Wynn Handman (May 19, 1922 – April 11, 2020) was the Artistic Director of
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 ...
, which he co-founded with Sidney Lanier and
Michael Tolan
Michael Tolan (born Seymour Tuchow, November 27, 1925 – January 31, 2011) was an American actor.
Early life and education
The son of Morris Tuchow, Tolan was born in Detroit, Michigan. He graduated from Central High School and Wayne State Un ...
in 1963. His role in the theatre was to seek out, encourage, train, and present new and exciting writing and acting talent and to develop and produce new plays by living American writers. In addition, he initiated several Arts Education Programs, such as ''Literature to Life''. His life and the history of The American Place Theatre are the subjects of the 2019 documentary ''
It Takes a Lunatic.''
Handman died during the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...
due to complications brought on by
COVID-19
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...
.
Early life
Handman grew up in the
Inwood neighborhood in
Upper Manhattan
Upper Manhattan is the most northern region of the New York City borough of Manhattan. Its southern boundary has been variously defined, but some of the most common usages are 96th Street, the northern boundary of Central Park ( 110th Street), ...
. Handman studied acting at
The Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theater in New York City. In 1949 he created the role of Sentry Hallam in the world premiere of
Louis O. Coxe
Louis Osborne Coxe (April 15, 1918 – May 25, 1993) was an American poet, playwright, essayist, and professor who was recognized by the Academy of American Poets for his "long, powerful, quiet accomplishment, largely unrecognized, in lyric ...
and Robert H. Chapman's ''
Uniform of Flesh''; which later was retitled ''Billy Budd'' for its critically successful run on Broadway in 1951.
Directing career
Plays he has directed 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 ...
include: ''Manchild in the Promised Land'', which he adapted from the novel by
Claude Brown
Claude Brown (February 23, 1937 – February 2, 2002) was the author of '' Manchild in the Promised Land'', published to critical acclaim in 1965, which tells the story of his coming of age during the 1940s and 1950s in Harlem. He also published ...
; ''I Stand Before You Naked'' by
Joyce Carol Oates
Joyce Carol Oates (born June 16, 1938) is an American writer. Oates published her first book in 1963, and has since published 58 novels, a number of plays and novellas, and many volumes of short stories, poetry, and non-fiction. Her novels '' Bla ...
; ''Words, No Music'' by
Calvin Trillin
Calvin Marshall Trillin (born 5 December 1935) is an American journalist, humorist, food writer, poet, memoirist and novelist. He is a winner of the Thurber Prize for American Humor (2012) and an elected member of the American Academy of Arts an ...
; ''Drinking in America'' by
Eric Bogosian
Eric Bogosian ( hy, Էրիկ Բոգոսյան; ; born April 24, 1953) is an American actor, playwright, monologuist, novelist, and historian. Descended from Armenian American immigrants, he grew up in Watertown and Woburn, Massachusetts, and ...
; ''A Girl’s Guide to Chaos'' by
Cynthia Heimel
Cynthia Heimel (née Glick; July 13, 1947 – February 25, 2018) was an American feminist humorist writer from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She was a columnist and foremost the author of satirical books known for their unusual titles, aimed at a ...
; ''Free Speech in America'', and ''Bibliomania'' by
Roger Rosenblatt
Roger Rosenblatt (born 1940) is an American memoirist, essayist, and novelist. He was a long-time essayist for ''Time'' magazine and ''PBS NewsHour''. He is currently the Distinguished Professor of English and Writing at Stony Brook University.
C ...
, with Ron Silver; ''Coming Through'' also adapted by Handman; ''Spokesman'' written and performed by John Hockenberry; ''Fly'' by Joseph Edward; and ''Dreaming in Cuban and Other Works: Rhythm, Rum, Café con Leche and Nuestros Abuelos'' by
Cristina García and Michael Garcés. Also, he has adapted and directed many of the American Humorists’ Series productions.
Teaching career
A teacher for over 50 years, in his professional acting classes, Handman trained outstanding actors including
Michael Douglas
Michael Kirk Douglas (born September 25, 1944) is an American actor and film producer. He has received numerous accolades, including two Academy Awards, five Golden Globe Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award, the Cecil B. DeMille Award, and the AF ...
, and
Christopher George
Christopher John George (Greek: Χριστόφορος Γεωργίου; February 25, 1931 – November 28, 1983) was an American television and film actor who starred in the 1960s television series ''The Rat Patrol''. He was nominated for a Gol ...
.
In December 2013, a book by Jeremy Gerard was published entitled ''Wynn Place Show: A Biased History of the Rollicking Life & Extreme Times of Wynn Handman and the American Place Theatre''. A party to honor the book and Handman, at
The Players Club
''The Players Club'' is a 1998 American comedy drama thriller film written and directed by Ice Cube in his feature film directorial debut. In addition to Ice Cube, the film stars Bernie Mac, Monica Calhoun, Jamie Foxx, John Amos, A. J. Johns ...
in Manhattan, was featured in the
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 d ...
, and included grateful Handman students such as Richard Gere, Frank Langella and John Leguizamo.
Personal life
Handman was born in New York City, New York, the son of Anna (Kemler), a saleswoman at Saks Fifth Avenue, and Nathan Handman, who ran a printing business. His parents were Jewish emigrants, his father from Minsk, Belarus, and his mother from
Płońsk
Płońsk (; yi, פּלאָנסק, Plonsk) is a town in central Poland with 22,500 inhabitants (2010).
Situated at the Płonka river in the historic region of Mazovia, it is the seat of Płońsk County in the Masovian Voivodeship.
History
Acc ...
, Poland.
[
Handman was married to political consultant and arts advocate Bobbie Handman, who died November 13, 2013. Their daughter, Laura Handman, is the wife of ]Harold M. Ickes
Harold McEwen Ickes (; born September 4, 1939) is the former White House Deputy Chief of Staff for President Bill Clinton. He was a leading figure in the Clinton administration's healthcare reform initiative.
Ickes is the son of Harold L. Ickes, ...
. Their other daughter, Liza Handman, is the Vice President of Creative at Drury Design Dynamics, a leader in the meetings and events industry.
Handman died on April 11, 2020 in New York City at the age of 97 from COVID-19
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...
.
Awards
*1989 Townsend Harris Medal of 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 ...
*1993 Lucille Lortel Award
The Lucille Lortel Awards recognize excellence in New York Off-Broadway theatre. The Awards are named for Lucille Lortel, an actress and theater producer, and have been awarded since 1986. They are produced by the League of Off-Broadway Theatre ...
for Lifetime Achievement
* 1994 Rosetta LeNoire Award from Actors' Equity Association
The Actors' Equity Association (AEA), commonly referred to as Actors' Equity or simply Equity, is an American labor union representing those who work in live theatrical performance. Performers appearing in live stage productions without a boo ...
*1996 Carnegie Mellon
Carnegie may refer to:
People
* Carnegie (surname), including a list of people with the name
* Clan Carnegie, a lowland Scottish clan
Institutions Named for Andrew Carnegie
*Carnegie Building (Troy, New York), on the campus of Rensselaer Polyt ...
Drama Commitment to Playwriting Award
*1998 Sanford Meisner Service Award from The Working Theater
*1999 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 ...
for Sustained AchievementObieAwrds.com
Retrieved March 6, 2021
Further reading
*Gerard, Jeremy. ''Wynn Place Show: A Biased History of the Rollicking Life & Extreme Times of Wynn Handman and the American Place Theatre''. Hanover, NH: Smith & Kraus, 2013. Print.
References
External links
American Place TheatreThe Wynn Handman Studio*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Handman, Wynn
2020 deaths
1922 births
American theatre directors
People from Inwood, Manhattan
Deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic in New York (state)