Lee Strasberg Life-shaping revelation What was the revelation that shaped his life? H]e observed, first of all, that all the actors, whether they were playing leads or small parts, worked with the same commitment and intensity. Where did he observe the actors? when Stanislavski brought his Moscow Art Theatre to the United States in 1923. What was unique about these actors? More important, every actor seemed to project some sort of unspoken, yet palpable, inner life for his or her character. Did he learn anything from their acting style? he could be mentally prepared by resort to analogous mental exercises. They worked on relaxation as well as concentration.
What did he do after this following with the Art Theater?
What did Lee Strasberg do after following the Art Theater in the United States in 1923?
Kazan biographer Richard Schickel described Strasberg's first experiences with the "art" of acting: He dropped out of high school, worked in a shop that made hairpieces, drifted into the theater via a settlement house company and ... had his life-shaping revelation when Stanislavski brought his Moscow Art Theatre to the United States in 1923. He had seen good acting before, of course, but never an ensemble like this with actors completely surrendering their egos to the work.... [H]e observed, first of all, that all the actors, whether they were playing leads or small parts, worked with the same commitment and intensity. No actors idled about posing and preening (or thinking about where they might dine after the performance). More important, every actor seemed to project some sort of unspoken, yet palpable, inner life for his or her character. This was acting of a sort that one rarely saw on the American stage ... [w]here there was little stress on the psychology of the characters or their interactions.... Strasberg was galvanized. He knew that his own future as an actor - he was a slight and unhandsome man - was limited. But he soon perceived that as a theoretician and teacher of this new 'system' it might become a major force in American theater. Strasberg eventually left the Clare Tree Major School to study with students of Stanislavski - Maria Ouspenskaya and Richard Boleslavsky - at the American Laboratory Theatre. In 1925, Strasberg had his first professional appearance in Processional, a play produced by the Theater Guild. According to Schickel: What Strasberg... took away from the Actor's Lab was a belief that just as an actor could be prepared physically for his work with dance, movement, and fencing classes, he could be mentally prepared by resort to analogous mental exercises. They worked on relaxation as well as concentration. They worked with nonexistent objects that helped prepare them for the exploration of equally ephemeral emotions. They learned to use "affective memory", as Strasberg called the most controversial aspect of his teaching - summoning emotions from their own lives to illuminate their stage roles.... Strasberg believed he could codify this system, a necessary precursor to teaching it to anyone who wanted to learn it... [H]e became a director more preoccupied with getting his actors to work in the "correct" way than he was in shaping the overall presentation. CANNOTANSWER
Strasberg eventually left the Clare Tree Major School to study with students of Stanislavski - Maria Ouspenskaya and Richard Boleslavsky -
Lee Strasberg (born Israel Lee Strassberg; November 17, 1901 – February 17, 1982) was a Polish-born American actor, director, and theatre practitioner. He co-founded, with directors Harold Clurman and Cheryl Crawford, the Group Theatre in 1931, which was hailed as "America's first true theatrical collective". In 1951, he became director of the nonprofit Actors Studio in New York City, considered "the nation's most prestigious acting school," and, in 1966, was involved in the creation of Actors Studio West in Los Angeles.

Although other highly regarded teachers also developed versions of "The Method", Lee Strasberg is considered to be the "father of method acting in America", according to author Mel Gussow. From the 1920s until his death in 1982, "he revolutionized the art of acting by having a profound influence on performance in American theater and film." From his base in New York, Strasberg trained several generations of theatre and film notables, including Anne Bancroft, Dustin Hoffman, Montgomery Clift, James Dean, Marilyn Monroe, Jane Fonda, Julie Harris, Paul Newman, Ellen Burstyn, Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Geraldine Page, Eli Wallach, and directors Andreas Voutsinas, Frank Perry and Elia Kazan.

By 1970, Strasberg had become less involved with the Actors Studio and, with his third wife, Anna, opened the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute with branches in New York City and in Hollywood, to continue teaching the 'system' of Konstantin Stanislavski, which he had interpreted and developed, particularly in light of the ideas of Yevgeny Vakhtangov, for contemporary actors. The Institute's primary stated goal was "to reach a larger audience of eager and emerging talent" than was served by the Actors Studio's notoriously selective admission process, and as teachers of the method introduced their own personal interpretations of the discipline, "to dispel growing confusion and misrepresentation of the method, preserving what had by now become fundamental discoveries in actor training." The Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute has its own rigorous sets of entrance criteria required for admission into their program.

Former student Elia Kazan directed James Dean in East of Eden (1955), for which Kazan and Dean were nominated for Academy Awards. As a student, Dean wrote that Actors Studio was "the greatest school of the theater [and] the best thing that can happen to an actor." Playwright Tennessee Williams, writer of A Streetcar Named Desire, said of Strasberg's actors, "They act from the inside out. They communicate emotions they really feel. They give you a sense of life." Directors such as Sidney Lumet, a former student, have intentionally used actors skilled in Strasberg's "method".

Kazan, in his autobiography, wrote, "He carried with him the aura of a prophet, a magician, a witch doctor, a psychoanalyst, and a feared father of a Jewish home... [He] was the force that held the 30-odd members of the theatre together, and made them 'permanent'."  Today, Ellen Burstyn, Al Pacino, and Harvey Keitel lead this non-profit studio dedicated to the development of actors, playwrights, and directors.

As an actor, Strasberg is probably best known for his supporting role as gangster Hyman Roth alongside his former student Al Pacino in The Godfather Part II (1974), a role he took at Pacino's suggestion after Kazan turned down the role, and which earned him a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. He also appeared in Going in Style (1979) and ... And Justice for All (1979).

Strasberg's personal papers, including photos, are archived at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.

Early years 
Lee Strasberg was born Israel Strassberg in Budzanów in Austrian Poland (part of Austria-Hungary, now in Ukraine), to Jewish parents, Baruch Meyer Strassberg and his wife, Ida (born Chaia), née Diner, and was the youngest of three sons. His father emigrated to New York while his family remained in their home village with an uncle, a rabbinical teacher. His father, who worked as a presser in the garment industry, sent first for his eldest son and his daughter. Finally, enough money was saved to bring over his wife and his two remaining sons. In 1909 the family was reunited on Manhattan's Lower East Side, where they lived until the early 1920s. Young Strasberg took refuge in voracious reading and the companionship of his older brother, Zalmon, whose death in the 1918 influenza pandemic was so traumatic for the young Strasberg that, despite being a straight-A student, he dropped out of high school.

A relative introduced him to the theatre by giving him a small part in a Yiddish-language production being performed by the Progressive Drama Club. He later joined the Chrystie Street Settlement House's drama club. Philip Loeb, casting director of the Theater Guild, sensed that Strasberg could act, although he was not yet thinking of a full-time acting career, and was still working as a shipping clerk and bookkeeper for a wig company. When he was 23 years old, he enrolled in the Clare Tree Major School of the Theater. He became a naturalized United States citizen on January 16, 1939, in New York City at the New York Southern District Court.

Encounter with Stanislavski 
Kazan biographer Richard Schickel described Strasberg's first experiences with the art of acting:

Strasberg eventually left the Clare Tree Major School to study with students of Stanislavski—Maria Ouspenskaya and Richard Boleslawski—at the American Laboratory Theatre. In 1925 Strasberg had his first professional appearance in Processional, a play produced by the Theater Guild.

According to Schickel:

Acting director and teacher

Group Theater 
He gained a reputation with the Theater Guild of New York and helped form the Group Theater in New York in 1931. There, he created a technique that became known as "the method" or "method acting". His teaching style owed much to the Russian practitioner, Konstantin Stanislavski, whose book, An Actor Prepares (published in English in 1936), dealt with the psychology of acting. He began by directing, but his time was gradually taken up by the training of actors. Called "America's first true theatrical collective," the Group Theater immediately offered a few tuition-free scholarships for its three-year program to "promising students."

Publishers Weekly wrote, "The Group Theatre ... with its self-defined mission to reconnect theater to the world of ideas and actions, staged plays that confronted social and moral issues ... with members Harold Clurman, Lee Strasberg, Stella, and Luther Adler, Clifford Odets, Elia Kazan, and an ill-assorted band of idealistic actors living hand to mouth are seen welded in a collective of creativity that was also a tangle of jealousies, love affairs, and explosive feuds." Playwright Arthur Miller said "the Group Theatre was unique and probably will never be repeated. For a while it was literally the voice of Depression America." Co-founder Harold Clurman, in describing what Strasberg brought to the Group Theater, wrote:

Strasberg, Kazan, Clurman, and others with the Group Theater spent the summer of 1936 at Pine Brook Country Club, located in the countryside of Nichols, Connecticut. They spent previous summers at various places in upstate New York and near Danbury, Connecticut.

Amid internecine tensions, Strasberg resigned as director of the Group Theatre in March 1937.

Actors Studio 
In 1947 Elia Kazan, Robert Lewis, and Cheryl Crawford, also members of the Group Theatre, started the Actors Studio as a nonprofit workshop for professional and aspiring actors to concentrate on their craft away from the pressures of the commercial theatre. Strasberg assumed leadership of the studio in 1951 as its artistic director. "As a teacher and acting theorist, he revolutionized American actor training and engaged such remarkable performers as Kim Hunter, Marilyn Monroe, Julie Harris, Paul Newman, Geraldine Page, Ellen Burstyn, and Al Pacino." Since its inception, the studio has been a nonprofit educational corporation chartered by the state of New York, and has been supported entirely by contributions and benefits. ... We have here the possibility of creating a kind of theatre that would be a shining medal for our country," Strasberg said in 1959. UCLA acting teacher Robert Hethmon writes, "The Actors Studio is a refuge. Its privacy is guarded ferociously against the casual intruder, the seeker of curiousities, and the exploiter. ... The Studio helps actors to meet the enemy within ... and contributes greatly to Strasberg's utterly pragmatic views on training the actor and solving his problems. ... [and] is kept deliberately modest in its circumstances, its essence being the private room where Lee Strasberg and some talented actors can work."

Strasberg wrote: "At the studio, we do not sit around and feed each other's egos. People are shocked how severe we are on each other." Admission to the Actors Studio was usually by audition with more than a thousand actors auditioning each year and the directors usually conferring membership on only five or six each year. "The Studio was, and is sui generis," said Elia Kazan, proudly. Beginning in a small, private way, with a strictly off-limits-to-outsiders policy, the Studio quickly earned a high reputation in theatre circles. "It became the place to be, the forum where all the most promising and unconventional young actors were being cultivated by sharp young directors." Actors who have worked at the studio include Julie Harris, Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, Geraldine Page, Maureen Stapleton, Anne Bancroft, Dustin Hoffman, Patricia Neal, Rod Steiger, Mildred Dunnock, Eva Marie Saint, Eli Wallach, Anne Jackson, Ben Gazzara, Sidney Poitier, Karl Malden, Gene Wilder, Shelley Winters, Dennis Hopper, and Sally Field.

The Emmy Award-winning author of Inside Inside, James Lipton, writes that the Actors Studio became "one of the most prestigious institutions in the world" as a result of its desire to set a higher "standard" in acting. The founders, including Strasberg, demanded total commitment and extreme talent from aspiring students. Jack Nicholson auditioned five times before he was accepted; Dustin Hoffman, six times; and Harvey Keitel, 11 times. After each rejection, a candidate had to wait as long as a year to try again. Martin Landau and Steve McQueen were the only two students admitted one year, out of 2000 candidates who auditioned.
 Al Pacino: "The Actors Studio meant so much to me in my life. Lee Strasberg hasn't been given the credit he deserves. Brando doesn't give Lee any credit ... Next to Charlie Laughton (an acting teacher at HB Studio, and not to be confused with English actor Charles Laughton), it sort of launched me. It really did. That was a remarkable turning point in my life. It was directly responsible for getting me to quit all those jobs and just stay acting."
 Marlon Brando: Movie stars spawned by Strasberg's Actors Studio were of a new type that is often labeled the "rebel hero," wrote Pamela Wojcik. Historian Sam Staggs writes that "Marlon Brando was the hot, sleek engine on the Actors Studio express," and called him "[the] embodiment of method acting," but Brando was trained primarily by Stella Adler, a former member of the Group Theatre, who had a falling out with Strasberg over his interpretations of Stanislavsky's ideas." He based his acting technique on the method, once stating, "It made me a real actor. The idea is you learn to use everything that happened in your life and you learn to use it in creating the character you're working on. You learn how to dig into your unconscious and make use of every experience you've ever had."

In Brando's autobiography, Songs My Mother Taught Me, the actor claimed he learned nothing from Strasberg: "After I had some success, Lee Strasberg tried to take credit for teaching me how to act. He never taught me anything. He would have claimed credit for the sun and the moon if he believed he could get away with it. He tried to project himself as an acting oracle and guru. Some people worshiped him, and I never knew why. I sometimes went to the Actors Studio on Saturday mornings because Elia Kazan was teaching, and there were usually a lot of good-looking girls there, but Strasberg never taught me acting. Stella did—and later Kazan."
 James Dean: According to James Dean biographer W. Bast, "Proud of this accomplishment, Dean referred to the studio in a 1952 letter, when he was 21 years old, to his family as 'The greatest school of the theater. It houses great people like Marlon Brando, Julie Harris, Arthur Kennedy, Mildred Dunnock. ... Very few get into it. ... It's the best thing that can happen to an actor. I'm one of the youngest to belong.'"
 Marilyn Monroe: Film author Maurice Zolotow wrote: "Between The Seven Year Itch and Some Like It Hot only four years elapsed, but her world had changed. She had become one of the most celebrated personalities in the world. She had divorced Joe DiMaggio. She had married Arthur Miller. She had become a disciple of Lee Strasberg. She was seriously studying acting. She was reading good books."
 Tennessee Williams: Tennessee Williams' plays have been populated by graduates of the studio, where he felt, "studio actors had a more intense and honest style of acting." He wrote, "They act from the inside out. They communicate emotions they really feel. They give you a sense of life." Williams was a co-founder of the group and a key member of its playwright's wing; he later wrote A Streetcar Named Desire, Brando's greatest early role.
 Jane Fonda: Jane Fonda recalled that at the age of 5, her brother, actor Peter Fonda, and she acted out Western stories similar to those her father, Henry Fonda, played in the movies. She attended Vassar College and went to Paris for two years to study art. Upon returning, she met Lee Strasberg and the meeting changed the course of her life, Fonda saying, "I went to the Actors Studio and Lee Strasberg told me I had talent. Real talent. It was the first time that anyone, except my father—who had to say so—told me I was good. At anything. It was a turning point in my life. I went to bed thinking about acting. I woke up thinking about acting. It was like the roof had come off my life!"

Teaching methods and philosophy 
In describing his teaching philosophy, Strasberg wrote, "The two areas of discovery that were of primary importance in my work at the Actors Studio and in my private classes were improvisation and affective memory. It is finally by using these techniques that the actor can express the appropriate emotions demanded of the character." Strasberg demanded great discipline of his actors, as well as great depths of psychological truthfulness. He once explained his approach in this way:

According to film critic/author Mel Gussow, Strasberg required that an actor, when preparing for a role, delve not only into the character's life in the play but also, "Far more importantly, into the character's life before the curtain rises. In rehearsal, the character's prehistory, perhaps going back to childhood, is discussed and even acted out. The play became the climax of the character's existence."

Elia Kazan as student 
In Elia Kazan's autobiography, the Academy Award–winning director wrote about his earliest memories of Strasberg as teacher:

Classroom settings 
Kazan described the classes taught by Strasberg:

James Dean 

In 1955 Strasberg student James Dean died in a car accident, at age 24. Strasberg, during a regular lecture shortly after this accident, discussed Dean. The following are excerpts from a transcription of his recorded lecture:

On Marilyn Monroe 
In 1962 Marilyn Monroe died at age 36. At the time of her death, she was at the height of her career. In 1999 she was ranked the sixth-greatest female star of classic Hollywood cinema by the American Film Institute. Strasberg gave the eulogy at her funeral.

Personal life 
His first marriage was to Nora Krecaum on October 29, 1926, until her death three years later in 1929. In 1934 he married actress and drama coach Paula Miller (1909–1966) until her death from cancer in 1966. They were the parents of actress Susan Strasberg (1938–1999) and acting teacher John Strasberg (born 1941). His third wife was the former Anna Mizrahi (b. April 16, 1939) and the mother of his two youngest children, Adam Lee Strasberg (b. July 29, 1969) and David Lee Israel Strasberg (b. January 30, 1971).

Death and commemoration 

On February 17, 1982, Lee Strasberg suffered a fatal heart attack in New York City, aged 80. With him at the time of his death at the hospital were his third wife, Anna, and their two sons. He was interred at Westchester Hills Cemetery in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York. A day before his unexpected death, he was officially notified that he had been elected to the American Theater Hall of Fame. His last public appearance was on February 14, 1982, at Night of 100 Stars in the Radio City Music Hall, a benefit for the Actors Fund of America. Along with Al Pacino and Robert De Niro, he danced in the chorus line with The Rockettes.

Actress Ellen Burstyn recalled that evening:

In an 80th birthday interview, he said that he was looking forward to his next 20 years in the theater. According to friends, he was healthy until the day he died. "It was so unexpected," Al Pacino said. "What stood out was how youthful he was. He never seemed as old as his years. He was an inspiration." Actress Jane Fonda said after hearing of his death, "I'm not sure I even would have become an actress were it not for him. He will be missed, but he leaves behind a great legacy."

Legacy 
"Whether directly influenced by Strasberg or not," wrote acting author Pamela Wojcik, "the new male stars all to some degree or other adapted method techniques to support their identification as rebels. ... He recreates romance as a drama of male neuroticism and also invests his characterization 'with an unprecedented aura of verisimilitude.'" Acting teacher and author Alison Hodge explains: "Seemingly spontaneous, intuitive, brooding, 'private,' lit with potent vibrations from an inner life of conflict and contradiction, their work exemplified the style of heightened naturalism which (whether Brando agrees or not) Lee Strasberg devoted his life to exploring and promoting." Pamela Wojcik adds:

In 2012 Strasberg's family donated his library of personal papers to the Library of Congress. The papers include 240 boxes containing correspondence, rehearsal notes, photographs, theatrical drawings and posters, sketches of stage designs, and more.

Strasberg, his wife Paula, his daughter Susan, and his son John, all appear as characters in Robert Brustein's 1998 play Nobody Dies on Friday, which one critic called a "scathing portrait of Strasberg," but one that "can by no means be dismissed as a simple act of character assassination." Brustein, a critic, director, and producer, had previously made public his dislike of the method as a philosophy of acting. The play was produced by Brustein's American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and was later presented in Singapore.

In 2020 Google Arts & Culture, together with Giovanni Morassutti, an Italian actor who has deepened the study of The Method and long-time collaborator of John Strasberg, have created an online exhibition named Strasberg Legacy tracing the history of the realistic school of acting.

Broadway credits 
Note: All works are plays and the original productions, unless otherwise noted.
 Four Walls (1927) – actor
 The Vegetable (1929) – director
 Red Rust (1929) – actor
 Green Grow the Lilacs (1931) – actor
 The House of Connelly (1931) – codirector
 1931 (1931) – director
 Success Story (1932) – director
 Men in White (1933) – director
 Gentlewoman (1934) – director
 Gold Eagle Guy (1934) – director
 Paradise Lost (1935) – produced by Group Theatre
 Case of Clyde Griffiths (1936) – director, produced by Group Theatre
 Johnny Johnson (1936) – director, produced by Group Theatre
 Many Mansions (1937) – director
 Golden Boy (1937) – produced by Group Theatre
 Roosty (1938) – Director* Casey Jones (1938), produced by Group Theatre
 All the Living (1938) – director
 Dance Night (1938) – director
 Rocket exhibitionn (1938) – produced by Group Theatre
 The Gentle People (1939) – produced by Group Theatre
 Awake and Sing! (1939), revival – produced by Group Theatre
 Summer Night (1939) – director
 Night Music (1940) – produced by Group Theatre
 The Fifth Column (1940) – director
 Clash by Night (1941) – director
 A Kiss for Cinderella (1942), revival – director
 R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots) (1942), revival – director
 Apology (1943) – producer and director
 South Pacific (1943, apparently no relation to the Broadway musical South Pacific) – director
 Skipper Next to God (1948) – director
 The Big Knife (1949) – director
 The Closing Door (1949) – director
 The Country Girl (1950) – co-producer
 Peer Gynt (1951), (revival) – director
 Strange Interlude (1963), (revival) – produced by The Actors Studio – Tony Award co-nomination for Best Producer of a Play
 Marathon '33 (1963) – production supervisor
 Three Sisters (1964), (revival) – director, produced by the Actors Studio

Film credits 
 Parnell (1937) as Pat (uncredited)
 China Venture (1953) as Patterson
 The Godfather Part II (1974; nominated, Academy Award Best Actor in a Supporting Role) as Hyman Roth
 The Cassandra Crossing (1976) as Herman Kaplan
 ...And Justice for All. (1979) as Sam Kirkland
 Boardwalk (1979) as David Rosen
 Going in Style (1979) as Willie

See also 
 Ion Cojar
 Stanislavski's system
 Method acting
 Constantin Stanislavski
 Ivana Chubbuck
 Marilyn Monroe
 Michael Chekhov
 Notable alumni of the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute
 Sanford Meisner
 Stella Adler

References

External links 

 The Lee Strasberg Theatre & Film Institute
 Strasberg video lectures
 
 
 
 John Strasberg Studios
 
 Audio Interview with Lee Strasberg on WGBH

1901 births
1982 deaths
Austro-Hungarian Jews
American people of Polish-Jewish descent
People from Terebovlia Raion
People from the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria
Naturalized citizens of the United States
Jews from Galicia (Eastern Europe)
Austro-Hungarian emigrants to the United States
Acting theorists
American male film actors
Method actors
American male stage actors
Drama teachers
Jewish theatre directors
Jewish American male actors
20th-century American male actors
Burials at Westchester Hills Cemetery
20th-century American Jews
Ping Chong (; born Toronto, Ontario, Canada, 1946) is an American contemporary theater director, choreographer, video and installation artist. He was born in Toronto and raised in the Chinatown section of New York City. Chong is internationally recognized as a director, and a creator of interdisciplinary theater work. He is an early pioneer of interdisciplinary theater and the integration of media into it. Chong is considered a seminal figure in Asian American theater and the Asian American arts movement.

Career and works
Originally trained as a visual artist and filmmaker at the School of Visual Arts and Pratt Institute, Chong studied dance/performance with Meredith Monk and began his theatrical career as a member of Meredith Monk's company, The House in 1971. Chong was both a performer and collaborator in Monk's company. His co-created work include The Travelogue Series: Paris 1972, Chacon 1974, and Venice/Milan 1976. His final collaboration with Monk was The Games 1983 which premiered at the Schaubuhne in Berlin, West Germany. He created his first independent theatre work, Lazarus in 1972. In this very 1st work Chong's interest in an interdisciplinary approach to theater as a guiding principal is apparent. His roots are in the visual arts, in film, in dance and in the Chinese Opera (both his grandfather and father were director/librettists). Central to Ping Chong's work is the theme of Otherness. As a non-white, immigrant and an artist growing up in a highly segregated NYC and white art world it is no surprise that this theme proved central to his work. In the earliest works such as Lazarus (1972), Fear and Loathing in Gotham (1975), and Humboldt's Current (1977), the theme of Otherness reflected Chong's personal sense of estrangement from the society he grew up in as a first generation immigrant. Later the theme of Otherness became more universal, encompassing a broader range of material. Many of Chong's works concern colonialism and the collision of cultures and/or issues of cultural diversity, and frequently draw on documentary and interview-based materials (as in the Undesirable Elements series.)

Ping Chong + Company (originally called The Fiji Theatre Company) was founded in 1975. The company's mission is "to explore the meaning of contemporary theatre and art on a national and international level," and "to create and tour innovative multi-disciplinary works of theater and art, which explore the intersections of history, race, art and technology in the modern world." The company has created and toured more than 100 works by Chong and his collaborators, which have been presented at major theaters, performing arts centers, and arts festivals around the world.

Key works in Chong's evolution in chronological order include Humboldt's Current (1977) from his first decade. It is an early work anticipating Chong's interest in geopolitical and historical subjects. It received an Obie award. In 1980 Ping Chong formed a small ensemble and it is with this group of performers which includes, Jeannie Hutchins, Louise Smith, John Fleming, and Brian Hallas that he evolved his performance style. A.M./A.M - The Articulated Man (1981) marked Chong's full bloom interest in evolving a choreographic, non-literary kind of theater. This, The 2nd decade of Ping Chong's works include 3 major works back to back. Nosferatu, A Symphony of Darkness (1985), a work straddling the allegorical with Chong's increasing interest in art as activism. This was followed by another dance/theater work Angels of Swedenborg (1985) and Kind Ness (1986), two very different works though nevertheless informed by a strong physicality. Both works speak to in very different ways, Chong's lifelong engagement with the profound issue of Otherness. Kind Ness was the recipient of a USA Playwright's Award in 1988. The 1990s, marked major changes and innovations in Ping Chong's work. It is at this time that he disbanded his decade old ensemble in order to explore new directions and collaborations. While the works of the early decades were devised, Chong would have a much more active role in writing new work often in collaboration with a partner. From 1990 with the East/West Quartet: Deshima (1990), Chinoiserie (1996), After Sorrow (1997), Pojagi (1999) and in 1992 with the launch of the Undesirable Elements series the work took a 180 degree turn toward poetic documentary and historical subjects. The exception to this are the puppet theater works beginning with Kwaidan (1998) which largely nods toward Chong's earlier allegorical works.

Ping Chong's early interest in puppetry starting with Lazarus in 1972 was given full expression in the creation of large scale productions of puppet theatre works including, Kwaidan (1998) which received Unima-USA's Citation of Excellence in the Art of Puppetry, Obon: Tales of Rain and Moonlight (2002), the sequel to Kwaidan, and Cathay: Three Tales of China (2005), Kwaidan and Obon were both based on Kwaidan, Japanese ghost stories collected and adapted by Lafcadio Hearn. Cathay, commission by the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts was set in China and used three interconnected stories to explore three eras of Chinese history: the Tang Dynasty, the Second Sino-Japanese War|Japanese invasion during World War II, and contemporary China today. Cathay was named one of the Top 10 Shows of the 2005-2006 Season by NY Theatre Wire, and was awarded three Henry Hewes Awards for achievement in theatrical design.

Since 1992, Chong and his collaborators has created over 70 works in the Undesirable Elements project, an ongoing series of oral-history theater works exploring issues of race, culture, and identity in the lives of individuals in specific communities. The development process includes an extended residency and rehearsal period during which Ping Chong and collaborators conduct intensive interviews with potential participants who are not generally performers, from the local community. These interviews then form the basis of a script, performed by the interviewees, that covers the historical and personal narratives of individuals who are in some way living between two cultures. Chong has often described the series as, "Seated operas for the spoken word." One of the most recent entries in the series is Beyond Sacred: Voices of Muslim Identity which started touring in 2016. Beyond Sacred is an interview-based theatre production exploring the diverse experiences of Muslim communities in the United States. The five cast members of Beyond Sacred vary in many ways, but share the common experience of coming of age in a post-9/11 New York City, at a time of increasing Islamophobia. They are young men and women that reflect a wide range of Muslim identities, including those who have converted to Islam, those who were raised Muslim, but have since left the faith, those who identify as “culturally” Muslim, and those who are observant on a daily basis. It stars Tiffany Yasmin Abdelghani, Ferdous Dehqan, Kadin Herring, Amir Khafagy and Maha Syed.

In 2014, Chong and dramaturg/director/playwright Talvin Wilks created Collidescope: Adventures in Pre- and Post-Racial America in collaboration with undergraduate and graduate designers and actors in the University of Maryland School of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies. Of the work, Chong says, "In response to the recent killings of Trayvon Martin, shooting of Jordan Davis|Jordan Davis, shooting of Michael Brown and the seemingly endless killings of black men and boys for unarmed offenses, we have designed Collidescope to be a collision-course view of the legacy and psyche behind this history of racial violence, racism and social injustice in America." Subsequent adaptations have performed at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and Wake Forest University.

There are aspects of Chong's prolific career that have remained under the radar. Primarily an artist of the theater he also, when the opportunity arose created works of video art, pure dance works, and installations. The two dance works are, I Will Not be Sad In This World (1991), Baldwin/NOW (2016). Video works include the video adaptation of I Will Not Be Sad In This World (1992) and Plage Concrete (1988). His installation work includes Kind Ness not to be confused with his play Kind Ness, a commission by MIT's List Visual Arts Center in its inaugural season in 1985. Another highlight of Chong's installation work was Testimonial commissioned for the Venice Bienalle.

Works in Chronological Order

 A Universal History of Infamy: Variations on Nocturne in 1200 Seconds, 2020, Visual Art and Installation, Film and Media, in collaboration with Kenya Bullock, Jaime Sunwoo, Matt Chilton, Zakaria Khafagy and Irisdelia Garcia
 Nocturne Remix 2020, Film and Media,in collaboration with Edwin Aguila, Kenya Bullock, Irisdelia Garcia and Zakaria Khafagy
 Collidescope 4.0 (University of Minnesota), 2019, Theater, in collaboration with Talvin Wilks
 Difficult Lives, 2019, Theater, in collaboration with Hiromi Sakamoto and the cast
 ALAXSXA | ALASKA, 2017, Theater,in collaboration with Ryan Conarro, Justin Perkins & Gary Upay'aq Beaver (Central Yup'ik)
 Cage Is Stage, 2017, Visual Art and Installation, in collaboration with Danny Yunh
 Collidescope 3.0 (Wake Forest University), 2017, Theater, in collaboration with Talvin Wilks
 Collidescope 2.0 (UMass Amherst), 2016, Theater, in collaboration with Talvin Wilks
 Baldwin/NOW, 2016, Dance, in collaboration with the ensemble
 PUSH! Real Athletes. Real Stories. Real Theatre., 2015, Theater, in collaboration with Sara Zatz and the performers
 Beyond Sacred: Voices of Muslim Identity, 2015, Theater, in collaboration with Sara Zatz, Ryan Conarro, and the performers
 Collidescope: Adventures in Pre- and Post-Racial America, 2014, Theater, in collaboration with Talvin Wilks
 Brooklyn '63, 2013, Theater, in collaboration with Talvin Wilks and the performers
 Angels of Swedenborg (2011), 2011, Dance, in collaboration with John Fleming
 The Devil You Know, 2010, Puppetry, Theater
 Cry for Peace: Voices From The Congo, 2010, Theater, in collaboration with Kyle Bass, Sara Zatz, and the performers
 Throne of Blood, 2010, Theater
 Invisible Voices: New Perspectives On Disability, 2009, Theater, in collaboration with Sara Zatz and the performers
 The Women of the Hill, 2009, Theater, in collaboration with Talvin Wilks and the cast
 Secret History: The Philadelphia Story, 2009, Theater, in collaboration with Sara Zatz and the performers
 Delta Rising, 2008, Theater, in collaboration with Talvin Wilks and the cast
 Inside/Out...voices from the disability community, 2008, Theater, in collaboration with Sara Zatz and the performers
 Tales from the Salt City, 2008, Theater, in collaboration with Sara Zatz and the performers
 Undesirable Elements/Asian America, 2007, Theater, in collaboration with Sara Zatz and the performers
 Cocktail, 2007, Theater, in collaboration with Vince LiCata
 Six Lives, 2007, Theater, in collaboration with Sara Zatz, Bonnie Morris, Michael Robins, and the performers
 Testimonial II, 2006, Visual Art and Installation, in collaboration with Michiki Okaya
 Native Voices-Secret History, 2005, Theater, in collaboration with Sara Zatz and the performers
 Undesirable Elements/Ten Years Later, 2005, Theater, in collaboration with Sara Zatz, the performers, Sean Kelley-Pegg, Bonnie Morris, and Mai Moua
 Undesirable Elements/Albuquerque, 2005, Theater, in collaboration with Sara Zatz and the performers
 Cathay: Three Tales of China, 2005–2012, Puppetry
 Secret Histories: Seattle Youth, 2004, Theater, in collaboration with Sara Zatz and the performers
 BLIND NESS: The Irresistible Light of Encounter, 2004, Theater, Puppetry, Circus, in collaboration with Michael Rohd, Bobby Bermea, Jeff Randall, and Burke Walker
 Secret History: Journeys Abroad, Journeys Within, 2004, Theater, in collaboration with Leyla Modirzadeh, Sara Zatz, and the cast
 God Favors The Predator, 2004, Theater, in collaboration with Michael Rohd
 La Clemenza Di Tito, 2003, Music and Opera
 Undesirable Elements/Pioneer Valley, 2003, Theater,  in collaboration Talvin Wilks and the cast
 Undesirable Elements/Hanover, 2002, Theater, in collaboration with Michael Rohd and the cast
 Undesirable Elements/Berlin, 2002, Theater, in collaboration with Michael Rohd and the cast
 UE 92/02, 2002, Theater, in collaboration Talvin Wilks and the cast
 Children of War, 2002, Theater, in collaboration with the cast
 Reason, 2002, Theater, in collaboration with Michael Rohd
 EDDA: Viking Tales of Lust, Greed and Family, 2001–2002, Theater, in collaboration with Victoria Abras
 Undesirable Elements/Madison, WI, 2001, Theater, in collaboration with the cast
 Undesirable Elements/Atlanta, 2001, Theater, in collaboration Talvin Wilks and the cast
 Secret Histories/Charleston, 2001, Theater, in collaboration Talvin Wilks and the cast
 Obon: Tales of Rain and Moonlight, 2002–2003, Puppetry, Theater
 Secret History, 2000, Theater
 Undesirable Elements/Washington DC, 2000, Theater, in collaboration with Michael Rohd and the cast
 Undesirable Elements/Chicago, 1999, Theater,  in collaboration with Michael Rohd and the cast
 Undesirable Elements/East Harlem, 1999, Theater, in collaboration with Emerald Trinket Monsod, the cast, and Alain Jezequel
 Undesirable Elements/Hamilton College, 1999, Theater, in collaboration with the cast
 Pojagi, 1999–2000, Theater
 Undesirable Elements: A/P/A, 1999, Theater, in collaboration with the cast
 SlutForArt, 1999-2002, Dance, Theater, in collaboration with Muna Tseng
 Truth and Beauty, 1999–2005, Theater, in collaboration with Michae Rohd and Jeff Randall
 Undesirable Elements/Newark, 1998, Theater, in collaboration with the cast
 Nocturne in 1200 Seconds, 1998, Theater
 Undesirable Elements/Seattle, 1998, Theater, in collaboration with the cast
 Kwaidan, 1998–2000, Theater, Puppetry
 Undesirable Elements/Yellow Springs, 1997, Theater,  in collaboration with the cast
 Undesirable Elements/Rotterdam, 1997, Theater, in collaboration with Dave Schwab and the cast
 Undesirable Elements/Los Angeles, 1997, Theater, in collaboration with David Mohrmann and the cast
 After Sorrow, 1997–1998, Dance, Theater in collaboration with Muna Tseng
 Curlew River, 1997, Music and Opera
 98.6: A Convergence in 15 Minutes, 1996-2007, Dance, Theater
 Interfacing Joan, 1996–1997, Theater, written by Louise Smith
 Undesirable Elements/Tokyo (Gaijin), 1995, Theater, in collaboration with Hiromi Sakamoto and the cast
 Testimonial, 1995, Visual Art and Installation, in collaboration with Fumio Nanjo and Dana Friis-Hansen
 Persuasion, 1994, Theater, in collaboration with Anne Basting and Vince LiCata
 Chinoiserie, 1994–1995, Music and Opera, Theater,  in collaboration with Michael Matthews, Regine Anna Seckinger and Ric Oquita
 Undesirable Elements/Twin Cities, 1994, Theater, in collaboration with Emerald Trinket Monsod, Cochise Anderson, and the cast
 Undesirable Elements/New York, 1993, Theater, in collaboration with the cast
 Undesirable Elements/Cleveland, 1993, Theater, in collaboration with the cast
 American Gothic, 1992, Theater
 A Facility for the Containment and Channeling of Undesirable Elements, 1992, Visual Art and Installation, in collaboration with Carlos Solanas
 I Will Not Be Sad in This World, 1991/2008, Dance, Film and Media
 Elephant Memories, 1990–1994, Theater,  in collaboration with performers and designers
 Deshima, 1990–1996, Theater, Dance, in collaboration with  Michael Matthews
 Tempus Fugit, 1990, Visual Art and Installation, in collaboration with Curtis Carter
 4AM America, 1990–1991, Theater
 Noiresque: The Fallen Angel, 1989, Theater
 Brightness, 1989, Circus, in collaboration with Louise Smith, the designers, and the performers
 In The Absence of Memory, 1989, Visual Art and Installation
 Skin - A State of Being, 1989, Theater, in collaboration with the cast
 Quartetto, 1988, Theater, in collaboration with Michael Matthews
 Snow, 1988, Theater
 Plage Concrete, 1988, Visual Art and Installation, in collaboration with Gary Garrels and Jock Reynolds
 Without Law, Without Heaven, 1987, Theater, written by Norman Duke
 Maraya - Acts of Nature in Geological Time, 1987–1988, Theater
 KIND NESS, 1986–1993, Theater, in collaboration with the cast
 Nosferatu, 1985–1991/2017, Theater, in collaboration with the cast
 Angels of Swedenborg, 1985–1989, Dance, Theater in collaboration with John Fleming
 Kind Ness, 1985, Visual Art and Installation, in collaboration with Katy Kline
 A Race, 1983–1984, Theater
 Astonishment and The Twins, 1984–1987, Theater, in collaboration with  Louise Smith
 Anna Into Nightlight, 1982–1983, Dance, Film and Media, Puppetry, Theater
 Nuit Blanche, A Select View of Earthlings, 1981–1985, Theater, in collaboration with Louise Smith, John Miglietta, Tone Blevins, and Pablo Vela
 A.M./A.M. - The Articulated Man, 1981–1985, Dance, Theater
 Rainer and the Knife, 1981–1982, Theater, in collaboration with Rob List
 Humboldt's Current, 1977–1980, Theater
 Fear and Loathing in Gotham, 1975–1982, Theater
 I Flew to Fiji, You Went South, 1973, Theater
 Lazarus, 1972–1980, Theater

References

External links
Works in Chronological Order

1946 births
Living people
People from Toronto
Canadian choreographers
American theatre directors
Canadian emigrants to the United States
American theatre directors of Chinese descent
American people of Chinese descent
Canadian people of Chinese descent
Artists from New York City
American choreographers
Bessie Award winners Alvaro Scaduto (July 12, 1928 – December 8, 2007), better known as Al Scaduto, was a cartoonist noted for his 61-year span of work for King Features Syndicate on the classic strips, They'll Do It Every Time and Little Iodine, which Jimmy Hatlo created.

Born in the Bronx, Scaduto attended high school at the School of Industrial Art, where he focused on cartooning and won several awards. He also studied at the Art Students League. After graduating from the School of Industrial Art in 1946, he joined the art department at King Features, and two years later, he teamed with cartoonist Bob Dunn on They'll Do It Every Time. 

Over a 14-year period, Scaduto drew both the Little Iodine newspaper strip and comic books. The character appeared in a series of 56 Dell Comics published between 1949 and 1962. Scaduto continued to work with Dunn after Hatlo's death in 1963.

Hatlo to Dunn to Scaduto
After Dunn's death in 1989, Scaduto took over They'll Do It Every Time, doing the writing and art for both the daily and the Sunday strip. He continued on the feature into his seventies, commenting, "What I like most about being a cartoonist is starting with a fresh piece of paper and ending up with an idea. You're the writer, the actor and the director. I never thought about retiring. I enjoy what I do." He often listened to opera while he worked. Rather than hire a new cartoonist after Scaduto's death, King Features chose to cancel They'll Do It Every Time, and the last strip was published February 2, 2008.

In addition to illustrating for magazines, ads and children's books, Scaduto designed greeting cards, games, toys and packaging.

Awards
 
In 1979, Scaduto and Dunn received the National Cartoonists Society's Newspaper Panel Cartoon Award. In 1991, Scaduto was again honored with the same award.

Personal life
For his NCS profile, written in 2003, Scaduto described his personal life: "Married 50 years to Joyce Lawrence. Currently keeping company with fiancee Claire Adelman. Two daughters Deby and Patricia. Grandkids—Allison, Atticus & Lazarus." After the death of his wife in 2000, Scaduto moved to Milford, Connecticut to live with his youngest daughter, Patricia Violette.

Death
Scaduto died December 8, 2007, in Sleepy Hollow, New York, following a short-term illness.

References

External links
The Comics Curmudgeon lengthy discussion of Al Scaduto
Obituary

2007 deaths
1928 births
American comic strip cartoonists
Artists from the Bronx
High School of Art and Design alumni