Gene Frankel

Gene Frankel (c. 1920 – April 20, 2005) was a United States theater director and acting teacher who was notable for directing the off-Broadway production of Jean Genet's play The Blacks.

Born Eugene Frankel in New York in 1919 or 1920 he spent his life in the city.

He became a theater director on and off Broadway, but his greatest success was his off-Broadway production of Genet's The Blacks, which opened in 1961 and ran for more than 1,400 performances. His original cast included James Earl Jones, Roscoe Lee Browne, Louis Gossett, Cicely Tyson, Godfrey Cambridge, Maya Angelou Make (before she dropped her last name) and Charles Gordone. The show is regarded as a seminal production in African-American theatre.

His most notable Broadway production was Arthur Kopit's Indians in 1969 starring Stacy Keach as Buffalo Bill. His other Broadway productions included A Cry of Players (1968), Kurt Weill's Lost in the Stars (1972) and Harry Chapin's The Night That Made America Famous (1975). His off-Broadway productions included Brecht on Brecht, (starring Viveca Lindfors, Lotte Lenya, Eli Wallach and Anne Jackson), and To Be Young, Gifted and Black starring Cicely Tyson.

As well as directing over 200 shows and managing at least twelve theaters, throughout his career, Frankel taught acting, writing and direction. His last base was the Gene Frankel Theatre and Film Workshop at 24 Bond Street in Greenwich Village. His slogan at the Gene Frankel Theatre Workshop read, "You don't get the Gene Frankel technique. You get Gene Frankel." He said that the heart of successful acting was ""Truth. I don't let my actors tell lies. The camera doesn't let you lie, the stage doesn't let you lie"

Only his last theater was a commercial success. All the others have closed or been rescued by others. The Mercer Arts Center physically collapsed on August 4 1973.

He won the first Obie award for directing, for his production of Volpone (1958) and has won two since. He also received the first Lola d'Annunzi and Vernon Rice awards for outstanding achievement in theatre.

Frankel died April 20 2005 aged 85 of congestive heart failure at New York University Medical Center. He was survived by his daughter, Laura Frankel.