Nancy Gabor is a director and acting teacher.  She was a member of The Open Theatre and participated in their legendary production THE SERPENT directed by the iconic Joseph Chaikin.  After his stroke, she directed Chaikin as an actor in Sam Shepard’s and Joseph Chaikin’s THE WAR IN HEAVEN, and Joe Chaikin’s and Jean-Claude Van Itallie’s STRUCK DUMB, AMERICAN PLACE THEATER. Nancy and Joe collaborated on Samuel Beckett’s TEXTS FOR NOTHING and WHAT IS THE WORD, written by Beckett for Joe, which was performed in Amsterdam, Rotterdam, and in Antwerp.  Among others, Nancy has also worked with Andre Serban, as an actor, in MEDEA (part of the original La MaMa trilogy at La MaMa), Jerzy Grotowski, Newell Tarrant, Trisha Brown and Paul Binnerts.  Her work abroad established a teaching and directing career in Amsterdam’s De Toneelschool, Academie voor Kleinkunst, and De Trap as well as workshops in Grenoble, Lyon and Milano.  Gabor’s acting credits include: THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK (1958), PETER PAN (1963), THE SERPENT (1965), MEDEA (1972).  Her directing credits include: THE SPRING OFFENSIVE (1973), CHOICES (1975), THE BRIG (1975), GETTING OUT (1975), I HAD AN IDEA (1976), SCALP AND DREAMS(1979), AT ARM’S LENGTH (1981), THREE SISTERS (1982), ANOTHER PARADISE (1984), THE OTHER SIDE OF NEWARK (1985),  PYGMALION (1986), WAR IN HEAVEN (1986), STRUCK DUMB (1986), WHISPERS (1987), THE BALD SOPRANO (1990), UNDER THE SKIN (1990), ALICE IN WONDERLAND(1990), TEXT FOR NOTHING (1995), WHAT IS THE WORD (1995),  ORPHANS (1999), THREE SISTERS(2003), THE SEA GULL  (2008) UNCLE VANYA (2012) HOUSE OF BERNARDA ALBA (2013), LOST AND FOUND (2013).  In this country she has worked at La MaMa, American Place Theatre, The Erie Playhouse, The Taconic State Correctional Facility, New York City Street Theatre Company, The Open Space, The Hudson Guild, the Warren Robertson Studio, Circle in the Square, NYSF/The Public, The Actors’ Core, SUNY Purchase, and more.  She is a co-founder of the Het Collectief in Amsterdam, a professional acting school.  She currently is co- directing YOU’RE NEVER TOO OLD TO PLAY, with Paul Binnerts,  a senior acting group, sponsored by Westbeth Artists’ Residents Council.  To date the Westbeth Artists’ Residents Council produced all three shows, two of which were performed at Little Island in Manhattan, as well as at Westbeth where Nancy lives with her husband Paul Binnerts.  Westbeth is an artists’ community and living there has helped her to be able to teach and create work for the last forty years.

Nancy Gabor discovered and pursued theater from a young age starting in Erie, Pennsylvania, with the Erie Playhouse. Her father owned a butcher shop and her mother had been a dancer and they supported her desire to be in theater.  Newell Tarrant, director of the Erie Playhouse, spotted her talent and cast her in many shows leading to the starring role in THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK.  She attended Carnegie Mellon and The Goodman Theater and performed with Morris Carnovsky, a guest artist there.  She moved to New York City and became involved with The Open Theater directed by Joseph Chaikin, attending workshops for a year until she became part of the performing group.  With this group Chaikin was going in a new direction and they created the legendary work, THE SERPENT, based on Genesis from the Bible.  When the troupe went on tour, Gabor, who now had a child, declined and stayed in the city.  Gabor continued her relationship with La MaMa and Ellen Stewart, joining the Andre Serban company of MEDEA.  In her work with Chaikin and Serban she developed improvisational skills meshing the disciplines of Viola Spolin and Jerzy Grotowski, among others. This allowed her to look at theater in an unconventional way.  She went into prisons and worked with the inmates creating their own work titled CHOICES.  She brought this piece to Ellen Stewart and the Public, eventually having it produced at La MaMa.  From here on Gabor not only directed with but taught this unconventional approach to theater.  Her history with Joseph Chaikin made her the person he wished to collaborate with after his stroke.  Plays were written for him by Sam Shepard, Jean-Claude van Italie and Samuel Beckett.  These plays were also taken to Amsterdam’s theater festivals and other parts of Europe beginning Gabor’s cross-cultural career where she directed and taught throughout Europe.  This occasion brought her into contact with Paul Binnerts, a known teacher and director of Brecht in Amsterdam and Germany with his own company.  They married and have been collaborating in the United States and in Europe, as well as currently collaborating on the YOU’RE NEVER TOO OLD TO PLAY project out of the Westbeth Artists Community.