Kenneth Bernard
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Kenneth Otis Bernard (May 7, 1930 – August 9, 2020) was an American author, poet, and playwright. Bernard was born in
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and raised in
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; he lived his adult life in
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. He married Elaine Ceil Reiss in 1952 and they had three children,
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, Judd, and Katey. Bernard was involved in the Off-Off-Broadway movement throughout the 1970s and into the 1980s, often working with the
Playhouse of the Ridiculous Theatre of the Ridiculous is a theatrical genre that began in New York City in the 1960s.Bottoms, Stephen J. Chapter 11: "The Play-House of the Ridiculous: Beyond Absurdity". ''Playing Underground: A Critical History of the 1960s Off-Off-Broadway M ...
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 ...
in the East Village of Manhattan. The first production he contributed to was
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's ''Heaven Grand in Amber Orbit'', which opened in 1969 and was first produced at La MaMa in 1970. Bernard wrote the lyrics with Curtis and
Tom Murrin Tom Murrin (February 8, 1939 – March 12, 2012), also known as ''Jack Bump'', ''Tom Trash'', and ''The Alien Comic'', was an American performance artist and playwright in the downtown avant-garde art scene in New York City. In the 1980s and 1990s ...
; the production was directed by John Vaccaro and performed by the Playhouse of the Ridiculous. Bernard's play, ''Night Club, or Bubi's Hide-Away'', was produced at La MaMa by the Playhouse of the Ridiculous later in 1970, and featured Ondine in the title role. Vaccaro directed a second play by Bernard in 1970, ''The Monkeys of the Organ Grinder'', which was performed by the
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-based La MaMa ensembl
The Wherehouse
Vaccaro directed the Playhouse of the Ridiculous in Bernard's ''The Magic Show of Dr. Ma-gico'' in 1973, and in ''The Sixty Minute Queer Show'' in 1977, both at La MaMa. In 1981, Vaccaro directed another production of ''Night Club, or Bubi's Hide-Away'' at La MaMa, and in 1984 directed a production of Bernard's ''La Fin du Cirque''. He received Guggenheim,
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,
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 ...
,
National Endowment for the Humanities The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) is an independent federal agency of the U.S. government, established by thNational Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act of 1965(), dedicated to supporting research, education, preserv ...
, New York Creative Artists Public Service, and
New York Foundation for the Arts The New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) is an independent 501(c)(3) charity, funded through government, foundation, corporate, and individual support, established in 1971. It is part of a network of national not-for-profit arts organizations ...
fellowships and grants. Bernard was the author of eleven books, including the novel ''From The District File'' and ''Clown at Wall: A Kenneth Bernard Reader.'' His final book, "The Man in the Stretcher: Previously Uncollected Short Fiction," was published by Starcherone Books in 2005. Bernard died August 9, 2020, in
Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
.


References


External links


Kenneth Bernard
biography on FilmReference.com
Bernard's page on La MaMa Archives Digital Collections


on
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Bernard, Kenneth 20th-century American dramatists and playwrights Writers from New York City 1930 births 2020 deaths American male dramatists and playwrights 20th-century American male writers