Jack Gelber (April 12, 1932 – May 9, 2003) was an American playwright best known for his 1959 drama ''
The Connection'', depicting the life of drug-addicted jazz musicians. The first great success of the
Living Theatre
The Living Theatre is an American theatre company founded in 1947 and based in New York City. It is the oldest experimental theatre group in the United States. For most of its history it was led by its founders, actress Judith Malina and painter/po ...
, the play was translated into five languages and produced in ten nations. Gelber continued to work and write in New York, where he also taught writing, directing and drama as a professor, chiefly at
Brooklyn College
Brooklyn College is a public university in Brooklyn, Brooklyn, New York. It is part of the City University of New York system and enrolls about 15,000 undergraduate and 2,800 graduate students on a 35-acre campus.
Being New York City's first publ ...
,
City University of New York
The City University of New York ( CUNY; , ) is the Public university, public university system of Education in New York City, New York City. It is the largest urban university system in the United States, comprising 25 campuses: eleven Upper divis ...
, where he created the
MFA program in playwriting. In 1999 he received the
Edward Albee
Edward Franklin Albee III ( ; March 12, 1928 – September 16, 2016) was an American playwright known for works such as ''The Zoo Story'' (1958), '' The Sandbox'' (1959), ''Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?'' (1962), '' A Delicate Balance'' (1966) ...
Last Frontier Playwright Award in recognition of his lifetime of achievements in theatre.
Early life and education
Jack Gelber was born April 12, 1932 in
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
, image_map =
, map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago
, coordinates =
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, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name ...
, the first of three sons of Molly (Singer) and Harold Gelber, a Jewish American couple of Russian and Romanian descent. Harold was a
sheet metal worker, a trade the younger Gelber would briefly adopt to finance his education at the
University of Illinois
The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the University ...
. While at the university, he developed an interest in fiction and began to write short stories. After graduating with a B.S. in
Journalism
Journalism is the production and distribution of reports on the interaction of events, facts, ideas, and people that are the "news of the day" and that informs society to at least some degree. The word, a noun, applies to the occupation (profes ...
in 1953, Gelber traveled to San Francisco, where he found work as a shipfitter's helper.
Career
In New York, Gelber first worked as a mimeograph operator at the
United Nations
The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...
headquarters. He began writing his first play, ''
The Connection'', in late 1957. Two years later, he offered the script to
Judith Malina
Judith Malina (June 4, 1926 – April 10, 2015) was a German-born American actress, director and writer. With her husband, Julian Beck, Malina co-founded The Living Theatre, a radical political theatre troupe that rose to prominence in New York C ...
and
Julian Beck
Julian Beck (May 31, 1925 – September 14, 1985) was an American actor, stage director, poet, and painter. He is best known for co-founding and directing The Living Theatre, as well as his role as Reverend Henry Kane, the malevolent preacher i ...
of the
Living Theatre
The Living Theatre is an American theatre company founded in 1947 and based in New York City. It is the oldest experimental theatre group in the United States. For most of its history it was led by its founders, actress Judith Malina and painter/po ...
. Malina directed the production, Beck designed it, while Gelber was part of casting, directing rehearsals, and selling tickets. Opening in July 1959, the play was then controversial. Several theatre critics, particularly those writing for the daily newspapers, objected to the play's graphic depiction of
heroin addiction
Opioid use disorder (OUD) is a substance use disorder characterized by cravings for opioids, continued use despite physical and/or psychological deterioration, increased tolerance with use, and withdrawal symptoms after discontinuing opioids. Op ...
and its performance style. The play also attracted prominent supporters, such as the drama critics
Kenneth Tynan
Kenneth Peacock Tynan (2 April 1927 – 26 July 1980) was an English theatre critic and writer. Making his initial impact as a critic at ''The Observer'', he praised Osborne's ''Look Back in Anger'' (1956), and encouraged the emerging wave of ...
and
Henry Hewes, the poet
Allen Ginsberg
Irwin Allen Ginsberg (; June 3, 1926 – April 5, 1997) was an American poet and writer. As a student at Columbia University in the 1940s, he began friendships with William S. Burroughs and Jack Kerouac, forming the core of the Beat Gener ...
, the writer
Norman Mailer
Nachem Malech Mailer (January 31, 1923 – November 10, 2007), known by his pen name Norman Kingsley Mailer, was an American novelist, journalist, essayist, playwright, activist, filmmaker and actor. In a career spanning over six decades, Mailer ...
, director
Harold Clurman
Harold Edgar Clurman (September 18, 1901 – September 9, 1980) was an American theatre director and drama critic. In 2003, he was named one of the most influential figures in U.S. theater by PBS. , and
Jerry Tallmer, who lauded what they perceived as its innovative style, authentic language, and realism.
''The Connection'' became the Living Theatre's first great success. It brought publicity to both Gelber and the Living Theatre as significant in American theatre. It won the
Obie Award
The Obie Awards or Off-Broadway Theater Awards are annual awards originally given by ''The Village Voice'' newspaper to theatre artists and groups in New York City. In September 2014, the awards were jointly presented and administered with the A ...
s of the ''
Village Voice
''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, the ''Voice'' began as a platform for the creat ...
'' for Best New Play, Best Production, and Best Actor (
Warren Finnerty
Warren Finnerty (April 9, 1925 – December 22, 1974) was an American actor best known for his Obie award-winning performance as the character "Leach" in the stage production ''The Connection'' (1959) and its film version.
Career
After maki ...
in the role of Leach) of the 1959-1960 season. Gelber also received the
Vernon Rice Award (now known as the Drama Desk Award). In 1961 the Living Theatre took its production to Europe, where it earned the ''Grand Prix'' at the ''
Théâtre des Nations'' Festival in Paris. Ultimately the Living Theatre performed ''The Connection'' a total of 722 times in the first years of the 1960s. ''The Connection'' has since been translated into five languages and performed in ten countries, as well as throughout the United States. The
film version
A film adaptation is the transfer of a work or story, in whole or in part, to a feature film. Although often considered a type of derivative work, film adaptation has been conceptualized recently by academic scholars such as Robert Stam as a dia ...
of the play, produced by Lewis Allen and directed by
Shirley Clarke
Shirley Clarke (née Brimberg; October 2, 1919 – September 23, 1997) was an American filmmaker.
Life
Born Shirley Brimberg in New York City, she was the daughter of a Polish-immigrant father who made his fortune in manufacturing. Her mother w ...
in 1961, was also controversial at the time.
Gelber never achieved the same success with his later plays, but he enjoyed a long and active career writing, directing, and teaching drama. His second play, ''The Apple'', opened at the Living Theatre in 1961, but it was the last of Gelber's works produced by the company. Not long after that production, the company moved overseas. In 1963 the
Guggenheim Foundation awarded Gelber a
fellowship
A fellow is a concept whose exact meaning depends on context.
In learned or professional societies, it refers to a privileged member who is specially elected in recognition of their work and achievements.
Within the context of higher education ...
(which it renewed three years later) to support his writing, and in 1964 he published his novel ''On Ice''.
In 1965 he became writer-in-residence at the
City College of New York
The City College of the City University of New York (also known as the City College of New York, or simply City College or CCNY) is a public university within the City University of New York (CUNY) system in New York City. Founded in 1847, Cit ...
. His third play, ''Square in the Eye'' (1965) (also known as ''Let's Face It'') was produced by the Establishment Theatre Company at the
Theatre De Lys
The Lucille Lortel Theatre is an off-Broadway playhouse at 121 Christopher Street in Manhattan's West Village. It was built in 1926 as a 590-seat movie theater called the New Hudson, later known as Hudson Playhouse. The interior is largely unch ...
soon eafter. Gelber earned his first directing credit in the 1966 production of
Arnold Wesker
Sir Arnold Wesker (24 May 1932 – 12 April 2016) was an English dramatist. He was the author of 50 plays, four volumes of short stories, two volumes of essays, much journalism and a book on the subject, a children's book, some poetry, and oth ...
's ''
The Kitchen
The Kitchen is a non-profit, multi-disciplinary avant-garde performance and experimental art institution located at 512 West 19th Street, between Tenth and Eleventh Avenues in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. It was founde ...
''.
In 1967
Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
appointed Gelber as a part-time
adjunct professor
An adjunct professor is a type of academic appointment in higher education who does not work at the establishment full-time. The terms of this appointment and
the job security of the tenure vary in different parts of the world, however the genera ...
of drama. In 1968 he completed the script for, and directed a production of, his fourth play ''The Cuban Thing''. This work drew upon his travels as a journalist in Cuba during the 1950s, along with more recent visits in 1964 and 1967. He portrayed a middle-class family's experience of the 1959 revolution. Produced at
Henry Miller's Theatre
The Stephen Sondheim Theatre, formerly Henry Miller's Theatre, is a Broadway theater at 124 West 43rd Street in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City. Owned by the Durst Organization and managed by the Roundabout Theatre ...
, the play was controversial for what some believed was a favorable portrayal of the communist leader
Fidel Castro
Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (; ; 13 August 1926 – 25 November 2016) was a Cuban revolutionary and politician who was the leader of Cuba from 1959 to 2008, serving as the prime minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976 and president from 1976 to 200 ...
, when the Cold War was going strong. This interpretation sparked large and sometimes violent protests by Cuban exiles and others against the production, and the play ended its run after only one night. He appears as himself in the 1968 Cuban film ''
Memories of Underdevelopment
''Memories of Underdevelopment'' ( es, Memorias del Subdesarrollo) is a 1968 Cuban drama film written and directed by Tomás Gutiérrez Alea. The story is based on a novel by Edmundo Desnoes entitled ''Inconsolable Memories'' (''Memorias del Subde ...
''.
In 1968, Gelber signed the "
Writers and Editors War Tax Protest
Tax resistance, the practice of refusing to pay taxes that are considered unjust, has probably existed ever since rulers began imposing taxes on their subjects. It has been suggested that tax resistance played a significant role in the collapse of ...
" pledge, vowing to refuse tax payments in protest against the
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...
.
["Writers and Editors War Tax Protest" January 30, 1968 '']New York Post
The ''New York Post'' (''NY Post'') is a conservative daily tabloid newspaper published in New York City. The ''Post'' also operates NYPost.com, the celebrity gossip site PageSix.com, and the entertainment site Decider.com.
It was established ...
''
In 1972 the
Rockefeller Foundation
The Rockefeller Foundation is an American private foundation and philanthropic medical research and arts funding organization based at 420 Fifth Avenue, New York City. The second-oldest major philanthropic institution in America, after the Carneg ...
awarded Gelber a fellowship for a residency at the
American Place Theatre
The American Place Theatre was founded in 1963 by Wynn Handman, Sidney Lanier, and Michael Tolan at St. Clement's Church, 423 West 46th Street in Hell's Kitchen, New York City, and was incorporated as a not-for-profit theatre in that year. Tennesse ...
, where his next play, ''Sleep'', was performed. That same year Gelber become a full-time Professor of English at
Brooklyn College
Brooklyn College is a public university in Brooklyn, Brooklyn, New York. It is part of the City University of New York system and enrolls about 15,000 undergraduate and 2,800 graduate students on a 35-acre campus.
Being New York City's first publ ...
of the
City University of New York
The City University of New York ( CUNY; , ) is the Public university, public university system of Education in New York City, New York City. It is the largest urban university system in the United States, comprising 25 campuses: eleven Upper divis ...
. He created the College's MFA program in playwriting, which he would run until his retirement from CUNY in the late 1990s. In the roughly thirty years he spent at Brooklyn College, he balanced his teaching career with directing professional and student productions and teaching theatre workshops. He received the Obie Award for Distinguished Direction in 1973 when he oversaw the American Place Theatre's production of ''The Kid'' by
Robert Coover
Robert Lowell Coover (born February 4, 1932) is an American novelist, short story writer, and T.B. Stowell Professor Emeritus in Literary Arts at Brown University. He is generally considered a writer of fabulation and metafiction.
Background
C ...
.
[
Gelber's writing was also supported by a grant from the ]National Endowment for the Arts
The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal ...
and a CBS Fellowship from Yale University
Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...
. In 1973 the New York Shakespeare Festival
Shakespeare in the Park (or Free Shakespeare in the Park) is a theatrical program that stages productions of Shakespearean plays at the Delacorte Theater, an open-air theater in New York City's Central Park. The theater and the productions are ...
produced ''Barbary Shore'', Gelber's adaptation of a 1951 novel written by Norman Mailer. His next production, entitled ''Farmyard'' and staged by the Yale Repertory Theatre
Yale Repertory Theatre at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut was founded by Robert Brustein, dean of Yale School of Drama, in 1966, with the goal of facilitating a meaningful collaboration between theatre professionals and talented student ...
in 1975, was an adaptation of Franz Xaver Kroetz' 1971 play ''Stallerhof''.[
Gelber returned to creating original plays, directing a 1976 production of his drama ''Jack Gelber's New Play: Rehearsal'' at the American Place Theatre, and ''Starters'' at the ]Eugene O'Neill Theatre Center
The Eugene O'Neill Theater Center in Waterford, Connecticut, is a 501(c)(3) non-profit theater company founded in 1964 by George C. White. It is commonly referred to as The O'Neill. The center has received two Tony Awards, the 1979 Special Awa ...
in 1980. It was eight years before he had his tenth play, ''Big Shot'', produced at Wildcliff Theatre by the East Coast Arts company. In the 1990s, three more of Gelber's plays were produced: ''Magic Valley'' (1990), and ''Rio Preserved'' and ''Chambers'' (1998).[
In the mid-part of the decade, he became an adjunct professor at the Actors Studio Drama School at the ]New School University
The New School is a private research university in New York City. It was founded in 1919 as The New School for Social Research with an original mission dedicated to academic freedom and intellectual inquiry and a home for progressive thinkers. ...
, a position he would hold until his death. Gelber's last play to be produced was ''Dylan's Line''. Gelber completed the script in 2000 and performed a portion of it at the Last Frontier Theatre Conference in Valdez, Alaska
Valdez ( ; Alutiiq: ) is a city in the Chugach Census Area in the U.S. state of Alaska. According to the 2020 US Census, the population of the city is 3,985, up from 3,976 in 2010. It is the third most populated city in Alaska's Unorganized Borou ...
that same year. It premiered at the McCarter Theatre
McCarter Theatre Center is a not-for-profit, professional company on the campus of Princeton University in Princeton, New Jersey. The institution is currently led by Artistic Director Sarah Rasmussen and Managing Director Michael S. Rosenberg.
...
in Princeton, New Jersey during 2003.[
This was not long after Gelber died on May 9, 2003 in New York, due to Waldenström's macroglobulinemia, a ]cancer
Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Possible signs and symptoms include a lump, abnormal b ...
of the blood.[
"I was so affected ]s a young man
S, or s, is the nineteenth Letter (alphabet), letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the English alphabet, modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is English alphab ...
and energized by ''The Connection''", he playwrightEdward Albee
Edward Franklin Albee III ( ; March 12, 1928 – September 16, 2016) was an American playwright known for works such as ''The Zoo Story'' (1958), '' The Sandbox'' (1959), ''Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?'' (1962), '' A Delicate Balance'' (1966) ...
said after his death. "It was exciting, dangerous, instructive and terrifying - all things theater should be."[MEL GUSSOW, "Jack Gelber, 71, 'Connection' Playwright"]
''New York Times'', 10 May 2003, accessed 22 Nov 2010
Private life
In San Francisco, Gelber met Carol Westenberg, and they married on December 23, 1957, in New York City. They had two children.
Plays
*''The Connection'' (1959)
*''The Apple'' (1960)
*''Square in the Eye'' (1965)
*''The Cuban Thing'' (1968)
*''Sleep'' (1972)
*''Barbary Shore'' (1973), adaptation of Norman Mailer
Nachem Malech Mailer (January 31, 1923 – November 10, 2007), known by his pen name Norman Kingsley Mailer, was an American novelist, journalist, essayist, playwright, activist, filmmaker and actor. In a career spanning over six decades, Mailer ...
's 1951 novel of the same name
*''Farmyard'' (1975), adaptation of Franz Xaver Kroetz
Franz Xaver Kroetz (; born 25 February 1946) is a German author, playwright, actor and film director. He achieved great success beginning in the early 1970s. ''Persistent'', '' Farmyard'', and ''Request Concert'', all written in 1971, are some o ...
's play ''Stallerhof'' (1971)
*''Jack Gelber's New Play: Rehearsal'' (1976)
*''Starters'' (1980)
*''Big Shot'' (1988)
*''Magic Valley'' (1990)
*''Rio Preserved'' (1998) and ''Chambers'' (1998)
*''Dylan's Line'' (2000), first produced in 2003
Other writing
* ''On Ice'' (1964), novel
* Screenplays, including ''Charlie Siringo'' (1976), TV production
* Short stories, published in periodicals such as ''Evergreen Review
''The Evergreen Review'' is a U.S.-based literary magazine. Its publisher is John Oakes and its editor-in-chief is Dale Peck. The ''Evergreen Review'' was founded by Barney Rosset, publisher of Grove Press. It existed in print from 1957 until 19 ...
'' and ''Playboy
''Playboy'' is an American men's lifestyle and entertainment magazine, formerly in print and currently online. It was founded in Chicago in 1953, by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from Hefner's mother.
K ...
''
* Non-fiction articles published by ''The New York Times'', ''The Nation'', ''The Drama Review'', and others
Legacy and honors
* 1960, the production of ''The Connection'' won Obie Award
The Obie Awards or Off-Broadway Theater Awards are annual awards originally given by ''The Village Voice'' newspaper to theatre artists and groups in New York City. In September 2014, the awards were jointly presented and administered with the A ...
s of ''The Village Voice'' for Best New Play, Best Production, and Best Actor
* 1960, Vernon Rice Award for outstanding achievement in the off-Broadway theatre
* 1973, Obie Award for Distinguished Direction, for Robert Coover
Robert Lowell Coover (born February 4, 1932) is an American novelist, short story writer, and T.B. Stowell Professor Emeritus in Literary Arts at Brown University. He is generally considered a writer of fabulation and metafiction.
Background
C ...
's ''The Kid''
* 1999, he received the Edward Albee
Edward Franklin Albee III ( ; March 12, 1928 – September 16, 2016) was an American playwright known for works such as ''The Zoo Story'' (1958), '' The Sandbox'' (1959), ''Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?'' (1962), '' A Delicate Balance'' (1966) ...
Last Frontier Playwright Award in recognition of his lifetime of achievements in theatre
References
External links
New York University's Fales Library and Special Collections Guide to the Jack Gelber Papers
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gelber, Jack
1932 births
2003 deaths
20th-century American dramatists and playwrights
American people of Romanian-Jewish descent
American people of Russian-Jewish descent
American tax resisters
University of Illinois alumni
Brooklyn College faculty
City College of New York faculty
Beat Generation writers
Jewish American dramatists and playwrights
20th-century American Jews
21st-century American Jews