Mel Shapiro
In Memoriam
Mel Shapiro was a professor emeritus at the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television, where he served as a distinguished professor of Theater. Prior to joining UCLA TFT, he helped found NYU’s Theater Program (Tisch School) and led the Drama department at Carnegie Mellon University. In his later years, he served as an advisor for Kaiser Permanente’s Educational Theater program.
On Broadway, he directed the Tony Award- and New York Drama Critics Award-winning musical Two Gentlemen of Verona, as well as John Guare’s Bosoms and Neglect and Stop the World — I Want to Get Off, starring Sammy Davis, Jr. Off-Broadway, he directed Guare’s The House of Blue Leaves (recognized as Best American Play by the New York Drama Critics), Václav Havel’s The Increased Difficulty of Concentration (Obie Award, Best Foreign Play), and five productions for Joseph Papp’s New York Shakespeare Festival. He also directed in London and at major regional theaters, including the Tyrone Guthrie in Minneapolis, the Arena Stage in Washington, D.C., Center Theatre Group in Los Angeles, and the Stratford Festival in Ontario, Canada.
Over the course of his remarkable career, Shapiro received Tony, Obie, New York Drama Critics, Drama Desk, and Drama-Logue awards. He was also the author of An Actor Performs and The Director’s Companion.
