Theater scholar Herb Blau passes away

By: Shaun Manning | Date: May 8, 2013
Theater scholar Herb Blau passes away

The University of Michigan Press mourns the passing of theater scholar, theoretician and director Herbert Blau (1926-2013). Blau was known as the leading American interpreter of the works of Samuel Beckett and was instrumental in introducing works of the European avant-garde to American audiences. Blau co-founded The Actor’s Workshop in San Francisco from 1952 to 1965; co-directed the Repertory Theater of Lincoln Center in New York (1965-68), and was founding provost and dean of the theater program at California Institute for the Arts and founder of the experimental group KRAKEN (1968-81). He served on the faculty at San Francisco State University, Cal Arts, Oberlin College, the University of Maryland, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and most recently at the University of Washington. His many books include Programming Theater History: The Actor's Workshop of San Francisco; Reality Principles: From the Absurd to the Virtual; As If: An Autobiography; The Dubious Spectacle: Extremities of Theater, 1976-2000; Sails of the Herring Fleet: Essays on Beckett; Nothing in Itself: Complexions of Fashion; To All Appearances: Ideology and Performance; The Audience; The Eye of Prey: Subversions of the Postmodern; Take Up the Bodies: Theater at the Vanishing Point; Blooded Thought: Occasions of Theater; and The Impossible Theater: A Manifesto.