HENRY SCHVEY

Born in New York City, Henry I. Schvey began his academic career at Leiden University in the Netherlands as a professor of English and American literature for fourteen years. During his time in Holland, he founded and became Artistic Director of a touring Dutch theatre company, the Leiden English Speaking Theatre (LEST). Since 1987, he has been professor of drama and comparative literature at Washington University in St. Louis, and chaired the Performing Arts Department there for two decades from 1987-2007. A stage director, playwright and memoirist, Schvey founded Washington University’s Shakespeare’s Globe program in conjunction with Globe Education in London, a program still running after more than thirty years. As a scholar of modern American and European drama, he has published widely on playwrights including Eugene O’Neill, Arthur Miller, Sam Shepard, Lanford Wilson, and David Mamet in addition to Tennessee Williams. Schvey is the author of three books, including Oskar Kokoschka: The Painter as Playwright. He has lives in St. Louis, Missouri.