Al Carmines

Reverend Alvin Allison "Al" Carmines Jr. (July 25, 1936 – August 9, 2005) was a composer, lyricist, playwright, and clergyman. He is often regarded as a key figure in the expansion of off-off-Broadway theatre in the 1960s.

Carmines was born in Hampton, Virginia. Although his musical talent appeared early, he decided to enter the ministry, attending Swarthmore College, majoring in English and philosophy, and then Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York, earning a bachelor of divinity in 1961 and a master of sacred theology in 1963.^[1]

Carmines was hired by Howard Moody as an assistant minister at Judson Memorial Church on Washington Square Park, New York, to found a theater in the sanctuary of the Greenwich Village church in conjunction with playwright Robert Nichols. He began composing in 1962 and acted as well. His Bible study group grew into the Rauschenbusch Memorial United Church of Christ, with Carmines as pastor.^[1]

Carmines is perhaps best remembered in the church for the hymn "Many Gifts, One Spirit" #114 in the United Methodist Hymnal. He was commissioned by the United Methodist Women to write this hymn for their General Assembly in 1974.^[2]

Carmines' Judson Poets' Theater, with other burgeoning theatres Caffe Cino, La MaMa E.T.C. and Theatre Genesis were experimental and challenges to the commercialization and conformity of Off Broadway and Broadway houses.

His 1973 musical The Faggot was a succès d'estime which transferred from the Judson Memorial Church to the Truck and Warehouse Theatre and ran for 203 performances.^[3]

In 1977, he had a cerebral aneurysm that required months of therapy. He underwent surgery a second time in 1985, which only then cured his crippling headaches. He died in St. Vincent's Hospital in New York.^[1]