RONALD TAVEL
Ronald Tavel - Self Portrait (ca. 1962)
(© Ronald Tavel)
"One of the greatest American playwrights. My favorite American writer."
(Michael Silverblatt, The Bookworm radio show syndicated on 40 U.S. stations)Ronald Tavel is currently working on a novel set in Bangkok where he has lived for the past ten years. After leaving Andy Warhol's factory, Tavel continued to write plays, novels, articles and poems. His first stage production was based on scripts he wrote for Warhol - Shower and The Life of Juanita Castro - performed on July 29, 1965 at the Coda Gallery in New York under the moniker "The Theatre of the Ridiculous" - a term he originally came up with in college while studying the Theatre of the Absurd. His choice of the term was explained in a one-line manifesto in the program for the evening: “We have passed beyond the absurd: our position is absolutely preposterous.” Tavel's work is available on his website www.ronald-tavel.com.