Herbert Blau (May 3, 1926 – May 3, 2013) was an American director and theoretician of performance. He was named the Byron W. and Alice L. Lockwood Professor in the Humanities at the University of Washington.

Early life and career

Blau earned his bachelor's degree in chemical engineering from New York University (1947). Later, he earned his master of arts in drama (1949) and doctorate in English and American literature (1954), both from

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

. As co-founder (with Jules Irving) of The Actor's Workshop in San Francisco (1952–1965) and co-director of the Repertory Theater of Lincoln Center in New York City (1965–67), Blau introduced American audiences to ''avant garde'' drama in some of the country's first productions of

Samuel Beckett Samuel Barclay Beckett (; 13 April 1906 – 22 December 1989) was an Irish novelist, dramatist, short story writer, theatre director, poet, and literary translator. His literary and theatrical work features bleak, impersonal and tragicomic expe ...

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, and

Harold Pinter Harold Pinter (; 10 October 1930 – 24 December 2008) was a British playwright, screenwriter, director and actor. A Nobel Prize winner, Pinter was one of the most influential modern British dramatists with a writing career that spanne ...

including the 1957 performance of Beckett's '' Waiting for Godot'' at California's

San Quentin State Prison San Quentin State Prison (SQ) is a California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation state prison for men, located north of San Francisco in the unincorporated place of San Quentin in Marin County. Opened in July 1852, San Quentin is the ...

. This was the '' Godot'' that during the second red scare, after extralegal

State Department The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an United States federal executive departments, executive department of the Federal government of the United States, U.S. federal government responsible for the country's fore ...

maneuvers denied travel permission for unstated political reasons to a member of the company, represented American theater at the 1958 Brussels World's Fair. In 1968, Blau signed the " Writers and Editors War Tax Protest" pledge, vowing to refuse tax payments in protest against the Vietnam War. In 1968, Blau was named founding provost and dean of the School of Theatre and Dance of the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts), where he led the way in designing its educational model. With president

Robert W. Corrigan Robert Willoughby Corrigan (23 September 1927 – 1 September 1993) was an American academic and the founding editor of the ''Carleton Drama Review'', which later became '' TDR: The Drama Review''. Robert Willoughby Corrigan was born in Portage, W ...

, Blau recruited faculty including artists Allan Kaprow, John Baldessari, and Nam June Paik, composers Mel Powell and Morton Subotnick, musician Ravi Shankar, ethnomusicologist Nicholas England, designers Peter de Bretteville and Sheila Levrant de Bretteville, choreographer Bella Lewitzky, director Alexander Mackendrick, film scholar Gene Youngblood, filmmaker

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, and animation artist Jules Engel. In 1971, after three years at CalArts, Blau moved to

Oberlin College Oberlin College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college and conservatory of music in Oberlin, Ohio. It is the oldest Mixed-sex education, coeducational liberal arts college in the United S ...

, where he formed the experimental theater group KRAKEN, with which he continued presenting challenging productions for another decade. The two books that emerged from that work—''Take Up the Bodies: Theater at the Vanishing Point'' (University of Illinois Press, 1982) and ''Blooded Thought: Occasions of Theater'' (Performing Arts Journal Publications, 1982)—received the George Jean Nathan Award for Dramatic Criticism. In 1974, Blau became the Dean of the Division of Arts and Humanities at the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC), bringing KRAKEN with him. While there, he saw a young

Kathleen Turner Mary Kathleen Turner (born June 19, 1954) is an American actress. She has received various accolades, including two Golden Globe Awards, in addition to nominations for an Academy Award, a Grammy Award, and two Tony Awards. Turner became widely k ...

perform and persuaded her to transfer to UMBC. After a contentious tenure, Blau resigned in 1976. In addition to the theater, Blau has taken up the subjects of literature, visual arts, fashion, postmodern culture, and politics. CalArts conferred an honorary doctor of arts degree to Blau in May 2008.

Personal life

Blau was born in Brooklyn. He married actress Beatrice Manley in 1949 and they divorced in 1980. They had three children: film professor

Dick Blau Dick Blau (born 1943) is a professor of film at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, a photographer and film maker, and a figure in the study of photography of the family Personal life Blau was born in 1943. His mother is actress Beatrice Ma ...

, Tara Gwyneth Blau, and Dr. Jonathan Blau. Blau married a second time to Kathleen Woodward and they had one daughter, Jessamyn Blau.

Death

Blau died on his 87th birthday, May 3, 2013, in Seattle, Washington from cancer. He is survived by his wife, Kathleen Woodward, three children from his first marriage, a daughter from his second marriage, seven grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren.

Books

*Blau, Herbert. ''Programming Theater History: The Actor's Workshop of San Francisco.'' New York: Routledge, 2013. (paperback) (hardcover) *Blau, Herbert. ''As If: An Autobiography, Volume 1.'' Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2011. (hardcover) (paperback) (ebook) *Blau, Herbert. ''Reality Principles: From the Absurd to the Virtual.'' Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2011. (paperback) (hardcover) (ebook) *Blau, Herbert. ''The Dubious Spectacle: Extremities of Theater, 1976-2000.'' Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2002. (paperback) (hardcover) *Blau, Herbert. ''Sails of the Herring Fleet: Essays on Beckett.'' Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2000. (paperback) (hardcover) (ebook) *Blau, Herbert. ''Nothing in Itself: Complexions of Fashion.'' Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1999. (paperback) (hardcover) *Blau, Herbert. ''To All Appearances: Ideology and Performance.'' London/New York: Routledge,1992. (paperback) (hardcover) *Blau, Herbert. ''The Audience.'' Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1990. (paperback) (hardcover) *Blau, Herbert. ''The Eye of Prey: Subversions of the Postmodern.'' Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1987. *Blau, Herbert. ''Take Up the Bodies: Theater at the Vanishing Point.'' Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1982. (paperback) (hardcover) *Blau, Herbert. ''Blooded Thought: Occasions of Theater.'' New York: Performing Arts Journal Publications, 1982. *Blau, Herbert. ''The Impossible Theater: A Manifesto.'' New York: Macmillan, 1964; rpt. Collier, 1965.

References

External links

* *The documentary film,
The Impossible Itself
'' covers Herbert Blau's 1957 production of Waiting for Godot and

. *Audio of Herbert Blau's lectur
"The Right Side of the Tracks, from ''As If: An Autobiography''"
at the Walter Chapin Simpson Center for the Humanities on October 28, 2004. *Th
New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
houses the program notes Herbert Blau wrote for productions of The Actor's Workshop of San Francisco and for the Repertory Theater of Lincoln Center, 1952-67. Correspondence and other documentary materials are also included in the archives. {{DEFAULTSORT:Blau 1926 births 2013 deaths People from Brooklyn Writers from Seattle Deaths from cancer in Washington (state) New York University alumni Stanford University alumni American chemical engineers University of Washington faculty California Institute of the Arts faculty San Francisco State University faculty American tax resisters American theater critics American theatre directors Journalists from New York City Activists from New York (state) Activists from California Engineers from New York City Scientists from New York City