Mordecai Gorelik

Mordecai (Max) Gorelik (1899 - 1990) was an American theatrical designer, producer and director.

Life and work

Gorelik was a 1920 graduate of the Pratt Institute, and worked principally as a scene designer. However, he also designed costumes, directed lighting and taught theater. He was a research professor in theater at Southern Illinois University from 1960 to 1972 and taught at San Jose State College. He is the author of the classic book New Theaters for Old, published in 1940 and still used today in universities, theater departments. Gorelik was also the American expert on the work of Bertolt Brecht and EPIC Theater.

Gorelik married Frances Strauss in 1936. They had two children: a son Eugene Gorelik and a daughter Linda Gorelik. Frances Gorelik died on June 5, 1966.

Gorelik created scenic designs for Men in White, Golden Boy, Tortilla Flat, Casey Jones, All My Sons, Desire Under the Elms, The Flowering Peach, A Hatful of Rain, The Plough and the Stars, and Volpone.

Gorelik was also the translator and adapter of The Firebugs (1963), by Swiss playwright Max Frisch.

He died in Sarasota in 1990, aged 90.[1]

References

  1. "Mordecai Gorelic, Theatrical Designer and Playwright, 90", New York Times obituary, March 10, 1990

External links