Itallie JeanClaudevan

Belgian-born American playwright, performer, and theatre workshop teacher, best known for his work with The Open Theatre in the 1960s. Jean-Claude van Itallie emigrated to the United States with his family to flee the Nazis in 1940 and grew up in Great Neck, New York on Long Island. He graduated from Harvard University in 1958. He taught at Princeton University, New York University, Harvard University, Yale University, Amherst College, Columbia University, Middlebury College, the University of Colorado, Naropa University, the Esalen Institute, the Omega Institute for Holistic Studies, the NY Open Center, etc. His acclaimed plays include the 1960s off-Broadway trilogy of one-act plays, America Hurrah; The Serpent (1968); new English versions of the four major plays of Chekhov (1970s); The Tibetan Book of the Dead (1983), his poetic adaptation of traditional Tibetan passages; and Ancient Boys (1991). Jean-Claude van Itallie lived on a farm in Massachusetts, where he ran the Shantigar Foundation. He died on 9 September 2021 at age 85. Link to Wikipedia biography Read less