Theatre: The Lively Art

Ed Wilson attended Vanderbilt, the University of Edinburgh, and Yale University where he received the first Doctor of Fine Arts degree awarded by Yale. He has taught at Vanderbilt, Yale, Hunter College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. Most recently he has been Executive Director of the Segal Theatre Center at the CUNY Graduate Center. He is the author or co-author of three of the most widely used college theater textbooks in the U. S. The tenth edition of his pioneer book, The Theater Experience was published in 2006 by McGraw Hill LLC. The sixth edition of his text Theater: The Lively Art (co-authored with Alvin Goldfarb) will be published by McGraw Hill in theDecember, 2006. The fourth edition of his theater history, Living Theatre: Histories of Theatre, (also co-authored with Alvin Goldfarb) will be published in December, 2006. He is also the editor of Shaw on Shakespeare, recently re-issued by Applause Books. He has produced plays on and off Broadway and served one season as the resident director of the Barter Theatre in Abingdon, Virginia. He also produced a feature film, The Nashville Sound, recently made available on DVD. He is the author of two original plays, a farce, The Bettinger Prize, and a play about Ponce de Leon, Waterfall. He wrote the book and lyrics for a musical version of Great Expectations. All three have been given a series of successful readings in New York City and elsewhere. Great Expectations was given a full production for three weeks in February and March, 2006, at the Mill Mountain Theatre in Roanoke, Virginia. He conceived the idea of a musical revue of the songs of Jerome Kern which had a well-received try-out production in the fall of 2004 at Catholic University in Washington, D. C. Ed has served a number of times on the Tony Nominating Committee and the Pulitzer Prize Drama Jury, most recently on the Pulitzer Jury in 2003. For twenty two years he was the theater critic of the Wall Street Journal. A long time member of the New York Drama Critics Circle, he was president of the Circle for several years. He is on the board of the John Golden Fund and was also for many years on the Board of the Theater Development Fund, of which he served as President.

Alvin Goldfarb is President Emeritus and Professor Emeritus of Western Illinois University. Dr. Goldfarb has also served as Provost, Dean of Fine Arts, and Chair of the Department of Theatre at Illinois State University. He holds a Ph.D. in theatre history from the City University of New York and a master’s degree from Hunter College. He is also the co-author of Living Theatre as well as co-editor of The Anthology of Living Theatre with Edwin Wilson. Dr. Goldfarb is also the co-editor, with Rebecca Rovit, of Theatrical Performance during the Holocaust: Texts, Documents, Memoirs, which was a finalist for the National Jewish Book Award. He has published numerous articles and reviews in scholarly journals and anthologies. Dr. Goldfarb has served as a member of the Illinois Arts Council and president of the Illinois Alliance for Arts Education. He has received service awards from the latter organization as well as from the American College Theatre Festival. Dr. Goldfarb also received an Alumni Achievement Award from the CUNY Graduate Center’s Alumni Association, and another Alumni Award from Hunter College, CUNY. Dr. Goldfarb currently serves as a member and treasurer of Chicago’s Joseph Jefferson Theatre Awards Committee, which recognizes excellence in the Chicago theatre, as well as a board member of the Arts Alliance of Illinois.