Leon Katz
Encyclopedia
Leon Katz is professor emeritus of drama
at Yale University
. He is a playwright
, dramaturg, and scholar.
s with Alice B. Toklas
, the companion of Gertrude Stein
, over four months in 1952-53. Although the interviews and their interpretations have served as the basis for much Stein scholarship over the years, Katz's original notes have yet to be shared with other scholars, and the dissertation based on the notes remains unpublished, as noted by Stein biographer Janet Malcolm
. In October 2007, Katz gave a public lecture and performance based on his time spent with Toklas in her Paris apartment. Titled "An Evening With Leon Katz," the performance was staged using reproductions of art and some original furniture from Stein and Toklas's apartment
.
and internationally. His plays include The Three Cuckolds, Sonya, Dracula: Sabbat, Son of Arlecchino, GBS in Love, Beds, Pinocchio, Finnegan's Wake, The Marquis de Sade’s Justine, Amerika, The Odyssey, Swellfoot’s Tears, The Dybbuk, Remembrance of Things Past, and The Making of Americans (an opera based on Stein’s novel, with music by composer Al Carmines).
, Vassar College
, Carnegie Mellon, the University of Giessen in Germany, and the Rhodopi International Theatre Laboratory in Bulgaria, of which he is a founding member (and which was renamed in his honor in 2008). He was most recently a Distinguished Professor at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.
Katz was a contributing dramaturg to Tony Kushner
's Pulitzer-Prize winning play, Angels in America
.
Drama
Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance. The term comes from a Greek word meaning "action" , which is derived from "to do","to act" . The enactment of drama in theatre, performed by actors on a stage before an audience, presupposes collaborative modes of production and a...
at Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
. He is a playwright
Playwright
A playwright, also called a dramatist, is a person who writes plays.The term is not a variant spelling of "playwrite", but something quite distinct: the word wright is an archaic English term for a craftsman or builder...
, dramaturg, and scholar.
Scholarship
As a scholar, Katz is primarily known for his interviewInterview
An interview is a conversation between two people where questions are asked by the interviewer to obtain information from the interviewee.- Interview as a Method for Qualitative Research:"Definition" -...
s with Alice B. Toklas
Alice B. Toklas
Alice B. Toklas was an American-born member of the Parisian avant-garde of the early 20th century.-Early life, relationship with Gertrude Stein:...
, the companion of Gertrude Stein
Gertrude Stein
Gertrude Stein was an American writer, poet and art collector who spent most of her life in France.-Early life:...
, over four months in 1952-53. Although the interviews and their interpretations have served as the basis for much Stein scholarship over the years, Katz's original notes have yet to be shared with other scholars, and the dissertation based on the notes remains unpublished, as noted by Stein biographer Janet Malcolm
Janet Malcolm
Janet Malcolm is an American writer and journalist on staff at The New Yorker magazine. She is the author of Psychoanalysis: The Impossible Profession , In the Freud Archives and The Journalist and the Murderer ....
. In October 2007, Katz gave a public lecture and performance based on his time spent with Toklas in her Paris apartment. Titled "An Evening With Leon Katz," the performance was staged using reproductions of art and some original furniture from Stein and Toklas's apartment
Apartment
An apartment or flat is a self-contained housing unit that occupies only part of a building...
.
Playwrighting
Besides his association with Toklas, Katz is known for his body of plays, which have been adapted and performed both in the United StatesUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and internationally. His plays include The Three Cuckolds, Sonya, Dracula: Sabbat, Son of Arlecchino, GBS in Love, Beds, Pinocchio, Finnegan's Wake, The Marquis de Sade’s Justine, Amerika, The Odyssey, Swellfoot’s Tears, The Dybbuk, Remembrance of Things Past, and The Making of Americans (an opera based on Stein’s novel, with music by composer Al Carmines).
Professorship and Dramaturgy
Katz has also had a long career as a dramaturg and professor, contributing to the development of numerous prominent theatre, film, and television professionals throughout the United States. In addition to Yale (where he was co-chairman of the School of Drama's Department of Dramaturgy and Dramatic Criticism), he has taught at UCLA, Cornell, Stanford, Columbia UniversityColumbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
, Vassar College
Vassar College
Vassar College is a private, coeducational liberal arts college in the town of Poughkeepsie, New York, in the United States. The Vassar campus comprises over and more than 100 buildings, including four National Historic Landmarks, ranging in style from Collegiate Gothic to International,...
, Carnegie Mellon, the University of Giessen in Germany, and the Rhodopi International Theatre Laboratory in Bulgaria, of which he is a founding member (and which was renamed in his honor in 2008). He was most recently a Distinguished Professor at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.
Katz was a contributing dramaturg to Tony Kushner
Tony Kushner
Anthony Robert "Tony" Kushner is an American playwright and screenwriter. He received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1993 for his play, Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes, and co-authored with Eric Roth the screenplay for the 2005 film, Munich.-Life and career:Kushner was born...
's Pulitzer-Prize winning play, Angels in America
Angels in America
Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes is the 1993 Pulitzer Prize winning play in two parts by American playwright Tony Kushner. It has been made into both a television miniseries and an opera by Peter Eötvös.-Characters:...
.