Wynn Handman, Director and Co-Founder of the American Place Theatre, Dies at 97

BroadwayWorld is saddened to report that Wynn Handman, co-founder of the American Place Theatre, has died at age 97. Handman's daughter, Laura Handman, confirmed that his cause of death was COVID-19-related illness.

Handman was the Artistic Director of The American Place Theatre, which he co-founded with Sidney Lanier and Michael Tolan in 1963.

Handman directed many plays at the American Place Theatre, including Manchild in the Promised Land, I Stand Before You Naked by Joyce Carol Oates, Words, No Music by Calvin Trillin, Drinking in America by Eric Bogosian, A Girl's Guide to Chaos by Cynthia Heimel, Free Speech in America, and Bibliomania by Roger Rosenblatt, with Ron Silver, Coming Through (which Handman also adapted), Spokesman written and performed by John Hockenberry, Fly by Joseph Edward, and Dreaming in Cuban and Other Works: Rhythm, Rum, Café con Leche and Nuestros Abuelos by Cristina García and Michael Garcés.

Also serving as a teacher for many years, Handman taught a slew of well-known actors, including Alec Baldwin, Michael Douglas, Mia Farrow, Richard Gere, Joel Grey, Allison Janney, Raul Julia, Frank Langella, John Leguizamo, Susan Lucci, Burt Reynolds, Christopher Walken, Denzel Washington, and many more.

Handman has received many awards and honors, including the 1999 Obie for Sustained Achievement, the Lucille Lortel Award for Lifetime Achievement in 1993, the Rosetta LeNoire Award in 1994, two Audelco for Excellence in Black Theatre Awards, the Carnegie Mellon Drama Commitment to Playwriting Award in 1996, and the Working Theatre's Sanford Meisner Service Award in 2001. Handman also received The Townsend Harris Medal from the Alumni Association of City College of New York, "in recognition of his distinguished contributions to his chosen field of work and the welfare of his fellow men." In 2003, he was awarded a Doctor of Humane Letters by the University of Miami.