Overture for Ka Mountain and GUARDenia Terrace: A Story about a Family and Some People Changing

Overture for KA MOUNTAIN AND GUARDenia TERRACE was performed live by Robert Wilson and the Byrd Hoffman School of Byrds at 147 Spring Street, NYC, for six hours each day, from 6-9AM and 6-9PM, between April 24-30, 1972. The sizeable cast featured such downtown luminaries as dance critic and poet Edwin Denby, dancer Andy De Groat, theater critic Stefan Brecht, and Wilson’s grandmother, Alma Hamilton. This preservation print was made directly from the 16mm camera original which was discovered in Anthology’s basement along with a group of empty film cans. Archivists at Anthology and the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts (the repository of the Robert Wilson Audio/Visual Collection) were able to salvage the film and identified it as the most extensive extant documentation of OVERTURE. No soundtrack has surfaced for this film, but its majestic images and wild inventiveness are like a music all their own.