Edwin Duerr (February 21, 1904 – August 13, 1985) was a theater and radio director. He was director of the Little Theater at

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

when he discovered

Gregory Peck Eldred Gregory Peck (April 5, 1916 – June 12, 2003) was an American actor and one of the most popular film stars from the 1940s to the 1970s. In 1999, the American Film Institute named Peck the AFI's 100 Years...100 Stars, 12th-greatest male ...

. He wrote the books ''The Length and Depth of Acting'' and ''Radio and Television Acting: Criticism, Theory and Practice''. According to author Sean Egan in the James Kirkwood biography ''Ponies & Rainbows'', Duerr co-wrote a play with Kirkwood called ''The Marriage Habit'' which failed to get staged. Duerr served on the faculty of

California State University, Fullerton California State University, Fullerton (CSUF or Cal State Fullerton) is a public research university in Fullerton, California, United States. With a total enrollment of more than 41,000, it has the largest student body of the California State ...

as a Professor of Theater from September 1964 until June 1974, when he was granted emeritus status. While at Fullerton he became the subject of an investigation by a committee of the California State Senate because he had allowed one of his classes to stage a performance of the allegedly pornographic play ''The Beard'', by

Michael McClure Michael McClure (October 20, 1932 – May 4, 2020) was an American poet, playwright, songwriter, and novelist. After moving to San Francisco as a young man, he found fame as one of the five poets (including Allen Ginsberg) who read at the famo ...

. State Senators James E. Whetmore (R. Fulleron) and John G. Schmitz (R. Tustin) called for the firing of Duerr and also criticized the campus president, William B. Langsdorf for granting Duerr tenure. In May 1968 Duerr directed the first United States production in its entirety of the 1958 play by

Max Frisch Max Rudolf Frisch (; 15 May 1911 – 4 April 1991) was a Swiss playwright and novelist. Frisch's works focused on problems of identity (social science), identity, individuality, Moral responsibility, responsibility, morality, and political commi ...

, '' The Firebugs''.

References

Oakland High School Memorial

The Daily Californian

1904 births 1985 deaths California State University, Fullerton faculty University of California, Berkeley staff {{theat-director-stub