Leon Katz (July 10, 1919 - January 23, 2017) was professor emeritus of drama at Yale University. He was a

playwright A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes plays. Etymology The word "play" is from Middle English pleye, from Old English plæġ, pleġa, plæġa ("play, exercise; sport, game; drama, applause"). The word "wright" is an archaic English ...

, dramaturg, and scholar.

Interviews with Alice B. Toklas

Katz was best known for his interviews with

Alice B. Toklas Alice Babette Toklas (April 30, 1877 – March 7, 1967) was an American-born member of the Parisian avant-garde of the early 20th century, and the life partner of American writer Gertrude Stein. Early life Alice B. Toklas was born in San F ...

, the companion of Gertrude Stein, which he conducted over the period from November 1952-February 1953. These interviews have served as the basis for much of the Stein scholarship over the years. In October 2007, Katz gave a public lecture and performance at

Carnegie Mellon University Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. One of its predecessors was established in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie as the Carnegie Technical Schools; it became the Carnegie Institute of Technology ...

based on his time spent with Toklas in her Paris apartment. Titled "An Evening With Leon Katz," the performance was staged using reproductions of artworks and some original pieces of furniture from Stein and Toklas's apartment."An Evening with Leon Katz,"
''ETC Global News'', September 24, 2007.

Playwriting

Besides his work with Toklas, Katz was also known for his playwriting. His work has been adapted and performed both in the United States 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, Toy Show'', ''Shekhina: The Bride, Remembrance of Things Past,'' and ''The Making of Americans'' (an opera based on Stein’s novel with music by composer Al Carmines).

Teaching and dramaturgy

Katz had a long career as a dramaturg, professor, and scholar. In addition to Yale, where he was co-chairman of the

School of Drama A drama school, stage school or theatre school is an undergraduate and/or graduate school or department at a college or university; or a free-standing institution (such as the Drama section at the Juilliard School); which specializes in the pre ...

's Department of Dramaturgy and Dramatic Criticism, Katz taught at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, UCLA, Cornell,

Stanford Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is considere ...

, Columbia University, Vassar College, Carnegie Mellon, the University of Pittsburgh, the University of Giessen in Germany, and

the Rhodopi International Theatre Laboratory The Rhodopi International Theater Collective (RITC) was the original name of the Leon Katz Rhodopi International Theatre Laboratory (RITL), an annual summer, month-long event for international theatre collaboration and development, which allowe ...

in Bulgaria (of which he was a founding member, and which was renamed in his honor in 2008), among other institutions. Israeli theatre director Rina Yerushalmi was among Katz's master's students at Carnegie Mellon, and went on to direct two of his adaptations of '' The Dybbuk'' (''Toy Show'' and ''Shekhina: The Bride'') at

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 the ...

in the early 1970s. Katz's 1984 essay,
The Compleat Dramaturg
'' has become a standard text on dramaturgy. His final book,

', was published in 2012. Katz was a contributing dramaturg to Tony Kushner's

Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prize () is an award for achievements in newspaper, magazine, online journalism, literature, and musical composition within the United States. It was established in 1917 by provisions in the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made h ...

-winning play, Angels in America.Kushner, Tony. ''Angels in America: a Gay Fantasia on National Themes''. New York: Theatre Communications Group, 1993. Print.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Katz, Leon 1919 births 2017 deaths 20th-century American dramatists and playwrights University of California, Los Angeles faculty Cornell University faculty Stanford University faculty Columbia University faculty Vassar College faculty Carnegie Mellon University faculty Yale University faculty University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill faculty