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During preparations for this American Theatre and Drama Society-edited issue of the journal of American Drama and Theatre, the membership of ATDS-and the academic field of theatre and drama-lost a major figure: Daniel Gerould (1928-2012).
Dan was the Lucille Lortel Distinguished Professor of Theatre and Comparative Literature in the PhD Program at the City University of New York Graduate Center. He also held the posts of Director of Academic Affairs and Director of Publications at the CUNY Graduate Center's Martin E. Segal Theatre Center. As an American scholar and translator whose work focused on, among other things, American melodrama, Dan may be especially remembered for his titanic efforts in directing the attention of American theatre scholars and practitioners to the astonishing plays and productions emanating from Central and Eastern European theatres.
Dan had a BA (1946), an MA in English Literature (1949), and a PhD (1959) in Comparative Literature from the University of Chicago, and a Diplôme in French Literature from the Sorbonne (1955). Before joining the faculty of the CUNY Graduate Center, he taught at the University of Arkansas (1949-51), the University of Chicago (1955-59), and San Francisco State University (1959-1968), where he established and headed the Department of World and Comparative Literature. He visited Poland in 1965 on a travel grant from the U.S. Office of Education International Studies Project with California State Colleges, developed an interest in Polish theatre, and then taught for two years at Warsaw University as a Fulbright Lecturer (1968-70). He was an exchange scholar in the Faculty Research Program with the Soviet Union at Moscow State University in 1967.
Dan was the editor of the journal Slavic and East European Performance from 1981 and of the twelve-volume Routledge/Harwood Polish and Eastern European Theatre Archive (1996-2002). He translated twenty-one plays by Stanislaw Ignacy Witkiewic2 (Witkacy), and wrote extensively about Witkiewic2 and twentieth-century avant-garde drama and theatre. His play Candaules Commissioner^^ been performed in France, Germany, and America. For his translations from Polish he has received numerous awards, including prÍ2es from the Polish International Theatre Institute, Los Angeles Drama Critics, Polish Authors Agency, Jur2ykowski Foundation, American Association of Teachers of Slavic and East European Languages, American Council of Polish Cultural Clubs, and Marian Kister. He was the recipient of the...