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Austin360 blogs > Out & About > Archives > 2009 > November > 15 > Entry

Richard Schechner at the University of Texas

One American theater legend spoke in Austin on Thursday. Another on Friday …

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Richard Schechner bussing his prof, Oscar Brockett

Stephen Sondheim’s remarks at the Long Center were dense, clear, anecdotal and on point. Richard Schechner’s were dense, clear, anecdotal and, by design, not always on point at the University of Texas …

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Polly Strong and Linda Brucker

Schechner’s work may be less familiar to the average theatergoer than Sondheim’s. Yet to students of theater and of the 1960s, the New York University professor’s indelible contributions include co-founding the field of performance studies and the journal TDR: The Drama Review, as well as the Performance Group, which evolved into the Wooster Group …

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Nicole Doorish and Jodi Jinks

Schechner is in town because the Rude Mechs are reviving his breakthrough piece, “Dionysus in 69,” which combines intercultural myths, environmental staging and rampant nudity with a re-reading of Euripedes’ “The Bacchae.” It opens in Austin Dec. 4 …

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Shawn Sides and Buck Van Winkle

For the relaxed reception and circuitous lecture at UT, presented by the Humanities Institute, I brought along Oscar Brockett, another theater legend and co-founder of the field of modern theater history. He was my mentor in the PhD program at UT. Turns out he also taught Schechner at the University of Iowa back in 1958! …

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Everlasting scamps Matt Hislope and Josh Meyer

Leave aside the Oedipal issues of performance studies elbowing out theater history in some drama departments (like UT’s), Schechner’s talk made the 1960s come alive. We are lucky to have a man who has taken so many notes and thought so thoroughly on the subjects of experimental art and social behavior as performance …

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Elizabeth Doss and Evan Carton

No way I’m going to miss “Dionysus in 69”

Permalink | Comments (2) | Post your comment Categories: Arts

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By Mark Holzbach

November 19, 2009 2:10 PM | Link to this

Right on! Austin's so lucky and so privileged to have this happening here. Please tell your friends to try to get tickets for opening night (12/4/09)and hear Richard Schechner speak!

By Kirk Lynn

November 19, 2009 12:06 PM | Link to this

Give Michael Barnes a total caress! Give Oscar Brockett a total caress!

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