Izenour with a model of the Loeb Drama Center interior at Harvard University that he designed.
Remembering
George Izenour He gave us the technology to lower the lights, and now we must lower them for him. On March 24, 2007, George Izenour, D.F.A., Professor Emeritus of Theater Design and Technology and Director Emeritus, Mechanical Laboratory, Yale School of Drama, passed away at age ninety-four. George was one of the modern theatre’s most influential inventors and designers, and artists across the world continue to benefit from his remarkable vision. His many inventions include the first electronic dimming system for stage lighting and an electronic winch system created to move scenery by remote control. Visitors to Harvard’s Loeb Drama Center, home of the American Repertory Theatre, can still see one of George’s most revolutionary creations: a stage that can be converted from a proscenium to a thrust in fifteen minutes. Among the hundreds of other performance spaces he conceived are the National Theatre of Greece and the Dallas Theater Center. George’s legacy has been further confirmed by his many publications, awards, and honors. Two of his three books—Theater Design and Theater Technology—remain in print, and in 2004, he won the prestigious Wally Russell Lifetime Achievement Award for his contributions to the art of lighting. In the Yale School of Drama community, George will be remembered both for his professional achievements and his reputation as a kind and vivacious man. From 1939 to 1977, he directed the Electro-Mechanical Laboratory, a “hands-on” classroom that he created 26
YSD 2007
in an abandoned squash court in the School’s Annex. His work in the lab resulted in twelve patents, and it enriched hundreds of students’ lives. Robert Long ’76 remembers, “I entered the Yale Drama School with the intention of becoming a Technical Director, and I graduated three years later as a fledgling Theatre Consultant. George Izenour is responsible for leading me toward a career that I have thoroughly enjoyed for over thirty years. I took all his courses, whether they were required or not. I worked in his design laboratory and later, after graduation, in his design office. In a footnote of one of his books, Mr. Izenour credits me with being the last student to pass through his theatre engineering program. That single reference continues to hold tremendous value for me, as I recognize all the other students who came before me who, too, were so greatly affected by what this man had to say.” Recently described by Robert Brustein (Former Dean) as “a really rock-ribbed American with the best values who lived the life he wanted.” George is survived by his grandson, John Izenour, his granddaughters, Ann Kristin Stefany and Tessa Izenour, and his great-grandchildren Anya Stefany, Ella Izenour, and Steven Izenour. In a private memorial, his ashes, along with those of his wife Hildegard and his son John, were scattered at sea. Y Mark Blankenship ’05, Contributing Editor, is a freelance theatre critic and arts writer based in New York City.