Falling Into Theatre—and Finding Myself

This engaging memoir is presented as a series of lucky breaks, or surprise turning points in the story that led to Robert Cohen's dramatic success in theatre arts. In retrospect, it would have been a great surprise had Cohen not ended up in theatre arts, given his early fascination with the stage, his chance at a young age to see original cast productions of Broadway plays, and the influence of his uncle, Marty Goldblatt, a publicist for Columbia Pictures who hobnobbed with celebrities of stage and screen. It was inevitable-Robert Cohen became a man of the theatre, not only as an actor but also as a professional playwright, translator, director, lighting designer, translator, theatre critic and scholar, and as the builder from the ground up of the University of California at Irvine's prestigious drama department, where he continues to serve as Claire Trevor Professor of Drama. His twenty-plus books include major works on acting (Acting Power: the 21st Century Edition) and on acting careers (Acting Professionally, Working Together in Theatre) and theatre appreciation (Theatre and Theatre: Brief Edition), along with his translations of classical plays (by Moliere and Machiavelli) and modern plays of his own.