Join us for a day honoring the late director, scholar, and theorist Herbert Blau, one of the American theatre’s most original and influential thinkers. Co-founder of the legendary San Francisco Actor’s Workshop (1952-65), Blau introduced American audiences to the playwrights of the European avant-garde, including Bertolt Brecht, Samuel Beckett, Jean Genet, and Harold Pinter. Under Blau’s influence, the Actor’s Workshop attracted a younger generation of ground-breaking theatre artists as well. R.G. Davis, founder of the San Francisco Mime Troupe, was a Workshop member, as were Lee Breuer and Ruth Maleczech, who co-founded the Mabou Mines.

Among Blau’s many achievements were the American premiere of Brecht’s Mother Courage, his world-famous production of Beckett’s Waiting for Godot at San Quentin prison, San Francisco, and the re-imagining of the classics like Shakespeare’s King Lear, among others.

Invited guests include Joe Roach, Jackson Phippen, Denise Koch, Chris Fisher, Dick Blau, and Bonnie Marranca.