(Neil Genzlinger’s article appeared in The New York Times, 9/15; Photo: The playwright Jean-Claude van Itallie in 1999 introducing a reading of “America Hurrah,” his best-known play. A production in Mobile, Ala., lasted two days before the mayor shut it down.Credit…Fran Durner for The New York Times.)
He was a central figure in the experimental theater movement for decades. His best-known work, a trilogy of one-acts, opened in 1966 and ran for more than 630 performances.
His brother, Michael, said the cause was pneumonia.
