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IN MEMORIAM:
William Esper, founder of MFA and BFA Acting programs
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JULES HELM
illiam Esper, founder of the MFA and BFA Acting “Bill was so incredibly supportive after I graduated from MGSA,” programs here at Mason Gross and former chair of the Rutgers theater alum and three-time Tony nominee Kevin Chamberlin school’s Theater Department, died on January 26, says in an email. Chamberlin is currently on Broadway as the Wizard in 2019, in New York City, of complications from Lewy Wicked. “He would show up at my dressing-room door after a show, and body dementia. He was 86. In addition to his wife, that feeling of terror and need for validation would flood over me, but Suzanne, Esper is survived by his son, Michael, daughter, that quickly melted away. He was like a father figure to his old students, Shannon, and her husband, Jake, and a grandson, Otis. always full of praise and pride. He could be intimidating and child-like, In 1977, Esper, a director, actor, and stage manager in summer stock, his wit was hysterically dry, but if you were unprepared, or worse, regional theater, and off-Broadway who went inauthentic in class scenes, he could reduce on to work closely with the legendary Sanford you to rubble. He had high expectations Meisner as a teacher and director, established of his students, and after performing a ANY ACTOR WHO HAS the MFA and BFA Professional Actor Training scene in class, if you heard him say ‘Good. HAD THE GOOD FORTUNE Programs at the school and led the programs That was good,’ you were on cloud nine for until retiring from Rutgers in 2004. the rest of the day.” OF STUDYING UNDER For much of his tenure at Mason Gross, In addition, Esper co-authored, with THE TUTELAGE OF BILL ESPER former Esper also served as department chair. Under student Damon DiMarco, The Actor’s his leadership, the department reached the Art and Craft and The Actor’s Guide to UNDERSTANDS A top ranks of acting programs in the nation. Creating a Character: William Esper Teaches COMMON LANGUAGE. Over the years, the Mason Gross Theater the Meisner Technique, published by Anchor/ Department produced a steady stream of Random House in 2008 and 2014 respectively. —Calista Flockhart artists who became working professionals— Barbara Marchant, interim chair of the including actors Calista Flockhart and Kristin Theater Department and head of acting at Davis, as well as directors, playwrights, lighting, costume, and set designers. Mason Gross, worked alongside Esper both at Rutgers and at the “Bill Esper was one the most gifted human beings I have ever encoun- William Esper Studio. tered,” Flockhart says in a written statement. “I was in awe of his talent “I vividly remember a time when Bill and I were talking about the and incredible instincts; his endless wisdom. But what I will always cherish experience of working on a Shakespearean play, and he said, ‘Delving and remember most about Bill was his gentle, easy, and compassionate into Shakespeare is like falling into a sponge: One keeps going smile. He cared deeply for his students. Any actor who has had the good deeper and deeper, and the depth and breadth of the writing, the fortune of studying under the tutelage of Bill Esper understands a com- complexities of the human condition, keep unfolding,’ ” Marchant says. mon language. The many ‘Esperisms’ that he passed on to his students Esper instituted a semester of study in London for Rutgers theater have stayed with me all of these years. I loved Bill very much and I am students, which laid the groundwork for the Rutgers Conservatory at deeply grateful for having the honor of knowing and learning from him.” Shakespeare’s Globe program. Esper’s career spanned more than six decades, as a theater artist and a “His brilliance never faded, even to his last days,” Marchant says. teacher. He served as a leading authority on the work of Meisner and was “Time spent with Bill made me a witness to a continuous unfolding of founder of the William Esper Studio in New York City, where he trained, knowledge from a person of profound depth. He understood that unlike among others: Amy Schumer, Sam Rockwell, Jennifer Beals, Peter any other artistic profession, acting required its practitioners to use Gallagher, Jeff Goldblum, Patricia Heaton, Christine Lahti, Gretchen Mol, themselves in their entirety, to withhold nothing, because acting was the Tracee Ellis Ross, David Morse, Kathy Bates, Michele Shay, Paul Sorvino, most human of the arts. Harold Perrineau, Patricia Wettig, Richard Schiff, Timothy Olyphant, Tonya “Bill was a gift given to many,” she added. “I count myself one of the Pinkins, and Aaron Eckhart. lucky ones having known him for 42 years.”
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SPRING 2019
