photo by Christopher Little

JOSEPH CHAIKIN
Biography

Joseph Chaikin, actor and director, was born in Brooklyn in 1935 and educated at Drake University. He directed one of the most influential experimental theater groups in the United States, the New York City based Open Theater, which he founded in 1963 after working as an actor with the Living Theater. For nearly a decade, the Open Theater devoted itself to the collaborative creation of drama, investigating the essential problems of human existence. Chaikin’s work with the Open Theater, which included directing 14 original plays, was honored with the Vernon Rice Award for "outstanding contribution to the theater." Among other distinctions, Chaikin was a six time Obie Award recipient, including the very first Lifetime Achievement Obie Award in 1977. He was also awarded two Guggenheim Fellowships, the National Endowment for the Art’s first Annual Distinguished Service to American Theater Award, The Edwin Booth Award, and honorary degrees from Drake University and Kent State University. In 1999 Chaikin was awarded the "Last Frontier" Directing Award at the Edward Albee Theatre Conference in Valdez, Alaska. His book, The Presence of the Actor, was re-released by TCG Publications in 1991. Chaikin was the first American director to be included in the Cambridge University Press’ Directors in Perspective series on the world’s most influential theater directors. He was one of four American directors to be featured in Routldege Press’ Twentieth Century Actor Training. His work has been documented in the Greenwood Press series of bio-bibliographies and in the film, "Going On" by Steve Gomer.

In 1984 Chaikin underwent open-heart surgery and experienced a stroke which resulted in aphasia. His recovery process was the source of inspiration for several theatrical pieces, including "The War In Heaven" (a collaboration with Sam Shepard), "The Traveler" by Jean-Claude van Itallie), "Struck Dumb" (a collaboration with Jean-Claude van Itallie) and "Night Sky" (developed with Susan Yankowitz). Chaikin continued to direct productions in New York for New York Shakespeare Festival, Manhattan Theater Club and Women’s Project, Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles, Atlanta’s 7 Stages Theater, San Francisco’s Magic Theater, Toronto’s Studio Theater and Tel Aviv’s Neve Tzedek Theater. An acomplished teacher, Chaikin conducted workshops and seminars throughout the United States, Europe, the Middle East and South Africa.

In 1992 Chaikin directed Bill Irwin in an Obie-award winning production of "Texts for Nothing" by Samuel Beckett at the Joseph Papp Public Theater. From 1994 to 1996, Chaikin worked with author Susan Yankowitz on a new version of "Terminal", a play originally created by the Open Theater in 1970. Chaikin’s 1996 collaboration with Sam Shepard, "When the World Was Green", was premiered at the Cultural Olympiad of the 1996 Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta and then played at New York’s Public Theatre, Cambridge’s American Repertory Theatre, and most recently at the Singapore Arts Festival and the Chekhov Festival at the Moscow Arts Theatre. Other recent directing credits include: "The Bald Soprano", Jean-Claude van Itallie’s "The Bird and the Hunter", "All My Sons", "God of Vengeance", Sam Shepard’s "States of Shock" and a version of "Texts for Nothing", featuring Del Hamilton (all at Seven Stages, Atlanta); Arthur Miller’s "The Last Yankee" and "I Can’t Remember Anything" (at Signature Theatre, New York), the collaboration, "Still Alive/Teasing Time", for the Mark Taper Forum’s New Works Festival, and Tennessee Williams’, "The Glass Menagerie", at the Yale Repertory Theatre, "Shut Eye" for The Pig Iron Theatre, and Sam Shepard's, "The Late Henry Moss", at Signature Theatre.

Joseph Chaikin died on June 22, 2003.

Please refer to current resumé.