards and then I was going to go do some production work and I never left ICI because of that week because it was doing something that the world needed one artist at a time and Selyov was certainly one of those.