Luke Yankee
Spring 2006
Luke Yankee has directed, produced, taught, lectured and acted throughout the country and abroad. He has run two regional theatres, serving as Producing Artistic Director of the Long Beach Civic Light Opera (one of the largest musical theatres in America) and the Struthers Library theatre, a historic landmark in northwestern Pennsylvania.
As a filmmaker, Luke wrote and directed the short film, "Help Is On The Way" starring Lois DeBanzie. He also created "E.H. On Film: An Eileen Heckart Retrospective" and "Barbara Eden: Still Dreaming".
He has taught and guest directed extensively at colleges, universities and conservatories throughout the U.S. and abroad, including five years at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, Northwestern, Ohio State, AMDA, Denison, University of New Mexico, the Folkwang Hochschule (in Essen, Germany) and three years on the faculty of Columbia College-Hollywood. For the past six years, he has been a panelist and guest instructor at the William Inge Theatre Festival, where he has perfomed with Marybeth Hurt, Holland Taylor and George Grizzard. He is also a member of their Advisory Board. He is currently on the faculty of The American Musical and Dramatic Academy (AMDA), teaching advanced acting and scene study.
Luke has studied at the Juilliard School of Drama, New York University, Northwestern University, Circle in the Square and the Herbert Berghof Studio.
He is the son of the late Eileen Heckart, who won an Academy Award for "Butterflies Are Free" and appeared in over 15 feature films, 20 Broadway plays, and countless television programs. Ms. Heckart is a member of the Theatre Hall of Fame and a multiple Emmy and Tony Award winner. In her honor, Luke recently created the Eileen Heckart Memorial Scholaship Fund at Ohio State University, her alma mater.
Currently, Luke is the casting director for the Los Angeles based, syndicated TV spot, "Hero In Education". He also recently served as part of a Presidential Blue Ribbon Task Force to create a theatre piece on drug and alcohol abuse, which will tour to high schools and colleges throughout the country.
He has co-written (with James Bontempo) his first play, "A Place At Forest Lawn", based on the award-winning one-act play by Lorees Yerby. Winner of the New Noises Festival Playwrighting Award for 2003, it received a workshop production last June in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, which Luke also directed. In addition, he directed staged readings of the play on both coasts in 2002. The Off-Broadway cast included Frances Sternhagen, Marian Seldes, George Grizzard and Tony Goldwyn. The Los Angeles cast included Betty White, Marian Ross, John Glover, Marcia Cross and Steven Culp. Plans are currently underway for an Off-Broadway production.
Recently, Luke created DIVA DISH, a one-man show he is touring around the country. It is a multi-media presentation of show business anecdotes, rare stills and video footage on "divas" ranging from Marilyn Monroe and Marlene Dietrich to Paul Newman and Ellen Degeneres. He has performed DIVA DISH around the country and on both coasts to highly enthusiastic audiences. He is currently in negotiations for a book deal.
Related Events:
Diva Dish , April 21 & 22, 2006 8:00pm
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