Richard Schechner

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Richard Schechner (born August 23, 1934) is a University Professor/Professor of Performance Studies at the Tisch School of the Arts, New York University, editor of TDR: The Drama Review, and artistic director of East Coast Artists. His BA is from Cornell University (1956), MA from the University of Iowa (1958), and PhD from Tulane University (1962). Schechner is one of the founders of the Performance Studies department of the Tisch School of the Arts, New York University (NYU). He also founded The Performance Group, an experimental theater troupe. Schechner was artistic director of TPG from its start in 1967 until 1980 when TPG changed its name to the Wooster Group which continues under the leadership of Elizabeth LeCompte. The home of both TPG and WG is the Performing Garage in New York's SOHO district. In 1992, Schechner founded a new theater company, East Coast Artists, of which he is still the artistic director.

Schechner is married to Carol Martin and the father of two children, Samuel MacIntosh Schechner and Sophia Martin Schechner.

[edit] Published Works

Schechner is editor of TDR: The Drama Review (formerly the Tulane Drama Review). Schechner edited TDR from 1962-1969; and again from 1986-present. Schechner's books include: Public Domain (1968), Environmental Theater (1973), Theatres, Spaces, and Environments (1975 with Jerry Rojo and Brooks McNamara), Essays on Performance Theory (1976), The End of Humanism (1981), From the Ramlila to the Avantgarde (1983), Between Theater and Anthropology (1985), The Engleburt Stories (1987, with Samuel MacIntosh Schechner), The Future of Ritual (1993), Performance Theory (a revised version of Essays on Performance Theory, 1988, revised again, 2004), Performance Studies -- An Introduction (2002, revised second edition 2006), and Over, Under, and Around (2004). Schechner has edited Dionysus in 69 (1970), Ritual, Play, and Performance (1976, with Mady Schuman), By Means of Performance (1990, with Willa Appel), and The Grotowski Sourcebook (1997, with Lisa Wolford).

[edit] Theatrical/Directorial Works

In March 2005, the Richard Schechner Center for Performance Studies was inaugurated as part of the Shanghai Theatre Academy, where Schechner is an Honorary Professor. With The Performance Group Schechner directed many productions including Dionysus in 69 (1968), Makbeth (1969), Commune (1970), Sam Shephard's The Tooth of Crime (1972), Bertolt Brecht's Mother Courage and Her Children (1975), David Gaard's The Marilyn Project (1975), Seneca's Oedipus (1977), Terry Curtis Fox's Cops (1978), and Jean Genet's The Balcony (1979). With East Coast Artists, Schechner has directed Faust/gastronome (1993), Anton Chekhov's Three Sisters (1995), Hamlet (1999), and Schechner's and Saviana Stanescu's YokastaS (2003, YokastaS Redux 2005). Schechner has also directed in Asia and Africa: Anton Chekhov's Cherry ka Baghicha (1983) in India, Sun Huizhu's Mingri Jiuyao Chu Shan (1989) in China, August Wilson's Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (1992) in South Africa, and Aeschylus's The Oresteia (1995) in Taiwan.

While in New Orleans from 1960-67, Schechner was a producing director with John O'Neal and Gilbert Moses of the Free Southern Theatre (1963-65) and a founding director with Franklin Adams and Paul Epstein of the New Orleans Group (1964-67). Schechner is general editor of the Worlds of Performance series published by Routledge and co-editor with Carol Martin of the Enactment series published by Seagull Press.