Michael shurtleff biography

OBITUARY NOTICE—

See index for CA sketch: Born July 30, 1930, in Oak Park, IL; died January 28, 2007, in Los Angeles, CA. Director, educator, and author. Shurtleff was a well-known casting director for Broadway and movies who also wrote Off-Broadway plays and the respected advice book Audition: Everything an Actor Needs to Know to Get the Part. After graduating with a B.A. from Lawrence University and completing an M.F.A. from Yale in 1952, he worked his way from the bottom up on Broadway. By 1959 Shurtleff was a casting director for David Merrick and helped hire actors for such 1960s hits as Carnival! and Oliver! He had become so successful that in 1962 he started his own company, Casting Consultants, which cast actors for such Broadway shows as Jesus Christ Superstar, Chicago, and Pippin. Shurtleff has also been credited with helping to start the careers of many actors and performers, including Robert Redford, Bette Midler, and Gene Hackman. Some say it was Shurtleff, too, who deserves the credit for discovering Barbra Streisand. An author himself, Shurtleff was critically praised for his Off- and Off-Off-Broadway plays, including Call Me by My Rightful Name (1961), A Day in the Life Of (1969), and Take Very Good Care of Yourself (1972). Founding the Shurtleff Studio for How to Audition Classes in 1964, the director taught actors tips on how to best win parts. He published his advice in Audition (1978), which is considered by many thespians to be the bible of how to audition. In his later life, Shurtleff suffered from lung cancer and other illnesses.

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Los Angeles Times, February 15, 2007, p. B11.

New York Times, February 12, 2007, p. A23.

American dramatist

Michael Shurtleff (July 3, 1920, in Oak Park, Illinois – January 28, 2007, in Los Angeles, California) was a major force in casting on Broadway during the 1960s and 1970s. He wrote Audition, a book for actors on the audition process. He also wrote numerous one-act and full-length plays.

Early life

Charles Gordon Shurtleff was born in Oak Park, Illinois and attended Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin and the Yale School of Drama, where he received his MFA in playwriting in 1952. He moved to New York City after graduation and changed his first name to Michael. He has two brothers, John and Roger.

Career

Shurtleff was the major casting director for producer David Merrick. During the casting process he would bring in to audition for the play's director such new names as Elliott Gould, Barbra Streisand, Gene Hackman, Dustin Hoffman, Bette Midler and Jerry Orbach. Shurtleff worked with Bob Fosse on Pippin and Chicago, and Andrew Lloyd Webber on Jesus Christ Superstar.

Shurtleff went on to form his own casting service, Casting Consultants, in 1962. Among the Broadway productions on which he acted as casting director were the original productions of 1776, The Apple Tree and Chicago. He served as casting director on such films as The Graduate and The Sound of Music. In his book Audition, he addressed common problems for actors during the audition process, problems he had witnessed many times over in his casting sessions. The book has become somewhat of a "bible for aspiring actors."

Shurtleff wrote the play Call Me By My Rightful Name. He had plays published in The Best Short Plays Series, of which the 1979 edition includes his popular "Sailing."

Death

Shurtleff died of lung cancer, aged 86, at his home in Los Angeles, California.

References