POUGHKEEPSIE, NY – The distinguished
performance studies professor and theatre director Richard Schechner will
discuss "American Experimental Performance: Histories, Functions,
Prospects" on Wednesday, February 21, at 6:00 p.m., in Taylor Hall, Room
203. This event is free and open to the public.
Richard Schechner] "Few theater
people have had quite as much impact in both the academy and in the world of
theater production," said Rebecca Schneider, Cornell University assistant
professor of theater, in an interview in the Cornell Chronicle. "He
has earned a place in every theater history textbook for his groundbreaking
work in environmental theater in the 1960s and 1970s and for his vision in
helping to establish the discipline of performance studies."
A widely published author of
international repute, Schechner is currently University Professor and Professor
of Performance Studies at the Tisch School of the Arts, New York University,
where he co-founded the performance studies department, the first collegiate
program of its kind. His works, published in thirteen languages, include Public
Domain (1968), Environmental Theater (1973), The End of
Humanism (1981), Between Theatre and Anthropology (1985), Performance
Studies—An Introduction (2002, revised 2006), and Over, Under, and
Around (2004).
In a review in The New York Times,
Colin Turnbull called Between Theater and Anthropology
"fascinating for anyone seriously interested in human behavior, full of
ideas that lead us to re-examine our thinking about all performances, from the
most dramatic to the most seemingly trivial…If we have read diligently, Mr.
Schechner has given us all the tools we need to appreciate the deeper social
significance of what is taking place in front of our eyes instead of accepting
it for what it seems to be."
Schechner is also the editor of TDR:
The Journal of Performance Studies, general editor of the Worlds of
Performance series published by Routledge, and co-general editor (with
Carol Martin) of the Enactments series published by Seagull Books.
In 1967, Schechner co-founded the influential
experimental theater troupe The Performance Group (TPG) of New York. As the
artistic director of TPG, Schechner directed a number of performances,
including Dionysus in 69 (1968), Makbeth (1969), Sam
Shephard's The Tooth of Crime (1972), David Gaard's The Marilyn
Project (1975), Seneca's Oedipus (1977), and Jean Genet's The
Balcony (1979). Schechner also founded, co-founded, or was producing
director of the Free Southern Theatre, the New Orleans Group, and the East
Coast Artists Performance Exchange, where he directed his own version of the
Faust legend, Faust/gastronome (1993), Anton Chekhov's Three
Sisters (1995), Hamlet (1999), and Schechner's and Saviana
Stanescu's YokastaS (2003, with a 2005 redux). Schechner is currently
developing Stanescu's dramatization of Paul Auster's novel Timbuktu
for production.
Overseas, Schechner directed
Chekhov's Cherry ka Bagicha (The Cherry Orchard) with the Repertory
Theatre of the National School of Drama in New Delhi, August Wilson's Ma
Rainey's Black Bottom for the Grahamstown Festival in South Africa, Sun
Huizhu's Mingri Jiuyao
In addition to his many directorial
and authorial credits, Schechner's fellowships, awards, and visiting
professorships include Guggenheim Fellow (1976), Fulbright Senior Research
Fellow (1976), appointment to the Social Science Research Council (1982),
Mondello Prize, Italy (1985), National Endowment for the Humanities Senior Research
Fellow (1988), Asian Cultural Council Fellow (1988-1995), Special Award for
Contribution to Theatre, Towson State University (1991), Old Dominion Fellow,
Princeton University (1993), and American Institute of Indian Studies Senior
Research Fellow (1997). Schechner is also an honorary professor of the Shanghai
Theatre Academy, where the Richard Schechner Center was established in 2005,
and at the Institute of Studies of Scenic Arts in Havana.
This talk is sponsored by the English
Department and the Drama Department. Individuals with disabilities requiring
accommodations at Vassar should contact the Office of Campus Activities, (845)
437-5370.
Vassar College is a highly selective,
coeducational, independent, residential, liberal arts college founded in 1861.
Individuals with disabilities
requiring accommodations or information on accessibility should contact Campus
Activities Office at (845) 437-5370. Without sufficient notice, appropriate
space and/or assistance may not be available.
Vassar College is a highly selective,
coeducational, independent, residential liberal arts college founded in 1861.