Jack Gelber Papers

Jack Gelber, a writer, director, and teacher of drama, was born April 12, 1932 in Chicago, Illinois to Harold and Molly Gelber. Harold Gelber was a sheetmetal worker, a trade the younger Gelber would briefly adopt to finance his education at the University of Illinois. While at the university, he developed an interest in fiction and began to write short stories. After graduating with a Bachelor of Science in Journalism in 1953, Gelber travelled to San Francisco where he found work as a shipfitter's helper. He met Carol Westenberg, whose own writing career produced a number of children's books, and the two married December 23, 1957. In 1955 Gelber moved to New York City and became a mimeograph operator for the United Nations.

Jack Gelber began writing his first play, "The Connection," in late 1957. Two years later, acting upon a friend's advice, he offered the script to Judith Malina and Julian Beck of the Living Theatre. Malina directed the production, while Gelber participated in casting, the direction of rehearsals, and the sale of tickets. When performances began on July 15, 1959 the play quickly attracted controversy. Several theatre critics, particularly those writing for the daily newspapers, objected to the play's graphic depiction of heroin addiction and its unorthodox performance methods. However, the play also attracted supporters such as Kenneth Tynan, Allen Ginsberg, Norman Mailer, Henry Hewes, Harold Clurman, 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, and some hold that it established both Gelber and the Living Theatre as significant players in American theatre. It won the Village Voice's Obie Awards for Best New Play, Best Production, and Best Actor (Warren Finnerty 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 seven hundred twenty-two 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. A film version of the play produced by Lewis Allen and directed by Shirley Clarke in 1961 also proved to be controversial.

Though Gelber's subsequent plays did not have the same level of success as "The Connection" he enjoyed a long and active career writing, directing, and teaching drama. His second play, "The Apple," opened at the Living Theatre in 1961. It was the last of Gelber's works produced by that company; not long after the production closed the Living Theatre moved overseas. In 1963 the Guggenheim Foundation awarded Gelber a fellowship (which it renewed three years later) to support his writing, and in 1964 he published his novel On Ice. The following year the City College of New York offered Gelber the position of writer-in-residence. His third play, "Square in the Eye" (also known as "Let's Face It") was produced by the Establishment Theatre Company at the Theatre De Lys shortly thereafter.

In 1967 Columbia University appointed Gelber as a part time adjunct professor of drama. In 1968 he completed the script for, and directed a production of, his fourth play "The Cuban Thing." This work, which drew upon Gelber's travels in Cuba as a journalist during the 1950s, along with more recent visits in 1964 and 1967, depicted a middle class family's experience of the 1959 revolution. The production, which took place at Henry Miller's Theatre, attracted controversy over what was perceived to be a favorable portrayal of Fidel Castro. This interpretation sparked large and sometimes violent protests against the production and the play ended its run after only one night.

In 1972 the Rockefeller Foundation awarded Gelber a fellowship, which funded a residency at the American Place Theatre where his next play, "Sleep," was performed. That same year Gelber become a full time Professor of Drama at Brooklyn College of the City University of New York. He remained at Brooklyn College for roughly thirty years, balancing his teaching career alongside directing professional and student productions and teaching theatre workshops, and received the Obie Award for Distinguished Direction in 1973 when he oversaw the American Place Theatre's production of "The Kid" by Robert Coover. Gelber's writing was supported by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and a CBS Fellowship from Yale University. During 1973 "Barbary Shore," Gelber's adaptation of a novel written in 1951 by Norman Mailer, was produced by the New York Shakespeare Festival. His next production, entitled "Farmyard" and staged by the Yale Repertory Theatre in 1975, was an adaptation of Franz Xaver Kroetz' 1971 play "Stallerhof". Gelber then returned to creating original plays, directing a production of his drama "Jack Gelber's New Play: Rehearsal" at the American Place Theatre and "Starters" at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre Center. Eight years would pass before his tenth play, "Big Shot," was produced at Wildcliff Theatre by the East Coast Arts company. In the 1990s three more of Gelber's plays were produced: "Magic Valley" in 1990, and "Rio Preserved" and "Chambers" in 1998. In 1999 he received the Edward Albee Last Frontier Playwright Award in recognition of his lifetime of achievements in theatre. 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 that same year. It premiered at the McCarter Theatre in Princeton, New Jersey during 2003, not long after Gelber's death on May 9, 2003 in New York City due to Waldentrom's macroglobulinemia, a cancer of the blood.

In addition to his plays Gelber was the author of several short stories and screenplays. Among the latter were adaptations of his own dramas along with several original scripts, such as the 1976 television program "Charlie Siringo". On two occasions he appeared on the screen as an actor, portraying himself in the 1968 Cuban film "Memories of Underdevelopment" and making a cameo appearance in Woody Allen's "Another Woman". Several of his short stories were published in periodicals such as The Evergreen Review and Playboy. He also wrote non-fiction articles which appeared in the New York Times, The Nation, and The Drama Review, among others.

Sources

Archer, Eugene. "Court Upsets State's Obscenity Ban on 'Connection.'" The New York Times, July 3, 1962

Brooks, Robert E. "Jack Gelber, American Writer (1932-2003)." In Twentieth-Century American Dramatists. Ed. Christopher J. Wheatley. Dictionary of Literary Biography Vol. 228. Detroit: Gale Group, 2000, 2007

"Gelber, Jack." Contemporary Dramatists 1993. Ed. Kate Berney. London: St. James Press, 1993. Jack Gelber Papers, MSS 146, Box 4, Folder 237, Fales Library and Special Collections, Elmer Holmes Bobst Library

Gussow, Mel. "Jack Gelber, 71, 'Connection' Playwright." The New York Times, May 10, 2003.

Iachetta, Michael. "Perils of a Playwright." Sunday News, March 11, 1962. Jack Gelber Papers, MSS 146, Box 44, Folder 1168, Fales Library and Special Collections, Elmer Holmes Bobst Library

"Jack Gelber." In International Dictionary of Theatre, Volume 2: Playwrights. St James Press, 1993. Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Michigan: Gale, 2009 (http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/BioRC) (March 10, 2009)

"Jack Gelber, 1932-2003." In Contemporary Authors Online. Gale, 2004. Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Michigan: Gale, 2009 (http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/BioRC) (March 10, 2009)

Jack Gelber's Resume, 1974. Jack Gelber Papers, MSS 146, Box 15, Folder 880, Fales Library and Special Collections, Elmer Holmes Bobst Library

Little, Stuart. Off Broadway: The Prophetic Theatre. New York: Coward, McCann and Geoghegan, 1972

"Living Theatre, The." In Encyclopedia Britannica, 2009. Encyclopedia Britannica Online (http://search.eb.com/eb/article-9048595) (March 6, 2009)

Martin, Carol. "Jack Gelber, 1932-2003." TDR: The Drama Review, Volume 47, Number 4, (Winter 2003), pp. 13-16

Richie, Donald. "Letter from Cannes." The Nation, Volume 192 Issue 24 (June 17, 1961), 526-527

Smith, Michael. "The Living Theatre at Cooper Union: A Symposium with William Coco, Jack Gelber, Karen Malpede, Richard Schechner, and Michael Smith." TDR: The Drama Review, Volume 31, Number 3, (Autumn, 1987), pp.103-119

Wilcox, Agnes. "Jack Gelber." In Twentieth Century American Dramatists. Ed John MacNicholas. Dictionary of Literary Biography Volume 7. Detroit: Gale Research, 1981. Reproduced in Literature Resource Center. Gale, 2009. New York University. (March 10, 2009)

Works

Plays

"The Connection" (produced New York, 1959; London, 1961). Published by Grove Press, New York, 1960; Faber, London, 1961

"The Apple" (produced New York,1961). Published by Grove Press, New York, 1961

"Square in the Eye" (produced New York, 1965). Published by Grove Press, New York, 1966

"The Cuban Thing" (also director: produced New York,1968). Published by Grove Press, New York, 1969

"Sleep" (produced New York and Edinburgh, 1972). Published by Hill and Wang, New York,1972

"Barbary Shore," adapted from the novel by Norman Mailer (also director: produced New York, 1973). Unpublished

"Farmyard," adaptation of the play "Stallerhof" by Franz X. Kroetz (also director: produced New Have, Connecticut ,1975). Published in Farmyard and Four Other Plays, by Kroetz, New York, Urizen, 1976

"Rehearsal," (also director: produced New York, 1976). Unpublished

"Starters" (produced New Haven Connecticut, 1980). Unpublished

"Big Shot" (also director: produced New Rochelle, New York, 1988). Unpublished

"Magic Valley" (produced New York, 1990). Unpublished

"Chambers" (produced New York, 1998). Unpublished

"Rio Preserved" (produced 1998). Unpublished

"Dylan's Line" (produced Princeton, New Jersey, 2003). Unpublished

Screenplays

"The Connection," 1962

Novels

On Ice. New York: Macmillan,1964; London: Deutsch, 1965

Plays Directed Include

"The Kitchen" by Arnold Wesker, 1966

"Indians" by Arthur Kopit, 1968

"Pinky" by Jack Temchin, 1970

"Remember the Alamo" by Barry Livwak, 1970

"Kool Aid" by Merle Molofsky, 1971

"The Chickencoop Chinaman" by Frank Chin, 1972

"The Kid" by Robert Coover, 1972

"Eulogy for a Small Time Thief" by Miguel Pinero, 1977

"Seduced" by Sam Shepard, 1979

"The Man and the Fly" by Jose Ruibal, 1982

"The House of Ramon Iglesia" by Jose Rivera, 1983

"The Dolphin Position" by Percy Granger, 1983

"Mink on a Gold Hook" by James Ryan, 1986

"The Independence of Eddy Rose" by William Yellow Robe, Jr., 1989

"The Stalwarts" by OyamO, 1990

"Chinese Coffee" by Ira Lewis, 1990

"George Washington Dances" by David Margulies, 1992

"If Only I Could Remember My Name" by Robert Siegel, 1992

"Born Guilty" by Ari Roth, 1993

"I'm With Ya, Duke" by Herb Gardner, 1994

Actors

"Another Woman," directed by Woody Allen, 1988