The Mind’s Eye Theatre Presents: Frederico Garcia Lorca

On this edition of From The Vault, we present The Mind’s Eye Theatre’s Federico, a 1968 radio performance based on the life of the Spanish poet Federico Garcia Lorca, written, produced and directed by David Davidson Reiff.

Federico Garcia Lorca, one of the great poets and dramatists of the 20th century worked in his early career with the likes of a young Salvador Dali and Luis Bunuel.

The Mind’s Eye Theatre was the brainchild of Pacifica producer Baird Searle‘s that ran from 1966 To 1969. It was a collective of talented writers, directors, and actors who would participate in a weekly dramatization for radio each week. They would alternate between classic tales and original plays that would come to life to New York listeners on Pacifica Radio WBAI in New York.

Federico was selected this week not just to inaugurate National Poetry Month, but also because many of these Federico Garcia Lorca poems were not familiar to the American audience at this point.

Federico’s poems, which could be very beautiful, were also very biting in their criticism of the emerging fascists who would eventually capture and execute Lorca during the Spanish Civil War in 1936.

We will also hear music of the Spanish Civil War presented by KPFK host Henry Slucki, who produced a two hour special on this subject.


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