Leon Katz

Leon Katz is professor emeritus of drama at Yale University, a playwright, and a scholar primarily known for his interviews with Alice B. Toklas, the companion of Gertrude Stein, over four months in 1952-53. Although the interviews and their interpretations have served as the basis for much Stein scholarship over the years, Katz's original notes have yet to be shared with other scholars, and the dissertation based on the notes remains unpublished, as noted by Stein biographer Janet Malcolm. [cite news|last=Kirsch|first=Adam|url=http://www.nysun.com/article/63871?page_no=1|title=In Search of Stein"| publisher="New York Sun"|date=October 3, 2007]

In October 2007, Katz plans to give a public lecture and performance based on his time spent with Toklas in her Paris apartment. Titled "An Evening With Leon Katz," the performance will be staged using reproductions of art and some original furniture from Stein and Toklas's apartment. [http://www.etc.cmu.edu/global_news/?q=node/46 "An Evening with Leon Katz,"] "ETC Global News", September 24, 2007.]

Besides his association with Toklas, Katz is known for his body of plays, which have been adapted and performed both in the United States and internationally. His plays include "The Three Cuckolds, Sonya, Dracula: Sabbat, Son of Arlecchino, GBS in Love, Beds, Pinocchio, Finnegan's Wake, The Marquis de Sade’s Justine, Amerika, The Odyssey, Swellfoot’s Tears, The Dybbuk, Remembrance of Things Past," and "The Making of Americans" (an opera based on Stein’s novel, with music by composer Al Carmines).

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