John Edward Blankenchip Memorial Celebration

Saturday, September 12, 2009 - 4:30 to 6:30 p.m.

Bing Theatre

To RSVP, please email sotevent@usc.edu or call (213) 740-3149.

John Edward Blankenchip, Emeritus Professor of the USC School of Theatre, died on April 1 in Los Angeles after a brief illness. Active until the very end, he continued to teach classes in directing and experimental theatre at the School until a month before he passed away at the age of 89.

Blankenchip joined the University of Southern California in1955, just a decade after the Department of Drama was founded by playwright and director William C. DeMille. Born in Independence, Kansas in 1919, he earned a B.F.A. in design and directing from Carnegie-Mellon in 1941. He immediately went to Yale University, attaining an M.F.A. in design and directing in 1943. For the next three years, first as assistant to designer Harry Horner and then on his own, he designed scenery, costumes and lighting both on and off-Broadway. From Broadway, Blankenchip moved to teaching. After eight years on the faculty of Sarah Lawrence College, he decided to spend his 1955 sabbatical working as a designer at USC. James H. Butler, then head of the drama department, wisely offered him a teaching position. Professor Blankenchip accepted and had been teaching at USC ever since.

Professor Blankenchip founded, produced, and directed Festival Theatre USC-USA, a company comprised of USC students and alumni who were the first American artists to perform on the Fringe of the Edinburgh International Festival. From 1966 to 2005, the company mounted 23 seasons on the Fringe, performed in London, Amsterdam, and Paris and completed three tours for the AMERIKA Houses in Germany for the U.S. State Department. He received Fringe First Awards for the British premieres of Buried Child and Follies. He directed the critically acclaimed production of Vivien at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, in London, off-Broadway and in Los Angeles at the Tiffany Theatre. Professor Blankenchip also designed at Tanglewood, the Guild Opera, and the La Jolla Playhouse, directed and designed for the Ebony Showcase, and was Ray Bradbury’s preferred designer at his Pandemonium Theatre Company.

Blankenchip's professionalism manifested itself through former students who have gone on to successful careers both in and out of the theatre. He played a key role in developing the original B.F.A. and M.F.A. theatre programs at USC, and from almost the beginning, has been vital to the School of Theatre’s growing excellence. In celebration of Blankenchip's golden anniversary of service to USC, the School of Theatre established the John Blankenchip Visiting Artist Endowment in 2005.

Blankenchip was buried in his native state of Kansas.

If you would like to make a donation to the John Blankenchip/William C. White Scholarship Fund, please contact Chris Cook, Assistant Dean of Development, at 213.821.4047 or email cc.cook@usc.edu. Donations over $500 will be acknowledged at the event.