Jean-Claude van Itallie is a Belgian-born American playwright. He was one of the original playwrights at the La MaMa Experimental Theater Club. He was also the Playwright-of-the-Ensemble with The Open Theater. His over 30 Off-Broadway and Off-Off-Broadway playwriting and translation credits include: WAR (1963),  ALMOST LIKE BEING and I’M REALLY HERE (1964), AMERICA HURRAH (1966, Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Production), THE SERPENT (1968, OBIE Award), KING OF THE UNITED STATES (1973), A FABLE (1975), BAG LADY (1979), EARLY WARNINGS (1983), THE TIBETAN BOOK OF THE DEAD OR HOW NOT TO DO IT AGAIN (1983), the English version of Jean Genet’s THE BALCONY (1986), THE TRAVELER (1987), STRUCK DUMB written with Joseph Chaikin (1991), ANCIENT BOYS (1991), Bulgakov’s THE MASTER AND MARGARITA (1993), LIGHT (2004), FEAR ITSELF, SECRETS OF THE WHITE HOUSE(2006), THE MOTHER’S RETURN (2010), and translations of Chekhov’s THE CHERRY ORCHARD (1977), THREE SISTERS (1979), THE SEAGULL (1980), and UNCLE VANYA (1983). He performed in GUYS DREAMIN’ (1997) and in the one-man shows WAR, SEX AND DREAMS (1999) and CONFESSIONS AND CONVERSATION (2012).

Van Itallie was born in Brussels, Belgium and immigrated to Long Island with his family in 1940. He received his undergraduate degree from Harvard University and received an honorary doctorate from Kent State University in 1997. He transformed his farm in Western Massachusetts into a retreat center, the Shantigar Foundation for theatre, meditation, and healing, with the mission “to teach and inspire people to engage with the world from a more profound place within themselves.” van Itallie has taught playwriting and performance at: Princeton, NYU, Harvard, Yale School of Drama, University of Colorado Boulder, Naropa University, Amherst College, Middlebury College, the Esalen Foundation, the Omega Institute, NY Open Center, Rutgers University, and Columbia University. He was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1973 and 1980. In 2002, he received the Outstanding Achievement in the American Theater Award from the New England Theatre Conference. He is the author of “The Playwright’s Workbook” and “Tea with Demons: Games of Transformation.”