Daniel C. Gerould

Daniel Charles Gerould (March 28, 1928 – February 13, 2012) was the Lucille Lortel Distinguished Professor of Theatre and Comparative Literature at the CUNY Graduate Center and Director of Publications of the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center. A scholar, teacher, translator, editor, and playwright, Gerould was a specialist in US melodrama, Central and Eastern European theatre of the twentieth century, and fin-de-siècle European avant-garde performance. Gerould was one of the world’s most recognized “Witkacologists,” a leading scholar and translator of the work of Polish playwright, novelist, painter, and philosopher Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz ("Witkacy").[1] Gerould was best known for introducing English-language audiences to the writings of Witkiewicz through such work as Stanisław I. Witkiewicz, The Beelzebub Sonata: Plays, Essays, Documents (PAJ Publications 1980), Witkacy: Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz as an Imaginative Writer (University of Washington Press, 1981), The Witkiewicz Reader (Northwestern University Press, 1992), and his original translations of most of Witkiewicz’s plays.

Career

Gerould began his teaching career at the University of Arkansas (1949–1951) and earned a Diplôme in French Literature from the Sorbonne in 1955 and a PhD in Comparative Literature from the University of Chicago in 1959. Gerould taught at San Francisco State University from 1959 to 1968, where he founded the Department of World and Comparative Literature. In 1968, Gerould’s play Candaules Commissioner, an anti-war comedy informed by US military action in Vietnam and the Classical Greek allegory of King Candaules, premiered at the Stanford Repertory Theatre.[2][3] He began teaching at the Graduate Center, CUNY in 1970.

In 1981, Gerould founded the Institute for Contemporary East European Drama and Theatre with Alma Law as part of the Center for Advanced Study in Theatre Arts at the City University of New York Graduate Center. Gerould and Law co-edited the Institute’s tri-annual publication, originally titled Newsnotes on Soviet and East European Drama and Theatre, later changed to Soviet and East European Performance, and finally Slavic and East European Performance.

Gerould was a highly visible presence and driving force at the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center, The Graduate Center CUNY, serving as executive director from 2004 to 2008, and thereafter as director of academic affairs and publications.

Work

Gerould's writings often include thick personal description of historical figures to frame important theoretical texts, as seen in his collection Theatre/Theory/Theory.

Known for his "sometimes oddball attraction to little-known works by obscure artists," Gerould described being more interested in the “underrated than the overexposed and universally celebrated," noting Witkacy as "a case in point, having gone from controversial outsider to classic of the avant-garde in three decades.”[4]

His translations in Polish received numerous awards, including prizes from the Polish Centre of the International Theatre Institute, Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle, Polish Authors Agency, Jurzykowski Foundation, American Association of Teachers of Slavic and East European Languages, American Council of Polish Cultural Clubs, and Marian Kister.

Gerould was also responsible for bringing new productions of many previously-forgotten or under-produced plays to New York and other U.S. stages. Gerould brought plays by Witkiewicz, including his translation of The Crazy Locomotive directed by Des McAnuff and featuring Glenn Close.[4]

Gerould was a beloved educator and mentored generations of doctoral students during his long career at the Graduate Center. He was the recipient of the City University of New York Award for Excellence in Teaching (Graduate Center) and was honored by TWB, Theater Without Borders, as a Groundbreaker in international theatre exchanges.[5]

Personal life

Gerould was born in Cambridge in 1928. His father, a journalist from a New England whaling family, was of French Huguenot descent. In the 2010 introduction to his compendium of essays, QuickChange, Gerould described trips to the “legitimate stage” with his mother in the 1930s and early 40s as planting the seeds for his long career as an “intensive spectator”:

“At that time many Broadway-bound productions tried out first in Boston, and I remember Ethel Barrymore in The Corn Is Green by Emlyn Williams and Arsenic and Old Lace with Boris Karloff. I felt myself a seasoned spectator, was at home among audiences, and was always ready to applaud bravura displays of virtuoso acting.”

Gerould graduated from Boston Latin High School and entered the University of Chicago at the age of 16. He later traveled to Paris as an exchange student in the 1954-55 season, further shaping his passion for the theatre and impassioned spectatorship.[6]

A thin, reed-like man, Gerould was spry and energetic, frequently found chopping wood and climbing fruit trees at his Woodstock, New York home on weekends away from New York City. He was an avid jazz collector, and was married to the Polish scholar and translator Jadwiga Kosicka, with whom he frequently collaborated.[6] His older sister, Joanne Simpson, was the first woman to ever receive a Ph.D. in meteorology. She eventually became NASA's lead weather researcher. Daniel Gerould's son Alexander L. Gerould is a professor at the Department of Criminal Justice Studies at San Francisco State University.

Selected Publications

References

  1. ↑ Krystyna Lipińska Iłłakowicz (February 13, 2012). "Remembering Professor Daniel Charles Gerould (1928–2012),". Culture.PL.
  2. ↑ Glenn Loney, “Broadway in Review,” Educational Theatre Journal, Vol. 20, No. 3, Oct., 1968: 468-472
  3. ↑ QuickChange: Essays on Theatre, ed. Daniel Gerould (New York: Martin E. Segal Theatre Center Publications, 2011), 437.
  4. 1 2 Elinor Fuchs and David Willinger, "Daniel Gerould, 83, Prolific Scholar of Modern European Theatre," press release, Martin E. Segal Theatre Center, February 22, 2012
  5. ↑ Robert Simonson, "Daniel C. Gerould, Theatre Professor Who Rediscovered Polish Playwright, Dies at 83," Playbill.com, February 16, 2012, http://www.playbill.com/news/article/159818-Daniel-C-Gerould-Theatre-Professor-Who-Rediscovered-Polish-Playwright-Dies-at-83
  6. 1 2 Quick Change, introduction
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