Sheldon Patinkin

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Sheldon Patinkin
Born	August 27, 1935 Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Died	September 21, 2014 (aged 79) Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Occupation(s)	Director, teacher, writer
Known for	The Second City, Columbia College Chicago

Sheldon Arthur Patinkin (August 27, 1935 – September 21, 2014) was a chair of the Theater Department of

and co-director of the Steppenwolf Theatre Summer Ensemble Workshops.

He received a Jeff Award for directing his

Career

Born and raised in Chicago, Patinkin graduated from the

Steppenwolf Theater Company

and co-founded The School at Steppenwolf, where he taught for 17 years.

Among his directing projects outside of the college were The Glass Menagerie (Gift Theater Company), South Pacific (Metropolis Art Center), Uncle Vanya (Steppenwolf), Long Day's Journey into Night (Irish Rep and the Galway Festival in Ireland) and Krapp's Last Tape for the Buckets of Beckett Festival, both starring John Mahoney, and concert stagings of opera scenes and excerpts for the Lyric Opera Center at the Grant Park and Ravinia Festival Concerts.^[2] He had previously directed Mahoney along with John Malkovich and Terry Kinney in Death of a Salesman in 1980 for Steppenwolf.^[3]

His revue, Puttin' on the Ritz: an Irving Berlin American Songbook, won

In July 2014, Columbia College Chicago announced the Sheldon Patinkin Endowed Award, a scholarship named in his honor that will provide a theater student with a cash stipend to aid them with their career.

Books

Patinkin wrote Second City: Backstage at the World's Greatest Comedy Theater, published by Sourcebooks in 2000. His textbook on the history of the American Musical No Legs, No Jokes, No Chance was published by Northwestern University Press in 2008. ^[citation needed]

Death and legacy

On September 21, 2014, Patinkin died in Chicago after a heart attack, aged 79.

. He was survived by his brother Norman Patinkin, his sister Ida Patinkin Goldberger, and many nieces and nephews. At the time of his death, he was in the process of directing a production of "Into The Woods" at Columbia College Chicago, which opened one month later.

On January 26, 2015, four months after his death, a memorial service was held in Skokie, IL. Speakers at the event, that was put together by The Second City, Columbia College Chicago, and Steppenwolf Theater, included Scott Adsit, Second City executive producer Andrew Alexander, David Cromer, Columbia College faculty Tom Mula, Meg Thalken, and Caroline Latta, Gift Theater artistic director Michael Patrick Thornton, and Jeff Perry and with letters from Anna D. Shapiro, Joyce Piven, and Alan Arkin. The event was attended by over five generations of colleagues and former students, including Fred Willard, Susan Messing, Mick Napier, John Mahoney, Laurie Metcalf, Rondi Reed, Jim Jacobs, and Isabella Hofmann.

At the theater building at Columbia College Chicago, the New Studio Theater, which Patinkin used for many of the productions that he directed, has been named the Sheldon Patinkin Theater in his honor.

References

External links

• Sheldon Patinkin at
  IMDb