Richard Schechner

Richard Schechner
Name	Richard Schechner
Birth date	1934
Birth place	Newark, New Jersey
Occupation	Theatre director, performance theorist, scholar
Known for	Environmental theatre, performance studies, Experimental Theatre

Richard Schechner Richard Schechner is an American theatre director, performance theorist, and scholar whose work transformed twentieth-century theatre and founded the interdisciplinary field of Performance Studies. He directed pioneering ensembles, developed theories of environmental and avant-garde performance, and taught at major institutions where he influenced generations of practitioners and scholars across United States and international venues. His practice bridged experimental performance, ritual studies, and media, involving collaborations with directors, playwrights, and companies across continents.

Early life and education

Born in Newark, New Jersey in 1934, Schechner grew up amid the cultural milieu of the United States Northeast, encountering the artistic scenes of New York City and the theatrical traditions of the region. He studied drama and literature at undergraduate and graduate levels, where he engaged with texts and practitioners from Stanford University and other academic centers that shaped postwar American theatre. During formative years he encountered influential figures such as Jerzy Grotowski, Antonin Artaud, Bertolt Brecht, and Richard Wagner, whose writings and practices informed his early theoretical orientation toward ritual, performance, and environmental staging.

Career and theatrical work

Schechner co-founded and directed the groundbreaking Performance Group in New York City in 1967, becoming a central figure in the downtown experimental scene alongside contemporaries like Joseph Chaikin, Peter Brook, Ellen Stewart, and Happenings-era artists. He pioneered "environmental theatre" by reconfiguring the relationship between actors and audience, drawing on methods associated with Jerzy Grotowski's Poor Theatre, Grotowski Laboratory, and the work of Artaud and Brechtian techniques. Schechner later established the New York University Tisch School of the Arts program in Performance Studies and led international workshops and festivals that connected ensembles such as Richard Foreman's Ontological-Hysteric Theater, Robert Wilson's Tomato, and companies influenced by Peter Sellars.

His directing career included site-specific and interdisciplinary projects that engaged with traditions from Japan to Africa, incorporating practices related to Noh, Kabuki, Balinese dance, and African ritual performance. He collaborated with performers and institutions including Ellen Stewart's La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Biennale di Venezia, and university centers in Europe and Asia.

The Performance Studies discipline

Schechner played a formative role in creating Performance Studies as an academic discipline by integrating methods from Anthropology, Sociology, Drama, and Cultural Studies to study live and mediated performance. At New York University he helped shape curricula that connected scholars like Victor Turner, Clifford Geertz, Erving Goffman, and practitioners such as Jerzy Grotowski into a coherent field. He founded the influential journal and programs that established links with institutions including University of California, Berkeley, University of Chicago, University of Toronto, and international centers like Goldsmiths, University of London and the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama.

Schechner's interdisciplinary approach fostered dialogues with scholars and artists across networks involving MIT, Harvard University, Columbia University, University of California, Los Angeles, and museums and festivals that valorized performative practices. His students and colleagues have included notable figures in theatre, ritual studies, and media such as Erika Fischer-Lichte, Philip Auslander, Peggy Phelan, and Brooklyn-based ensembles.

Major productions and adaptations

Among Schechner's notable productions were experimental stagings of classical and contemporary texts that reimagined works by Euripides, William Shakespeare, Antonin Artaud-inspired pieces, and adaptations of modern playwrights. He directed ensemble adaptations that drew on sources from Greek tragedy to Shakespearean histories, often reworking texts by Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides into forms influenced by ritual and communal performance. His environmental adaptations challenged proscenium conventions, aligning with the practices of Peter Brook's "empty space" and the site-specific work of Spalding Gray-adjacent artists.

Schechner also staged interdisciplinary performances integrating film, sound, and movement, collaborating with composers, designers, and multimedia artists linked to institutions like Lincoln Center, The Public Theater, and international festivals such as Edinburgh Festival Fringe and the Avignon Festival.

Writings and theoretical contributions

Schechner authored foundational texts that articulated performance theory and practice, synthesizing ideas from Victor Turner, Clifford Geertz, Erving Goffman, Richard Wagner, and Bertolt Brecht. His books addressed concepts such as "restored behavior", "liveness", "environmental theatre", and the performative continuum, influencing scholarship across Performance Studies, Theatre Studies, and Ritual Studies. He edited and contributed to anthologies that brought together essays on theatre, ritual, and cultural performance, fostering interdisciplinary discourse with scholars from anthropology and media studies.

His theoretical work engaged with debates in journals and conferences at venues including Society for Theatre Research, American Society for Theatre Research, International Federation for Theatre Research, and academic presses associated with Cambridge University Press and Routledge.

Awards and honors

Schechner received numerous recognitions for his contributions to theatre and scholarship, including fellowships, honorary appointments, and awards from institutions such as Guggenheim Fellowship, National Endowment for the Arts, MacArthur Foundation-associated programs, and honorary degrees from universities engaged with performance scholarship. He has been honored by arts organizations and festivals worldwide, with retrospectives and lifetime achievement acknowledgments from centers including New York University, La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club, and international cultural institutions.

Category:American theatre directors Category:Performance studies scholars