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Luke Yankee | |
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Born | [1] | February 7, 1960
Alma mater | University of California, Riverside, Juilliard School [2] |
Occupation(s) | Playwright, director, writer |
Notable work | |
Website | yankeehillproductions.com |
Luke Yankee (born February 7, 1960) [1] is an American writer, playwright, and director. [7] [8] [9] [10] [11]
Yankee is the son of actress Eileen Heckart. [12] His father, Jack Yankee, was an insurance broker. [13] [14] He studied at the University of California, Riverside, New York University, and at the Juilliard Drama School in New York. He has an MFA [15] in Playwriting and Screenwriting. [2] He is married to Don Hill, the Chair of Drama at the University of California, Irvine.
Yankee worked as Producing Artistic Director of the Long Beach Civic Light Opera. [16] He assistant directed six Broadway plays for such directors as Harold Prince, Ellis Rabb, Brian Murray, and Gerald Freedman. [7] His play, The Last Lifeboat, has had 55 productions in North America. [17] His memoir Just Outside the Spotlight: Growing Up with Eileen Heckart was published in 2006 by Backstage Books. Michael Musto described it as "one of the most compassionate and illuminating showbiz books ever written." [18]
In 2010, his play The Jesus Hickey was staged and produced by the Katselas Theatre Company, starring Harry Hamlin. [19] The same play received both the TRU Voices Award, and the Joel and Phyllis Ehrlich Award. [20] [21]
Yankee’s latest work is Marilyn, Mom & Me; a play about his mother’s intense friendship with Marilyn Monroe while shooting the film Bus Stop. [22] It was the recipient of the 2022 Stanley Award for Drama. [17]
He is the Head of Playwriting at California State University, Fullerton [23] and an adjunct professor at Chapman University. [2]
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Mr. Yankee, who is also an actor and playwright, directed "Man of La Mancha."
although it is possible that Luke Yankee's otherwise fine direction may have misplaced some of their humor.
In director Luke Yankee's hands at International City Theatre, the 1978 seriocomedy is dryly funny and engagingly but never brittly dramatic, his well-chosen actors adroitly relaying both ends of the play's emotional and tonal continuums.
Years later, I learned that the director of that play was a young man named Luke Yankee. Luke is the son of actress Eileen Heckart
Mr. Yankee, the son of Miss Heckart and Jack Yankee, an insurance broker.
The couple had three sons, Mark, 47, a liquor salesman; Philip, 45, a stage manager for cruise ship theatrical productions, and Luke, 40, the director.
He has directed and produced all over the country and was a protégé of the late John Houseman at USC, where Mr. Hill received an MFA in directing.
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