Alan Schneider (December 12, 1917 – May 3, 1984) was an American theatre director responsible for more than 100

theatre Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors to present experiences of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a Stage (theatre), stage. The performe ...

productions. In 1984 he was honored with a Drama Desk Special Award for serving a wide range of playwrights. He directed the 1956 American

premiere A premiere, also spelled première, (from , ) is the debut (first public presentation) of a work, i.e. play, film, dance, musical composition, or even a performer in that work. History Raymond F. Betts attributes the introduction of the ...

Samuel Beckett Samuel Barclay Beckett (; 13 April 1906 – 22 December 1989) was an Irish writer of novels, plays, short stories, and poems. Writing in both English and French, his literary and theatrical work features bleak, impersonal, and Tragicomedy, tra ...

's ''

Waiting for Godot ''Waiting for Godot'' ( or ) is a 1953 play by Irish writer and playwright Samuel Beckett, in which the two main characters, Vladimir (Waiting for Godot), Vladimir (Didi) and Estragon (Gogo), engage in a variety of discussions and encounters w ...

'',

Edward Albee Edward Franklin Albee III ( ; March 12, 1928 – September 16, 2016) was an American playwright known for works such as ''The Zoo Story'' (1958), ''The Sandbox (play), The Sandbox'' (1959), ''Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?'' (1962), ''A Delicat ...

's ''

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? ''Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?'' is a play by Edward Albee first staged in October 1962. It examines the complexities of the marriage of middle-aged couple Martha and George. Late one evening, after a university faculty party, they rece ...

'' and '' Tiny Alice''; the American première of

Joe Orton John Kingsley Orton (1 January 1933 – 9 August 1967), known by the pen name of Joe Orton, was an English playwright, author, and diarist. His public career, from 1964 until his murder in 1967 committed by his partner, was short but highly i ...

's ''

Entertaining Mr Sloane ''Entertaining Mr Sloane'' is a three-act play written in 1963 by the English playwright Joe Orton. It was first produced in London at the New Arts Theatre on 6 May 1964 and transferred to the West End's Wyndham's Theatre on 29 June 1964. Pl ...

'',

Harold Pinter Harold Pinter (; 10 October 1930 – 24 December 2008) was a British playwright, screenwriter, director and actor. A List of Nobel laureates in Literature, Nobel Prize winner, Pinter was one of the most influential modern British dramat ...

's '' The Birthday Party'', as well as Pinter's ''

The Dumb Waiter ''The Dumb Waiter'' is a one-act play by Harold Pinter written in 1957. Plot Two Hitman, hit-men, Ben and Gus, are waiting in a basement room for their assignment. As the play begins, Ben, the senior member of the team, is reading a newspaper ...

'', '' The Collection'', and a trilogy of Pinter's plays under the title ''Other Places'' (including '' One for the Road'', '' Family Voices'', and '' A Kind of Alaska'');

Bertolt Brecht Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht (10 February 1898 – 14 August 1956), known as Bertolt Brecht and Bert Brecht, was a German theatre practitioner, playwright, and poet. Coming of age during the Weimar Republic, he had his first successes as a p ...

's '' The Caucasian Chalk Circle''; ''

You Know I Can't Hear You When the Water's Running In Modern English, the word "''you''" is the second-person pronoun. It is grammatically plural, and was historically used only for the dative case, but in most modern dialects is used for all cases and numbers. History ''You'' comes from ...

''; and Michael Weller's ''

Moonchildren ''Moonchildren'' (originally titled ''Cancer'') is a play by Brooklyn-based playwright Michael Weller. The play chronicles a year in the life of the "moonchildren" referred to in the title: eight college students living communally together in a ...

'' and ''Loose Ends''. Schneider also directed

's only direct foray into the world of film, entitled ''

Film A film, also known as a movie or motion picture, is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, emotions, or atmosphere through the use of moving images that are generally, sinc ...

''. The short subject starred

Buster Keaton Joseph Frank "Buster" Keaton (October 4, 1895 – February 1, 1966) was an American actor, comedian and filmmaker. He is best known for his silent films during the 1920s, in which he performed physical comedy and inventive stunts. He frequently ...

and its direction is often misattributed to

himself, notably during an exhibit at the

Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is a national art museum in Paris, France, and one of the most famous museums in the world. It is located on the Rive Droite, Right Bank of the Seine in the city's 1st arrondissement of Paris, 1st arron ...

in November 2006. "

" is a silent exploration of

Bishop Berkeley George Berkeley ( ; 12 March 168514 January 1753), known as Bishop Berkeley (Bishop of Cloyne of the Anglican Church of Ireland), was an Anglo-Irish philosopher, writer, and clergyman who is regarded as the founder of "immaterialism", a philos ...

's principle 'esse est percipi' (to be is to be perceived). One of a select group of non-actors awarded membership in

The Actors Studio The Actors Studio is a membership organization for professional actors, theatre directors and playwrights located on West 44th Street in Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan, Hell's Kitchen in New York City. The studio is best known for its work refining ...

, Schneider taught at

Catholic University Catholic higher education includes universities, colleges, and other institutions of higher education privately run by the Catholic Church, typically by religious institutes. Those tied to the Holy See are specifically called pontifical univers ...

City College of the City University of New York The City College of the City University of New York (also known as the City College of New York, or simply City College or CCNY) is a public research university within the City University of New York (CUNY) system in New York City. Founded in 18 ...

The Juilliard School The Juilliard School ( ) is a Private university, private performing arts music school, conservatory in New York City. Founded by Frank Damrosch as the Institute of Musical Art in 1905, the school later added dance and drama programs and became ...

(where he was director of the theatre program), the University of California, Riverside, and the

University of California, San Diego The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego in communications material, formerly and colloquially UCSD) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in San Diego, California, United States. Es ...

, whose library maintains an archive of his papers. He was associated with Arena Stage for 30 years. He was also the co-artistic director of The Acting Company. At the time of his death, he served as president of the board of directors for

Theatre Communications Group Theatre Communications Group (TCG) is a non-profit service organization headquartered in New York City that promotes professional non-profit theatre Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, us ...

(TCG).

Samuel Beckett and Schneider's death

Schneider was a leading director of

's plays, and there was a Beckettian element in Schneider's death. While in London, Schneider attempted to cross a street in order to mail a letter to Beckett's address in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

. Stepping off the pavement, the (Ukrainian-born) American director looked to the left for oncoming traffic, momentarily forgetting that motor vehicles in Britain travel on the ''left'' side of the road, when he was struck and killed by an oncoming motorcycle. Schneider was in London taking a break from directing '' Other Places'', a trilogy of plays by

, which was reaching the end of its run in New York City, at the

Manhattan Theatre Club Manhattan Theatre Club (MTC) is a theatre company located in New York City, affiliated with the League of Resident Theatres. Lynne Meadow has been the company’s Artistic Director and visionary since 1972. Barry Grove joined the company in 19 ...

. Schneider was then preparing to start rehearsing James Duff's play '' The War at Home'' at Hampstead Theatre with Frances Sternhagen, Timothy West and David Threlfall. Threlfall recounts walking out front at the Hampstead Theatre at lunch break and talking with Schneider the day before the accidental death. On that previous day, intending to cross the London road, Threlfall looked to the right to check the one-way traffic; when he turned and notice that Schneider was stepping into the road without attention. Threlfall pulled him back by the arm. Schneider said promptly "Jeez, I keep thinking I'm in New York". Unfortunately, Threlfall was not there the next day, when he repeated the action on his own, in order to go and post the last letter to

. The Manhattan Theatre Club lobby featured Schneider's obituary in its last week of performances.

Alan Schneider memorial fund

Following his death, the Alan Schneider Memorial Fund was established by TCG, The Acting Company, and the

Stage Directors and Choreographers Society The Stage Directors and Choreographers Society (SDC), formerly known as Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers (SDC), is an independent national labor union established in 1959, representing theatrical directors and choreographe ...

. Proceeds from the Fund go to the Alan Schneider Director Award, which provides national visibility to the recipient as well as a grant to support activities specifically tied to the development of the craft of directing. Recipients of the Alan Schneider Director Award include: Mark Brokaw, Peter C. Brosius, Bart DeLorenzo, Kyle Donnelly,

Michael John Garcés Michael John Garcés (born 1967) is a Cuban-American playwright and director. He is the artistic director of Cornerstone Theater Company in Los Angeles. He has received several awards and grants, including the Alan Schneider Director Award and th ...

, Henry Godinez, Anne Kauffman, Nancy Keystone, Roberta Levitow, Charles Newell, Roman Paska, Mary B. Robinson, David Saint, Joel Sass and Darko Tresnjak.

References

External links

Alan Schneider papers, 1923-1984
held by the Billy Rose Theatre Division,

New York Public Library for the Performing Arts The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center, is located at 40 Lincoln Center Plaza, in the Lincoln Center complex on the Upper West Side in Manhattan, New York City. Situated between the Metropolitan O ...

Alan Schneider Papers
MSS 103
Special Collections & Archives
UC San Diego Library. * * *
Other Places
', dir. Alan Schneider, at the

(opened 17 April 1984). {{DEFAULTSORT:Schneider, Alan 1917 births 1984 deaths American theatre directors Tony Award winners Catholic University of America faculty Juilliard School faculty City College of New York faculty University of California, San Diego faculty Cornell University alumni Soviet emigrants to the United States