Jules Irving

Jules Irving (born Julius Israel; April 13, 1925 – July 28, 1979) was an American director, educator, producer and actor, who in the 1950s co-founded the San Francisco Actor's Workshop. When the Actor's Workshop closed in 1966, Irving moved to New York City and became the first Producing Director of the Repertory Company of the Vivian Beaumont Theater of Lincoln Center.

In 1955, the Actor's Workshop was the first West Coast theater to sign an Equity "Off-Broadway" contract. Irving had started the Workshop with fellow New Yorker Herbert Blau, whom he knew from undergraduate days at New York University and then during graduate study at Stanford University.^[1] Both men were professors at San Francisco State, with Irving serving in the Drama department and Blau in English.

He was active in school shows and made his Broadway debut at the age of thirteen in George S. Kaufman's The American Way. He joined the army in 1943, serving in the infantry during the Battle of the Bulge and as a Russian translator when his unit met Soviet forces. After V-E Day, he transferred to Special Services and had the opportunity to hone his theater managerial skills as he organized camp shows under Joshua Logan.^[2]

The Actor's Workshop was established January 16, 1952 in a loft above a judo academy on Divisadero Street in San Francisco and remained until its formal demise in 1966. The Actor's Workshop set new standards as a pioneer of resident professional art theater in the United States.^[3]

Among those present in 1952 for a "study group" or "workshop" were Irving, Blau, their wives (Priscilla Pointer and Beatrice Manley); Hal J. Todd, who had been at Stanford with Irving and Blau; Richard Glyer, an instructor at San Francisco State University; Paul Cox, an aspiring playwright; and S.F. State student Dan Whiteside.^[4]

Irving guided the theater's finances and led primary day-by-day operations of the company's growth to its Elgin Street playhouse and then to offices on Folsom Street and two year-round theaters, the Encore and the Marines' Memorial. A major transition occurred in 1956 when the Workshop was evicted from Elgin Street to make room for a new freeway. The company had the option to renew its lease on the Marines' Memorial Theater but no money. A young Canadian, Alan Mandell, who as a volunteer Business Manager (and de facto chief executive with Irving) helped inaugurate the first subscription season for the Actor's Workshop.^[5]

Irving y Blau fueron idealistas persistentes que desarrollaron el Workshop siguiendo la tradición del Group Theatre de la década de 1930; tanto ellos como miembros clave de la compañía estaban dedicados a los principios de responsabilidad social y al arte de conjunto. ^{[ 6 ]} El repertorio de la compañía se centró inicialmente en Miller y otros escritores estadounidenses modernos, como Odets, O'Neill y Tennessee Williams, pero pronto se amplió a los dramas mundiales contemporáneos de Samuel Beckett, Brecht, Genet, John Osborne, Yukio Mishima y Harold Pinter. ^{[ 7 ]}

Respetado tanto como actor como director, Irving interpretó papeles importantes, incluyendo a Proctor en The Crucible ^{[ 8 ]} y a Happy en Death of a Salesman ^{[ 9 ]} (que también dirigió) en las producciones del Workshop de obras de Arthur Miller . Cuando el Workshop produjo el estreno en la costa oeste de Waiting for Godot de Beckett , Irving interpretó al locuaz sirviente Lucky. ^{[ 10 ]}

La producción se presentó ante el público habitual del Taller, luego se representó para los reclusos de la prisión de San Quentin ^{[ 11 ] [ 12 ] [ 13 ] [ 14 ]} y posteriormente en la Exposición Universal de Bruselas de 1958, donde representó al teatro estadounidense bajo los auspicios del Departamento de Estado de los Estados Unidos.

El viaje a Bruselas no estuvo exento de incidentes. Irving fue informado de que el Taller tendría que financiar su propio viaje a Bélgica . Tras semanas de recaudación de fondos y mientras la compañía aún se encontraba en Nueva York, recibió la noticia de que sería "desaconsejable" que un director de escena en particular, James Kershaw, viajara a Bruselas. ^{[ 15 ]} Las opacas comunicaciones del Departamento de Estado llevaron a Irving y Blau a especular, mientras los funcionarios no se pronunciaban oficialmente, que tal vez alguna actividad liberal había atraído la atención negativa hacia Kershaw, un miembro respetado de la compañía. El Taller protestó, pero, finalmente, sintiendo la responsabilidad hacia los habitantes de San Francisco que habían aportado fondos para el viaje, procedió a Bruselas con Pointer reemplazando al director de escena para la ocasión. ^{[ 16 ]}

In addition to his acclaimed abilities as the director of such Workshop productions as The Entertainer, Misalliance, The Glass Menagerie, and The Caretaker, Irving proved his skills as a financial manager over many years, shrewdly learning "by necessity," according to San Francisco writer Mark Harris, "a hundred-and-one uses for the pennies of a dollar."^[17][18] Irving always had to struggle to keep the Workshop solvent. In doing so, he protected the company's artistic independence. He was thus extremely cautious in the late 1950s when the Ford Foundation offered its hand.^[19]

Some scholars note that Irving's life offers a study in artistic morality^[20][21] although the "message" of any particular ethical exchange (Workshop v. State Department, Workshop v. Ford, v. Lincoln Center, v. ACT?) may remain unclear. A secular Jew,^[22] Irving was honored with the Methodist-oriented Danforth Fellowship early in his professorial career for interests and achievements in "religion and higher education".

In 1957, Irving began interacting with the Ford Foundation. At that time, the Foundation's Humanities and Arts Program offered grants-in-aid to "creative and performing artists", et al^[23] and the Workshop stood to benefit. Over time Irving developed a relationship with the Foundation as a consultant who advised fledgling theaters on survival and growth throughout the nation. Of particular note is his travel to Mississippi in the early '60s to work as an advisor to the Free Southern Theater,^[24] a racially integrated troupe presenting Waiting for Godot amid a "belligerent, racist" atmosphere.^[25] Irving's relationship with the Ford Foundation offered important lessons in the ethics and effects of philanthropic intervention in non-profit enterprises within a free market system.^[26]

El Taller y sus directores alcanzaron gran renombre nacional durante trece años hasta que, en 1965, Irving y Blau fueron nombrados directores artísticos de la Compañía de Repertorio del Teatro Vivian Beaumont del Lincoln Center . Varios actores clave fueron invitados a acompañarlos a Nueva York para formar el núcleo de una compañía de repertorio. Kenneth Kitch y John Hancock asumieron la dirección del Actor's Workshop, ^{[ 27 ]} quienes lograron mantener la compañía en funcionamiento, ^{[ 28 ]} a pesar de la disminución de público, hasta el verano de 1966, cuando la Cámara de Comercio de San Francisco rechazó una solicitud de ayuda de la compañía. En cambio, la Cámara ofreció un incentivo financiero al American Conservatory Theater de William Ball para que se convirtiera en la compañía residente de la ciudad. ^{[ 29 ]}

Irving y Blau regresaron a su ciudad natal. ^{[ 30 ]} Tras una recepción difícil a sus esfuerzos iniciales, en particular a la producción de La muerte de Danton de Blau, ^{[ 31 ]} Blau renunció, pero Irving fue mantenido por la junta del Lincoln Center. ^{[ 32 ]} Durante los siguientes siete años, construyó la compañía de repertorio de manera constante, concentrándose principalmente en sus responsabilidades y liderazgo como productor después de dirigir personalmente algunas de las producciones iniciales más destacadas, incluyendo la poderosa El círculo de tiza caucasiano ^de 1966. [ ^{33 ] [ 34 ] [ 35 ]}

Mientras cultivaba el cuerpo de actores y directores, acogió en ocasiones ciertas producciones "estrella" de calidad, como la célebre reposición de Mike Nichols de The Little Foxes de Lillian Hellman y la puesta en escena de Gordon Davidson de In the Matter of J. Robert Oppenheimer . Irving comprendió que en Nueva York ninguna institución cultural puede funcionar bien de forma aislada, por lo que se acercó incluso a producciones comerciales de temas poéticos e idealistas, por ejemplo, Lovers de Brian Friel . ^{[ 36 ]} Terminó su gestión en el Lincoln Center en 1972 con la muy aclamada dirección de Ellis Rabb de Enemies de Maxim Gorky ^{[ 37 ]} con un elenco que incluía a varios actores que habían llegado con Irving años antes desde San Francisco.

Irving concluded a little over three decades in live theater when he left Lincoln Center. He and his family moved to Southern California, where Ms. Pointer, long a major actress with the Actor's Workshop and Lincoln Center, found opportunity in film roles, and where their daughter Amy Irving, who began her acting career at age nine on the Workshop stage, would carry on the family name. Irving produced television revivals of classic films, including Dark Victory, and directed Loose Change and the series, Rich Man, Poor Man. As producer of the Lincoln Center original, he is credited for Masterpiece Theater's televised version of Enemies.^[38][30]

In 1947, Irving married actress Priscilla Pointer, to whom he remained married until his death in 1979. The couple had three children, including director David Irving and actress Amy Irving.^[39] Pointer remarried a year later in 1980 to Robert Symonds, who had been Irving's producing partner at Lincoln Center.

He died of a heart attack in 1979 on a vacation trip to Reno, Nevada, aged 54.^[30]

• Sitio web oficial de Actor's Workshop
• Jules Irving en IMDb