Richard Schechner

Richard Schechner (1934-) [1]. Director, theorist and academic.

Among Schechner’s major books are Public Domain (1968), Environmental Theatre (1973), The End of Humanism (1981), Between Theatre and Anthropology (1985), By Means of Performance: Intercultural Studies (1990), The Future of Ritual (1993), and Performance Theory (2003). His books have been translated into Spanish, Chinese, Parsi, Italian, French, German, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Hungarian and Serbo-Croat. One other aspect of his lifelong work as a scholar-critic-editor has been his constant willingness to test his theories as a working director, “ said Kim. “He has done this on stages in New York through his Performance Group (which produced such landmark shows as Dionysus in '69), through the Wooster Group, through the East Coast Artists company which he ran from 1992 to 2009 and in the many individual productions he has staged in China, India, South Africa, Poland and Taipei among other countries. He is truly an international figure and a most worthy winner of this award. We are delighted that he has chosen to accept the Thalia Award for 2010.”

Contribution to SA theatre, film, media and/or performance

In 1990 Schechner visited South Africa as a guest of Mavis Taylor, teaching at University of Cape Town and University of Stellenbosch.

In 1992 he directed August Wilson's Ma Rainey's Black Bottom at the Grahamstown Festival, South Africa.

Sources

Stellenbosch University Library catalogue.

1992 National Arts Festival Souvenir Programme, p. 51.

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