Michael Stanley Kirby ’53

With deep regret we report that Mike Kirby died Feb. 24, 1997, in NYC.

He graduated from Rye [N.Y.] H.S. with Jack McCarthy and both joined Dial Lodge. Mike majored in psychology, was production manager for WPRU, served on the Undergraduate Council, and was enrolled in the Creative Arts Program. After graduation, Mike received his MFA in directing from Boston U. and then a PhD from BU's drama department. Mike taught at the Tisch School of Arts from 197191. He had joined Tisch as a member of what was then the graduate drama department and became professor emeritus in 1991. While at NYU, Mike was editor of the Drama Review (from 197185) and authored a number of groundbreaking books which were critical to defining the emerging field of performance studies. His first book, Happenings, published in 1965, was one of the first serious studies of the formal and aesthetic implications of performance art.

Mike was also an accomplished sculptor, playwright, and extraordinary actor. He was a member of The Wooster Group from 1983-90, and he appeared in films as diverse as Woody Allen's Another Woman in 1988 and Peter Sellers's The Cabinet of Dr. Ramires in 1991. Sincere sympathy to Mike's wife, Cathy Kirby.

The Class of 1953