Jean-Claude van Itallie

van Itallie, Jean‐Claude (b. 1936), playwright. Born in Brussels, Belgium, and becoming an American citizen in 1952, Van Itallie brought a unique point of view when writing about the United States in the 1960s and 1970s. He was educated at Harvard and the Neighborhood Playhouse and began writing plays in the early 1960s, first getting noticed for his one‐act Motel (1965) at La Mama. Much of his work was written in cooperation with the Open Theatre, an experimental group that premiered a number of his works, such as The Serpent (1969). Van Itallie has also created successful adaptations of plays by Anton Chekhov.

• Born: 1936
• Birthplace: Brussels, Belgium

Jean-Claude van Itallie writes and has acted in plays, and teaches drama and gives workshops on the healing power of theater. Born in Belgium, van Itallie was raised in New York. He got his degree from Harvard University in 1958.

One of Ellen Stewart's original "LaMama playwrights," van Itallie wrote a trilogy of one-act plays called, America Hurrah, which was hailed as the watershed off-Broadway play of the sixties. He was principal playwright of Joe Chaikin's Open Theater, and for that group wrote what has been called "the classic ensemble play," The Serpent.

In the 70s, van Itallie wrote English-language versions of Chekhov's four major plays. His play Struck Dumb, a monologue written with and for Joseph Chaikin, who had suffered a stroke and battled with aphasia, was published in Best Short Plays, 1991-92.

Van Itallie co-wrote and performed in Guys Dreamin' in 1996, and wrote and appeared in a one-man show, War, Sex and Dreams, in 1998. He wrote a book, The Playwright's Workbook, in 1997. In 2002, van Itallie was presented with an award for Outstanding Achievement in the American Theater by the New England Theater Conference. His latest play is called Fear Itself, about secrets of the White House.

Having transformed his Massachusetts farm into the Shantigar Foundation, van Itallie created a venue for workshops in creativity and meditation, and for creating performance pieces. He is also a founding member of the grass-roots organization Citizens Awareness Network, combatting the production and proliferation of nuclear pollution.

Most Famous Works

• American Hurrah
• The Serpent
• Struck Dumb
• The Playwright's Workbook (1997)