Richard Gallo (1946–2007)[1] was an American stage actor, performance artist, and experimental theaterstage director, noted mostly for his street performances and provocative costumes. His work blurred the boundaries between performance art, theatre, and fashion. Gallo performed outside the luxury stores and hotels on Fifth Avenue wearing costumes that referenced glamour, sadomasochism, and high fashion. His street performances challenged mainstream conceptions of identity, masculinity, and sexuality.
He was known as “Lemon Boy"[2] for his use of lemons as props.[3]
Early life
Gallo was born in the Kensington section of Brooklyn New York.[1] He studied advertising, theater, and art studio at Pratt Institute from 1964-1968. While at Pratt he became close friends with fellow student Robert Wilson and performed in several of his early productions including The King of Spain (1969), The Life and Times of Sigmund Freud (1969), Deafman Glance (1970) and The Life and Times of Joseph Stalin (1973).[4]
Career
Beginning in 1968, while still a student at Pratt, Gallo enlisted the help of several peers, including Alan Sigman and Robert Ippolito, to assist him in staging public performances. Many of the earliest performances were held at Grand Army Plaza in Manhattan. Often these performances would be interrupted by the police, which usually ended with a summons or arrest for not having a permit for exhibition.[5] On one occasion, after refusing to break character when approached by the police, he was detained and spent several days in Bellevue Hospital.[6] Gallo described the typical arc of his performances: “The crowd would build up and then the traffic would slow to see what was happening. Then the police would show up. When I heard the siren I knew the show was over. It was a good ending.”[7]
In 1973, Gallo was invited to headline his original theatrical production of Squalls for the International Festival Mondial du Théâtre in Nancy France. Prior to the opening, hundreds of posters promoting the show were either defaced by graffiti or torn down.[12] This vandalism foreshadowed the raucous crowds that attended the actual performances. One member of the crowd, theater critic and NYU Drama Professor Michael Kirby, described Squalls as the only theatrical event where he had ever witnessed an “overt confrontation by the bourgeoisie” and “according to the model of Ubu Roi…the only avant-garde performance [he had] ever seen.”[12]
After he returned from France, Gallo performed in Robert Wilson's The Life and Times of Joseph Stalin, which premiered on December 14, 1973 at the Opera House of the Brooklyn Academy of Music in Brooklyn, New York.[13]
After The Life and Times of Joseph Stalin, he discontinued working in theatre or performing on the streets. From 1974 though 1978, he became more immersed in the New York City fashion scene and began to frequent Studio 54 where he resumed his performance art. While there, he was photographed by several by Allan Tannenbaum, Anton Perich,[14] Dustin Pittman[14] and Felice Quinto.[15] In 1978, he participated in Robert Wilson's Video 50. In 1979, he returned to theater when he was selected to perform his original production, Tip of the Iceberg / Suspect on Black Coal at the 1979 Pan American Games in San Juan Puerto Rico. Each of these performances culminated in Gallo floating across the stage on a 20 foot long fork, while below, the classically-trained vocalist Asha Puthli sang Ave Maria.[16]
The following year, he staged A Killer's Loose But Nobody's Talking with Sheryl Sutton at The Kitchen, a performing arts theater in New York City.[17][18][19]
Later years and death
In the winter of 1982, Gallo suffered a stroke in the stairwell outside his apartment on the Upper East Side. As a result, he was partially disabled and unable to continue performing.[20] He remained at this same residence until his death in 2007 at the age of 60.[21] Little is known about the last years of his life, including the cause of his death. He is buried in Mount St. Mary Cemetery in Flushing, Queens New York.
In popular culture
Joseph Beuys was rumored to have gifted him a roll of felt, which he had tailored into a costume.[22]Andy Warhol remarked that he was “more glamorous than Marlene Dietrich.”[23]Robert Wilson said that he was the "equivalent of a theatrical warehouse.” [24]
Gallo's visual aesthetic has been noted as an influence with Michael Jackson and the white sequined glove he made famous on the Motown 25 television special in 1983. Beginning in 1973, Gallo often wore and was photographed on many occasions wearing a similar-looking glove gifted to him by the fashion designer Philip Haight.[25] Gallo frequently wore this same glove to Studio 54 around the same time that Michael Jackson was also a patron.[26]
^Summons no. K876042 Criminal Court of the City of New York. Issued 7.19.69 for holding exhibition without a park permit at Sherman Square on 59th Street.
^Ippolito, Robert. Personal Interview. 4 September 2017
^as recalled by Gallo in text on back of photograph
^Yablonsky, Linda (2007). Pasternak, Anne (ed.). Creative Time: 33 years of public art in New York City. New York: Princeton Architectural Press. p. 44. ISBN9781568986968.
^court document: J.R. Associates v. Richard Gallo. index no. L&T 96593/2006. 6 January 2007
^"Richard Gallo". office magazine. September 9, 2017. Retrieved September 27, 2017.
^Kirby, Victoria Nes (December 1973). "Festival Mondial du Theatre". The Drama Review. 17 (4): 25. doi:10.2307/1144825. JSTOR1144825 – via The MIT Press.