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- Gene Frankel was an American known for his Broadway, Regional, and European theater directing and teaching in New York City who was most notable for helping start the off-Broadway scene. His directing of the off-Broadway production The Blacks by Gene Genet was regarded as a crucial production in promoting African-American theatre during the civil-rights movement which opened in 1961 and ran for more than 1,400 performances at the St. Mark's Theatre. The original cast included James Earl Jones, Roscoe Lee Browne, Louis Gossett, Cicely Tyson, Godfrey Cambridge, Maya Angelou Make (before she dropped her last name) and Charles Gordone. Born Eugene Frankel in New York in 1919 or 1920 he served in the Army during WWII in entertainment and as a member of an aerial crew. He began his career as an actor and was one of the earliest members of the Actors' Studio. Frankel eventually moved behind the scenes and became a theater director on and off Broadway. His most notable Broadway production was Arthur Kopit's Indians starring Stacy Keach, who won the 1970 Tony Award as Best Actor for his portrayal of Buffalo Bill. The production was also nominated for a Tony Award for best play of 1970. His other Broadway productions included A Cry of Players (1968), Kurt Weill's Lost in the Stars (1972) and Harry Chapin's The Night That Made America Famous (1975). His off-Broadway productions included Brecht on Brecht,, and To Be Young, Gifted and Black starring Cicely Tyson. He directed and worked with Arthur Miller on one of his plays as well and to meet his wife Marilyn Monroe. As well as directing over 200 shows and managing at least twelve theaters throughout his career, Frankel taught acting, writing and directing. His last stage was the Gene Frankel Theatre and Film Workshop at 24 Bond Street in Greenwich Village. His summer workshops involved accomplished actors speaking with the students such as F. Murray Abraham and Loretta Swit who credited her former instructor for his inspiration. The slogan at the Gene Frankel Theatre Workshop read, "You don't get the Gene Frankel technique. You get Gene Frankel. " Frankel said that the heart of successful acting was ""Truth. I don't let my actors tell lies. The camera doesn't lie, the stage doesn't let you lie". His true love was the theater, and he believed in the art and magic of the live stage while his interest in film and television was minimal. His emphasis was less on the limelight success and more on the artistic process. Frankel's passion were the plays by William Shakespeare of which he had a genius knowledge. This and his unique personality created an aura of respect for him in the acting circles. He also was a visiting professor in theater at various institutions of higher learning including Columbia University, Boston College, and New York University. He often joked of having an endless stream of bad luck with theatrical space. On August 4 1973, his Mercer Arts Center, a complex of seven small theatres, which had been located on the first two floors of the residential Broadway Central Hotel, physically collapsed. Frankel, who had been conducting a rehearsal at the time, noticed the ceiling and walls beginning to buckle and heroically led the actors and several residents to safety. Five people died in the collapse. All of his other theatres closed or were rescued by others. Only his last theater was a financial success, serving as home to Artistic Director Christopher Groenwald's New Mercury Players and as a satellite location for Artistic Director Marilyn Majeski's Grove Street Playhouse. Frankel was awarded the first Obie award for directing, with his production of Volpone (1958) and then won two more also for directing. He also received the first Lola d'Annunzi and Vernon Rice awards for outstanding achievement in theatre. Frankel had two children, Laura and Ethan, from his marriage which ended in divorce. He was survived by his daughter, Laura Frankel. His son, an aspiring actor, who studied at his father's school had struggled with substance abuse and psychiatric illness which led him to leap off the top of a 19-floor-building in Manhattan during a psychosis from which he miraculously survived. Upon recovery Ethan was placed in a group home where he was murdered by a fellow resident the following year. Frankel created a scholarship at his theater in his son's name.
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