Gelber, Jack

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GELBER, JACK

GELBER, JACK (1932–2003), U.S. playwright and director. Gelber achieved international success with The Connection (1959), which dealt with drug addiction. Its subject (drug addicts waiting for their "connection" to buy drugs), raw language, and a renovating realism (for example, actors cadging money from the audience) vitalized both theater-goers and a generation of writers. It also made the Living Theater, at whose center were Judith Malina and Julian Beck, a focus of attention. Among his plays are The Apple (1961), Square in the Eye (1964), The Cuban Thing (1968), Sleep (1972), and Rehearsal, first produced in 1976. In 1964, his novel On Ice was published.

[Lewis Fried (2nd ed.)]