The Living Theatre Lives On

Backstage: The Living Theatre, the longest-running experimental theater company in the United States, will celebrate its 65th anniversary this fall -- but it almost didn't survive the spring. Faced with eviction in May, the venerable theater, founded in 1947, did a very 21st-century thing: It launched an urgent fundraising campaign through the donation site Lucky Ant to raise $24,000, the necessary cost of covering overdue rent and hiring a consultant. Had the fundraising been unsuccessful, more than theater space would have been lost: 86-year-old founder and artistic director Judith Malina, who lives in the building, would have been evicted.