“The quality of the man and the quality of the intellect and the quality of the talent are really something very special.” –Robert Brustein, Boston Globe 3/21/11
I am sorry to report that School of Theatre professor Jon Lipsky has died. A funeral service was scheduled for today at the Martha’s Vineyard Hebrew Rehabilitation Center. Jon was surrounded by his family: Kanta, Adam, and Jonah. They and Jon are in our thoughts and prayers.
Students, faculty, and staff will remember Jon with extroardinary affection.
Professor Jon Lipsky. BU Photo Services.
Jon’s family and friends are planning a memorial service on the Vineyard later in spring.
His work appeared at the Actors Theatre of Louisville’s Humana Festival of New Plays, American Repertory Theatre, La Mama ETC., Berkshire Theatre Festival, Missouri Rep, Merrimack Repertory Theatre, Theater Emory, Sugan Theatre, and other regional theatres. He was a director and Artistic Associate at the Vineyard Playhouse on Martha’s Vineyard, where he lived, and was playwright-in-residence at the Merrimack Rep, TheatreWorks/Boston, and Boston’s Museum of Science.
His work also included: Living In Exile—a retelling of the Iliad; The Survivor: a Cambodian Odyssey; Dreaming with an AIDS Patient; Maggie’s Riff; Molly Maguire; Beginner’s Luck; and an interconnected series of nine short plays called Book of Revelations. In 2007, he won the Boston Critic’s Eliot Norton Award for Best Direction in a small company. His award-winning collaboration with jazz musician Stan Strickland, Coming Up for Air: An Autojazzography, was presented at the Boston Center for the Arts in September and toured in 2009. As part of the School of Theatre’s New Play Initiative, Jon developed a musical adaptation of Jack London’s Call of the Wild, which toured with the Olney Theatre Center’s National Players in 2007–2008.
His play, Walking the Volcano was produced through a collaboration between the Playwrights’ Theatre at Boston University and the Boston Center for American Performance, the professional extension of the BU School of Theatre.
One Comment
Jim Petosa posted on March 22, 2011 at 12:13 am
Thanks for this post, Benjamin. Also, the School of Theatre is currently developing a memorial celebration of Jon’s life and work to coincide with the Boston Playwrights/BCAP co production of his WALKING THE VOLCANO later this spring. We will be inviting members of the Boston theatre community to join us.
Details will follow.