John-Michael Tebelak (September 17, 1949 – April 2, 1985) was an American
playwright
A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes plays.
Etymology
The word "play" is from Middle English pleye, from Old English plæġ, pleġa, plæġa ("play, exercise; sport, game; drama, applause"). The word "wright" is an archaic English ...
and
director. He is best known for creating the musical ''
Godspell'', based on the
Gospel of Saint Matthew
The Gospel of Matthew), or simply Matthew. It is most commonly abbreviated as "Matt." is the first book of the New Testament of the Bible and one of the three synoptic Gospels. It tells how Israel's Messiah, Jesus, comes to his people and for ...
, with the composer
Stephen Schwartz, who wrote the music. Some of the lyrics are original to the show, while others were taken from either the
Bible
The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity
Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus ...
or traditional
hymn
A hymn is a type of song, and partially synonymous with devotional song, specifically written for the purpose of adoration or prayer, and typically addressed to a deity or deities, or to a prominent figure or personification. The word ''hymn ...
s in the 1940
Episcopal hymnal.
Biography
Education and ''Godspell''
Tebelak was born in
Berea, Ohio
Berea ( ) is a city in Cuyahoga County in the U.S. state of Ohio and is a western suburb of Cleveland. The population was 19,093 at the 2010 census. Berea is home to Baldwin Wallace University, as well as the training facility for the Cleveland ...
and graduated from
Berea High School in 1966.
He first produced ''Godspell'' as his
master's thesis
A thesis ( : theses), or dissertation (abbreviated diss.), is a document submitted in support of candidature for an academic degree or professional qualification presenting the author's research and findings.International Standard ISO 7144: ...
, under
Lawrence Carra, at
Carnegie Mellon University
Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. One of its predecessors was established in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie as the Carnegie Technical Schools; it became the Carnegie Institute of Technology ...
in December 1970. He had been studying
Greek and
Roman
Roman or Romans most often refers to:
* Rome, the capital city of Italy
* Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD
*Roman people, the people of ancient Rome
*''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lett ...
mythology, but became fascinated by the joy expressed in the
Gospel
Gospel originally meant the Christian message (" the gospel"), but in the 2nd century it came to be used also for the books in which the message was set out. In this sense a gospel can be defined as a loose-knit, episodic narrative of the words a ...
s, with the deadline for his thesis two weeks away. He attended an
Easter Vigil service in 1970 at
Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...
's
St. Paul Cathedral, wearing his usual
overalls and a
T-shirt
A T-shirt (also spelled tee shirt), or tee, is a style of fabric shirt named after the T shape of its body and sleeves. Traditionally, it has short sleeves and a round neckline, known as a '' crew neck'', which lacks a collar. T-shirts are genera ...
. A
police officer
A police officer (also called a policeman and, less commonly, a policewoman) is a warranted law employee of a police force. In most countries, "police officer" is a generic term not specifying a particular rank. In some, the use of the ...
frisked him for drugs after the service. He wrote, of this experience, "I left with the feeling that, rather than rolling the rock away from the Tomb, they were piling more on. I went home, took out my manuscript, and worked it to completion in a non-stop frenzy." Though he never completed his coursework at the university, Carnegie Mellon did award him a degree.
He then directed productions of ''Godspell'' at
La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club
La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club (La MaMa E.T.C.) is an Off-Off-Broadway theatre founded in 1961 by Ellen Stewart, African-American theatre director, producer, and fashion designer. Located in Manhattan's East Village, the theatre began in the ...
, the
Cherry Lane Theatre
The Cherry Lane Theatre is the oldest continuously running off-Broadway theater in New York City. The theater is located at 38 Commerce Street between Barrow and Bedford Streets in the West Village neighborhood of Greenwich Village, Manhattan, ...
, the Promenade Theatre, and on
Broadway. He was named Theatre Man of the Year by
Elliott Norton of the ''
Boston Record American
The ''Boston Herald'' is an American daily newspaper whose primary market is Boston, Massachusetts, and its surrounding area. It was founded in 1846 and is one of the oldest daily newspapers in the United States. It has been awarded eight Pu ...
'', and Most Promising Director of 1971 by the New York
Drama Desk. He was also named an Outstanding Ohioan by then-Governor
John J. Gilligan
John Joyce “Jack” Gilligan (March 22, 1921 – August 26, 2013) was an American Democratic politician from the state of Ohio who served as a U.S. Representative and as the 62nd governor of Ohio from 1971 to 1975. He was the father of Kathle ...
. Following the success of ''Godspell'', he contributed funding to a number of productions at La MaMa, including
Paul Foster's ''Silver Queen Saloon'' (1978);
William M. Hoffman's ''A Book of Etiquette'' (1978); Steven Margoshes,
Gerome Ragni, and
James Rado's ''Jack Sound'' (1978);
Tadeusz Kantor's ''The Dead Class'' (1979);
Winston Tong in two pieces (1979);
Andrei Serban and
Elizabeth Swados' ''Fragments of a Trilogy'';
Rosalyn Drexler
Rosalyn Drexler (born November 25, 1926) is an American visual artist, novelist, Obie Award-winning playwright, and Emmy Award-winning screenwriter, and former professional wrestler. Although she has had a polymathic career, Drexler is perhaps ...
's ''Vulgar Lives'' (1979);
Meredith Monk's ''Recent Ruins'' (1979); and
Ron Tavel's ''Nutrcracker in the Land of Nuts'' (1979/1980).
After ''Godspell''
Tebelak directed the Broadway play ''Elizabeth I'' in 1972, the
off-Broadway
An off-Broadway theatre is any professional theatre venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, inclusive. These theatres are smaller than Broadway theatres, but larger than off-off-Broadway theatres, which seat fewer th ...
play ''The Glorious One'' in 1975, and ''
Ka-Boom!'' in 1980. He also directed
Lope de Vega
Félix Lope de Vega y Carpio ( , ; 25 November 156227 August 1635) was a Spanish playwright, poet, and novelist. He was one of the key figures in the Spanish Golden Age of Baroque literature. His reputation in the world of Spanish literatur ...
's ''
Fuenteovejuna'' in
Madrid
Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...
in 1975. He co-wrote the 1973 film version of ''
Godspell'' with
David Greene.
Tebelak once said that he "walked into a theatre at the age of nine and stayed there." He was a lifelong member of the
Episcopal Church, considered becoming a priest, and may have attended an Episcopal
seminary
A seminary, school of theology, theological seminary, or divinity school is an educational institution for educating students (sometimes called ''seminarians'') in scripture, theology, generally to prepare them for ordination to serve as clergy ...
for a time. He was
dramaturge
A dramaturge or dramaturg is a literary adviser or editor in a theatre, opera, or film company who researches, selects, adapts, edits, and interprets scripts, libretti, texts, and printed programmes (or helps others with these tasks), consults au ...
for the
Cathedral of St. John the Divine
The Cathedral of St. John the Divine (sometimes referred to as St. John's and also nicknamed St. John the Unfinished) is the cathedral of the Episcopal Diocese of New York. It is at 1047 Amsterdam Avenue in the Morningside Heights neighborhood ...
in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
and staged
liturgical drama
Liturgical drama refers to medieval forms of dramatic performance that use stories from the Bible or Christian hagiography.
The term was widely disseminated by well-known theater historians like Heinrich Alt (''Theater und Kirche'', 1846), E.K. C ...
there. According to Reverend
James Parks Morton
James Parks Morton (January 7, 1930 – January 4, 2020) was an American Episcopal priest and founder of the Interfaith Center of New York.
Cathedral of St. John the Divine
Morton was dean of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine for 25 ye ...
, "whether it was a sermon series or a two-day conference on the environment, he turned it into theater."
In 1980, Tebelak was sued in
New York State Supreme Court by his former live-in companion, Richard Hannum.
[Castillo, Angel. (May 12, 1981)]
"Frampton suit puts focus on cohabitation law."
''New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'', section B, p. 1. Hannum was represented by famed divorce lawyer
Marvin Mitchelson
Marvin M. Mitchelson (May 7, 1928 – September 18, 2004) was an American celebrity lawyer who pioneered the concept of palimony, calling it "marriage with no rings attached".
Early life
Mitchelson was born in Detroit, Michigan, the younges ...
, and was working with
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, Maile ...
on an
adaptation
In biology, adaptation has three related meanings. Firstly, it is the dynamic evolutionary process of natural selection that fits organisms to their environment, enhancing their evolutionary fitness. Secondly, it is a state reached by the po ...
of a play about
Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe (; born Norma Jeane Mortenson; 1 June 1926 4 August 1962) was an American actress. Famous for playing comedic " blonde bombshell" characters, she became one of the most popular sex symbols of the 1950s and early 1960s, as wel ...
called ''
Strawhead.'' The lawsuit was an early effort to define the rights of cohabiting
homosexual couples.
Tebelak returned to his hometown of Berea, Ohio, to direct the 10th anniversary production of ''Godspell'' at the Berea Summer Theater in the summer of 1980. He subsequently directed ''Cabaret'' there in the summer of 1981. He directed a revival of ''Godspell'' at La MaMa in 1981 and then another revival production billed as the 10th anniversary reunion production in Los Angeles in December 1981 with the majority of his original New York cast. In 1983, he directed ''Diversions: Or Proof that it is Impossible to Live'', based on the life and work of
Franz Kafka
Franz Kafka (3 July 1883 – 3 June 1924) was a German-speaking Bohemian novelist and short-story writer, widely regarded as one of the major figures of 20th-century literature. His work fuses elements of realism and the fantastic. It typ ...
, written by Aubrey Simpson, and starring
Michael Mayer, at La MaMa.
[La MaMa Archives Digital Collections]
"Production: ''Diversions: Or Proof That It Is Impossible To Live'' (1983)". Accessed August 13, 2018.
/ref>
Tebelak died in New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
on April 2, 1985, of a heart attack
A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which ma ...
.
Filmography
References
External links
*
John Michael Tebelak at musicalschwartz.com
(biography and interview)
Tebelak's page on La MaMa Archives Digital Collections
John-Michael Tebelak
on IMDb
IMDb (an abbreviation of Internet Movie Database) is an online database of information related to films, television series, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and personal biographies, ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tebelak, John Michael
1949 births
1985 deaths
American Episcopalians
American musical theatre directors
Carnegie Mellon University College of Fine Arts alumni
LGBT dramatists and playwrights
LGBT people from Ohio
20th-century American dramatists and playwrights
American gay writers