Obituaries: Professor Stephen Gerald of Spectrum Theatre Company and the University of Texas
Professor Stephen Gerald, a member of the Spectrum Advisory Board, passed away on yesterday following an extensive illness. Stephen was instrumental in bringing a minority presence and an African American influence to the theatre programs at the University of Texas and Texas State University. For six years, he served as the Artistic Associate for the ProArts Collective in Austin, Texas, where he directed numerous productions and play readings. His production of Wole Soyinka’s Death and the King’s Horseman at the Mary Moody Northen Theatre won two B. Iden Payne awards. He worked for three years with the Black and Latino Playwrights Festival at Texas State University in San Marcos, Texas in new play development of work by nationally known playwrights Velina Hasu Houston, Robert Alexander, and Gus Edwards.
Professor Gerald will be missed by all who knew him the theatre world in and around Austin. I will send information to the Spectrum family regarding any celebrations of his life as I receive them from the family.
Let's keep his family in prayer!
Sincerely,
Dr. Billy F. Harden
Executive Director
Spectrum Theatre Company
From the UT Department of Theatre and Dance, May 21:
Gerald, globalist theatre practitioner and scholar, passed away May 20, 2015 in Austin, Texas, at the age of 65. He joined the faculty of The University of Texas at Austin Department of Theatre and Dance in 1986, where he served as associate professor of acting until his death.
Gerald’s influence as an educator spanned from the university across the globe, as he taught, directed and performed nationally and internationally. He was an invited guest speaker/artist at 5th Theatre Olympics In Seoul (Korea); Nihon University in Tokyo (Japan); the Pan African Historical Theatre Festival in Cape Coast (Ghana) and The University of Ghana in Legon. In recent years he took Department of Theatre and Dance students abroad to collaborate with the theatre department at Chung Ang University in Seoul, Republic of Korea. He also served as director for off-campus initiatives for the university’s College of Fine Arts.
“When I visit with alumni across the country, it is absolutely clear what an impact Stephen has had on the lives and careers of countless students,” says Dr. Brant Pope, Department of Theatre and Department chair. “He was coveted as a teacher, a mentor and a role model, “ continues Pope, “and the love for him and the great appreciation for his devotion to his students is his enduring legacy.”
Gerald’s credits as an actor, director and writer included Double Image Theatre Lab, La MaMaExperimental Theatre Company, The American Place Theatre, Provincetown Playhouse, Villager Theatre, Austin’s ProArts Collective and the Black and Latino Playwrights Festival as well as independent and commercial films and television.
He received the Presidential Medal from Nihon University and a special award from the Minister of Culture of the Republic of Ghana for teaching and directing. Gerald was the recipient of the National Endowment for the Humanities award to study at Yale University and the Kennedy Center/American College Theatre Festival. At The University of Texas at Austin, he received the John D. Murchison Fellowship in Fine Arts and the Grace Hill MilamCentennial Fellowship in Fine Arts.
Details for a memorial service honoring the life of Stephen Gerald are pending. Updates will be published as they are available.
Dr. Gerald's biography
website of the Department of Theatre and Dance, University of Texas
Professor Stephen Gerald served as a special consultant to the National Commission on Culture for the Republic of Ghana on behalf of the Ghana to Texas Project. During that time, he directed The Playboy Of The West Indies for the National Theatre of Ghana in Accra as part of the Pan-African Historical Theatre Festival (PANAFEST), which was cited in two books on contemporary theatre in Africa. Also, he collaborated with Abibigromma (National Theatre Players) on DuBois, the theatre piece for actors, dancers, and musicians, which he also directed. It is permanent part of the repertory of the National Theatre Players. For six years, he served as the Artistic Associate for the ProArts Collective in Austin, Texas, where he directed numerous productions and play readings. His production of Wole Soyinka’s Death and the King’s Horseman at the Mary Moody Northen Theatre won two B. Iden Payne awards. He worked for three years with the Black and Latino Playwrights Festival at Texas State University in San Marcos, Texas in new play development of work by nationally known playwrights Velina Hasu Houston, Robert Alexander, and Gus Edwards. On the east coast, he has worked for the Double Image Theatre, La Mama Experimental Theatre Company, The American Place Theatre, the Abrons Art Center at the Henry Street Settlement Theatre in New York City’s Lower East Side and the Elma Lewis School of Fine Arts in Roxbury, Massachusetts. He has directed projects at the Long Center in Austin, Texas.
Professor Gerald's acting work can be seen in the five part series Oklahoma Passage starring Megan Mullally, Jeanette Nolan, and Whitman Mayo, and Zamzok, a film by the experimental filmmaker, Adolphus Mekas. He continues to work in independent and commercial films and on television. On stage, he performed in The Tempest as Gonzalo opposite Patrick Stewart and the Lord in Faust opposite Avery Brooks. He has acted at the Provincetown Playhouse in New York City and the Villager’s Barn in New Jersey. He is the founding member and actor for Crates N Company, a touring children’s theatre company, of New Brunswick, New Jersey.
Professor Gerald is a globalist theatre practitioner and scholar. He writes, directs, collaborates, teaches, and performs within the global theatre community. He was an invited guest speaker/artist at 5th Theatre Olympics In Seoul (Korea); Nihon University in Tokyo (Japan); the Pan African Historical Theatre Festival in Cape Coast (Ghana), and The University of Ghana in Legon. He regularly takes undergraduate students abroad to collaborate on special projects with faculty and students from the theatre department at Chung Ang University in Seoul, Republic of Korea, in association with the David Mark Cohen New Works Festival.
He was the recipient of the Presidential Medal from Nihon University and a special award from the Minister of Culture of the Republic of Ghana for teaching and directing. He was the recipient of the National Endowment for the Humanities award to study at Yale University, and the Kennedy Center/American College Theatre Festival. He was the recipient of the John D. Murchison Fellowship in Fine Arts And the Grace Hill Milan Centennial Fellow in the Arts at The University of Texas at Austin. His writings have been published by Karnataka State University Press (India) and various publications in New York City; his lectures on acting techniques have been published in Japanese in Japan. In the US, he has served on theatre review boards for Arts International, the Texas Commission on the Arts, and Economic Growth and Redevelopment Services Office (Cultural Arts Division) for the City of Austin, Texas.