As If An Autobiography Author:Herbert Blau “I read As If from cover to cover, engaged and powerfully moved by a familiar brilliance . . . Blau holds an utterly unique place in 20th-century American theater, in American culture, and in theater theory and practice.? — —Elin Diamond, Rutgers University “Few theater practitioners have had comparable influence in American theater; few have end... more »ured such intoxicating highs and dispiriting lows; none, arguably, has reflected so deeply and sharply about so wide a spectrum of first-hand practical experience nor so profoundly about the ethical and social foundations of the art—which began, for him, on the streets of Brooklyn.?
—Linda Gregerson, University of Michigan “Masterful . . . a brilliant and touching book written with honesty and humility . . . In addition, it serves as an admirable introduction to Blau?s theories, providing a context for his complex and sometimes difficult ideas.?
—John Lutterbie, Stony Brook University As If traces the life and early career of director, scholar, and theorist Herbert Blau, one of the most innovative voices in American theater. From the gang-filled streets of 1930s Brooklyn to his years in San Francisco with the often embattled, now-legendary Actor?s Workshop, Blau has continued to forge his own path. His powerfully written, candid autobiography recalls his activist resistance to the McCarthy witch-hunts as well as his emergence as a revolutionary director and dramatist, including the notorious production of Waiting for Godot at the maximum-security prison San Quentin, which became the insignia of the Theater of the Absurd. « less