Kenneth Otis Bernard (May 7, 1930 – August 9, 2020) was an American author, poet, and playwright. Bernard was born in

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. Kings County is the most populous Administrative divisions of New York (state)#County, county in the State of New York, ...

and raised in

Framingham, Massachusetts Framingham () is a city in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. Incorporated in 1700, it is located in Middlesex County and the MetroWest subregion of the Greater Boston metropolitan area. The city proper covers with a popul ...

; he lived his adult life in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...

. He married Elaine Ceil Reiss in 1952 and they had three children, Lucas, Judd, and Katey. Bernard was involved in the Off-Off-Broadway movement throughout the 1970s and into the 1980s, often working with the

Playhouse of the Ridiculous Theatre of the Ridiculous is a theatrical genre that began in New York City in the 1960s.Bottoms, Stephen J. Chapter 11: "The Play-House of the Ridiculous: Beyond Absurdity". ''Playing Underground: A Critical History of the 1960s Off-Off-Broadway M ...

La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club (La MaMa E.T.C.) is an Off-Off-Broadway theatre founded in 1961 by Ellen Stewart, African-American theatre director, producer, and fashion designer. Located in Manhattan's East Village, the theatre began in th ...

in the East Village of Manhattan. The first production he contributed to was

Jackie Curtis Jackie Curtis (February 19, 1947 – May 15, 1985) was an American actress, writer, singer, and Warhol superstar. Early life and career Jackie Curtis was born in New York City to John Holder and Jenevive Uglialoro. She had one sibling, half-b ...

's ''Heaven Grand in Amber Orbit'', which opened in 1969 and was first produced at La MaMa in 1970. Bernard wrote the lyrics with Curtis and

Tom Murrin Tom Murrin (February 8, 1939 – March 12, 2012), also known as ''Jack Bump'', ''Tom Trash'', and ''The Alien Comic'', was an American performance artist and playwright A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes plays. Etymology The wor ...

; the production was directed by John Vaccaro and performed by the Playhouse of the Ridiculous. Bernard's play, ''Night Club, or Bubi's Hide-Away'', was produced at La MaMa by the Playhouse of the Ridiculous later in 1970, and featured Ondine in the title role. Vaccaro directed a second play by Bernard in 1970, ''The Monkeys of the Organ Grinder'', which was performed by the

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

-based La MaMa ensembl
The Wherehouse
Vaccaro directed the Playhouse of the Ridiculous in Bernard's ''The Magic Show of Dr. Ma-gico'' in 1973, and in ''The Sixty Minute Queer Show'' in 1977, both at La MaMa. In 1981, Vaccaro directed another production of ''Night Club, or Bubi's Hide-Away'' at La MaMa, and in 1984 directed a production of Bernard's ''La Fin du Cirque''. He received Guggenheim, Rockefeller,

National Endowment for the Arts The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the federa ...

National Endowment for the Humanities The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) is an independent federal agency of the U.S. government, established by thNational Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act of 1965(), dedicated to supporting research, education, preserv ...

, New York Creative Artists Public Service, and

New York Foundation for the Arts The New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) is an independent 501(c)(3) charity, funded through government, foundation, corporate, and individual support, established in 1971. It is part of a network of national not-for-profit arts organization ...

fellowships and grants. Bernard was the author of eleven books, including the novel ''From The District File'' and ''Clown at Wall: A Kenneth Bernard Reader.'' His final book, "The Man in the Stretcher: Previously Uncollected Short Fiction," was published by Starcherone Books in 2005. Bernard died August 9, 2020, in

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five Boroughs of New York City, boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the List of co ...

References

External links

Kenneth Bernard
biography on FilmReference.com
Bernard's page on La MaMa Archives Digital Collections

on Library of Congress Linked Data Service {{DEFAULTSORT:Bernard, Kenneth 20th-century American dramatists and playwrights Writers from New York City 1930 births 2020 deaths American male dramatists and playwrights 20th-century American male writers