Chronology of Works

I was looking forward to writing a short Grolier's Encyclopedia entry on Jack Gelber. But when on 9 May 2003 Gelber died of a rare form of blood cancer, everything about the writing changed. How does one write a life in the theatre in 500 words? Even worse I knew that eulogies, memorials, and the New York Times obituary would all put The Connection, Gelber's most famous play which opened in 1959 at the Living Theatre, upfront.¹

1.

Jack Gelber, while directing Chinese Coffee by Ira Lewis, which starred Al Pacino and Dominic Chianese, at the Ensemble Studio Theatre in 1990. (Photo by Ira Lewis; courtesy of Carol Gelber)

I'd met Jack a couple of times at dinner parties at David Oppenheim and Pat Jaffee's. I always liked Jack and his wife, Carol, even though I never came to really know them. So I was curious to attend Gelber's memorial service on 28 May as I thought it would give me a larger picture of the man I really didn't know—and help solve my 500-word dilemma. What I learned was a great deal about a life in the theatre.² Gelber's life intersected with so many others: unknown, known to us now, and sure to be known to us in the future. James Lipton, the Dean of the Actor's Studio Drama School at New School University, spoke about Gelber's devotion to his students. The night before Gelber died he was watching his students' scenes at the Circle in the Square on Bleecker Street.

At the memorial service Arthur Kopit remembered: "In 1968, when Leslie and I got married, Jack Gelber was my Best Man.

"And for the next 35 years he remained my Best Man.

"And as far as I'm concerned, despite his apparent absence, he will continue as such.

"Here's how I met him:

"In 1963, Roger Stevens produced two one act-plays of mine at the Theatre de Lys under the collective title, Asylum.

"During the early previews, I became so unsure of my work on one of those two plays that, in a moment of youthful folly, I asked Stevens if he would close them. Roger, a man dedicated to supporting his writers, agreed. And the next day, my play's impending closing was announced.

"A few nights later I received a phone call from Jack Gelber. Though I had never met him, I of course knew who he was. The Connection was one of the most extraordinary plays I had ever seen. I had gone three times. Jack Gelber was one of my heroes.

"And my hero was livid. He had just come from the de Lys. How dare Roger Stevens close such wonderful work? Did the man know nothing?

"Well, that was mind-boggling enough. But then he said he was so outraged by what had been done to me, that, if it was all right with me, he'd like to find backers to keep the show running.

"It was not easy getting Jack to grasp that actually I was the one responsible.

"And I remember this great silence when he finally did.

Jack Gelber: Chronology of Works

1960 The Connection, Winner of the Village Voice OBIE for Best Play 1959/60 (Grove Press; premiere the Living Theatre, 1959)

1962 The Apple (Grove Press; premiere the Living Theatre, 1961)

1964 On Ice (a novel, Macmillan)

1965 Square in the Eye (Grove Press; premiere Theater de Lys, 1964)

1968 The Cuban Thing (Grove Press; premiere Henry Miller Theatre, 1968)

1972 Sleep (Hill and Wang; premiere American Place Theater, 1972)

1973 Barbary Shore (adaptation of the novel by Norman Mailer, unpublished; premiere Public Theater, 1974)

1976 Farmyard (adaptation of a play by Franz Xaver Kroetz, Urizen; premiere Yale University, 1977)

1977 Rehearsal (unpublished; premiere American Place Theater)

1981 Starters (unpublished; premiere O'Neill Center)

1988 Big Shot (unpublished; premiere East Coast Arts)

1990 Magic Valley (unpublished; Ensemble Studio Theatre reading)

2001 Dylan's Line (unpublished; H.B. Studio reading, 2001 and McCarter Theater premiere 2003)

"Needless...