EST mourns the passing of Temi Brodkey Rose, a part of EST for decades going back to its very early days. In her time, Temi described herself as “a multimedia artist: an actress, graphic artist, photographer, poet, dancer, videographer, and playwright.” We got word from Temi’s daughter Elena Sapora that Temi passed away peacefully at home in Catasauqua, PA on December 24th. She was 71.
Temi was the daughter of Harold and Joanna Brodkey. Her mother was an actress and magazine editor; her father was a renowned writer (Critic Harold Bloom called him “the American Proust.”). Temi later published a book of the letters they wrote to each other as she was growing up, “Letters To Temmie, 1960-1965.”
Geoff Dunbar, a member who knew Temi and worked with her many times, wrote that Temi’s early life shaped the artist she’d become: “I think it was because of her upbringing, and because of her father’s intensity and importance, that is, the kind of personality that goes along with that kind of notoriety. Much of her world was like that, spent among people of emotional or intellectual influence.”
“She was present in the early days of EST’s increasing notoriety at the time, for example, we assembled for summer conferences at The Barlow School in Amenia, and it was there that we first met. I felt very close to her which is why I was able to work with her. We allowed for intimate conversation about ourselves, which led to deep conversations about whatever it was upon which we worked together.”
Temi joined EST in 1978, first as an actress, but she soon expanded into writing, directing, and beyond.
“Temi’s work was nearly all experimental,” said Geoff. “She wrote plays, but wanted to work on edgy things she had written, with much complex thought behind cerebral text passages.”
Along with Geoff, she knew Arthur Giron, Patricia Mauceri, and Connie Bromberg. She had a close connection to the theatre, and with Curt. Her daughter Elena elaborated: “Back then their relationship was at times romantic, always artistic, and eventually it became a friendship. He was special to her, and so was EST.”
After those early years, Temi left New York to have her daughters, Elena and Michal Joy White. Her restless artistic spirit persisted, and led her to Montana (where she and her daughters lived for nearly a decade), to England, and eventually to UT Austin, where she got her PhD. She found growing inspiration in multimedia work, and became a teacher for Artists in the Schools in Montana (a good deal of her work from that time is available on YouTube ), for Greenwich College in London, along with the Prince’s Trust and the Save the Children Fund.
“She was a full-time mom,” remembered Elena, “but she never stopped creating.”
Geoff remembered that time in a kind of blur: “We were all of an age at which people formed and experimented with relationships and contemplated having families. Those were the very early days of that process and she was one of the, if not the, first to commit.
“I’m sure that for Temi, leaving EST and her friends was not easy…but I also think it was very important to her to keep moving forward.”
“Then, just as suddenly, but years later, she was back near the city, in Allentown PA. I stayed with her there in her large house up the hill from the abandoned steel plants on the Lehigh Riverbank.”
When Temi returned to the east coast, she reconnected with EST – “that was important,” recalled Elena – often bringing work to be heard or staged on the sixth floor, serving for a time on Members Council, exulting at being part of a community.
She also exulted in the breadth of her work. Late in life she self-published a number of books, and became a producer as well, for punk rock concerts and plays, as well as a women’s poetry magazine, Perceptions.
Asked to sum up her artistic life, Temi wrote: “There are so many versions of my bio… and one would begin and end with my membership at the Ensemble Studio Theatre.
“EST is where I lived in my heart as I became a playwright. A mother. A poet. An art-education technology PhD. I am still thanking Curt Dempster in every way I can, for supporting so unconditionally such an oddball as myself from actress, to playwright, to producer/director, to artist-at-large.”
We all send our sympathy to Elena and Michal, to Temi’s friends, collaborators, and students. A memorial service is expected to take place this summer.