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Playwright Susan Yankowitz to Speak About the Legacy of Joseph Chaikin

Photo of Joseph Chaikin Playwright Susan Yankowitz will join professors Roger Babb (Mount Holyoke) and Paul Zimet (Smith College) in a panel discussion of Joseph Chaikin's legacy in contemporary theater on Tuesday, March 22, 2005 at 7:30 p.m. in Fayerweather Hall 115 at Amherst College. All three worked with Chaikin's famed Open Theater, which he founded in 1963. Preceding the panel discussion, Yankowitz will show and comment on a video of Open's Theater's acclaimed production of Terminal, directed by Chaikin and written by Yankowitz in collaboration with members of Open Theater. Sponsored by the Five College Theater Chairs, this event is free and open to the public.

Born in Brooklyn in 1935, Chaikin founded and directed one of the most influential experimental theater groups in the United States, the Open theater. Under his direction, Open Theater produced 14 original plays, which earned Chaikin a distinguished place in the world of contemporary theater as well as numerous awards. In the course of his career, Chaikin, who died June 22, 2003, was a six time Obie Award recipient and was awarded two Guggenheim Fellowships and the National Endowment for the Arts first Annual Distingished Service to American theater Award. Among the many plays he directed were works by Arthur Miller ("The Last Yankee" and "I Can't Remember Anything") and Sam Shepard ("States of Shock"). His plays were performed in some of the nation's premier theater spaces including the Mark Taper forum, the Yale Repertory theatre, Cambridge's American Repertory Theatre, and the Signature Theatre in New York City.

Among the most critically acclaimed of his works, Terminal, originally created for Open Theater in 1970, was reworked by Chaikin in collaboration with Susan Yankowitz over a two-year period, 1994 to 1996.

Yankowitz will also lead a Five College student workshop entitled Writing for Collaborative Theater on Wednesday, March 23, 2005 in conjunction with the Smith College theater course Masters and Movements in Performance: Creating Collaborative Theatere. Students seeking to register must phone 585-3204 to reserve a space.

Click this link to download a PDF file of the flyer for these events.

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