The primary Stages Off-Broadway Oral history Project

Celebrating the visionaries who created New York's vibrant Off- and Off-Off-Broadway theater.

Julian Schlossberg

Julian Schlossberg

Producer
Born on Monday, January 26, 1942

Interviewed on: Monday, April 4, 2016
Location: Primary Stages Offices
Interviewed by: Casey Childs
Interview #62
"You don’t have to be on Broadway. You can do these shows much more inexpensively and make as much, and even more, Off-Broadway. --- You’re the camera in the theatre. You’re not the camera in the movie or television, the director is telling you what you are watching. But you watch what you want in the theatre."
Julian Schlossberg Highlights
Video Length: 5 Minutes, 43 Seconds
Julian Schlossberg Interview Part One
Video Length: 1 Hour, 7 Minutes
Julian Schlossberg Interview Part Two
Video Length: 47 Minutes, 37 Seconds

Julian Schlossberg is a producer of Off-Broadway plays, including: VITA & VIRGINIA (1994), DEATH DEFYING ACTS (1995), BELOW THE BELT (1996), CAKEWALK (1996), POWER PLAYS (1998), THE UNEXPECTED MAN (2000), and THE RIGHT KIND OF PEOPLE (2006). Schlossberg began his career at ABC Television Network, and then became a film distributor for the Walter Reade Orginization. He would later leave Walter Reade to start his own film distribution company, Castle Hill Productions. There he met and convinced auteur-directors such as Elia Kazan, Woody Allen, Elaine May,  and John Cassavetes to allow him to distribute their classic movies. In 1974, Schlossberg began hosting a nationally-syndicated radio program called “Movie Talk.” To fill the four hours of the radio show, he invited guests from outside the movie industry, establishing his first connections within the theatre world. Soon, he was producing Off-Broadway plays.

Schlossberg grew up in the Bronx at the beginning of television. As a youth, he attended dress rehearsals of the “Perry Como Television Show,” then ran home to watch the live telecast. He also watched movies staring Natalie Wood, Burt Lancaster, Spencer Tracy, and Clark Gable, who inspired him to pursue acting in college. Schlossberg graduated from NYU, majoring In History and Political Science. Much later, as a producer, his plays won many awards, including six Tony Awards, two OBIE Awards, seven Drama Desk Awards, and five Outer Critics Circle Awards.

Mentioned in Interview

Eric Krebs, VITA & VIRGINIA, THE RIGHT KIND OF PEOPLE, CAKEWALK, THE UNEXPECTED MAN, POWER PLAYS, BELOW THE BELT

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