For theatrical multi-hyphenate Luke Yankee (yes, it IS his real name), storytelling is a way of life. Growing up in a theatrical household (with award-winning actress Eileen Heckart as a mother), telling a good story around the dining table or at a cocktail party was how you got attention. How could he not go into show business? Whether it was Ethel Merman teaching him how to make a martini at age ten, Paul Newman telling him how to upstage his co-stars in children’s theatre, Vivian Vance showing him how to give a proper curtain call or Marilyn Monroe babysitting his brothers, Luke Yankee’s life is a veritable Who’s Who of Broadway and Hollywood.
After studying acting at Juilliard, he assisted such legendary directors as Harold Prince, Ellis Rabb, Gerald Freedman, and Brian Murray. He then went on to direct at regional theatres, ran the Long Beach Civic Light Opera (one of the biggest musical theatres in the country) and produced, directed and wrote award shows and special events, working with everyone from Alec Baldwin to Lily Tomlin to Quincy Jones to Stephen Sondheim and Sir Rex Harrison (to name a few). His memoir, Just Outside the Spotlight, has been praised by critics as “One of the most compassionate, illuminating showbiz books ever written.” His award-winning plays include Marilyn, Mom & Me, The Last Lifeboat (which has had over 75 productions internationally), The Jesus Hickey (starring Harry Hamlin), Confessions of a Star Maker, and The Man Who Killed the Cure.
In an effort to give back some of the many theatrical gifts he had been given, he got his MFA from UC Riverside and began teaching and guest directing all over the world at schools ranging from Cal State Fullerton (where he still serves as the Head of Playwriting), the Folkwang Hochschule in Essen Germany, Ohio State, and Northwestern. His textbook, The Art of Writing for the Theatre is published by Bloomsbury Books. If you get the chance, ask him about being overpowered by Marlene Dietrich’s perfume as a teenager, Cynthia Nixon missing an entrance in his production of The Cherry Orchard, or yeshiva boys hurling Cheese Doodles at him in the middle of a performance.
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