Kenneth Bernard

{{Short description|American author, poet, and playwright (1930–2020)}}

{{about||the American public health physician|Kenneth Bernard (public health officer)}}

File:Kenneth Otis Bernard.jpg

{{Use mdy dates|date=April 2014}}

Kenneth Otis Bernard (May 7, 1930 – August 9, 2020) was an American author, poet, and playwright.{{cite web|url = https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/20/theater/kenneth-bernard-dead.html|title = Kenneth Bernard, Convention-Shattering Playwright, Dies at 90|last = Neil|first = Genzlinger|date = August 20, 2020|access-date = August 20, 2020|work = The New York Times|archive-url = https://archive.today/20200820194836/https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/20/theater/kenneth-bernard-dead.html|archive-date = August 20, 2020|url-status = live}}

Bernard was born in Brooklyn and raised in Framingham, Massachusetts; he lived his adult life in New York City.{{Cite news|url=https://www.pw.org/content/kenneth_bernard_2|title=Kenneth Bernard|work=Poets & Writers|access-date=2018-05-29|language=en}} He married Elaine Ceil Reiss in 1952 and they had three children, Lucas, Judd, and Katey.

Bernard was involved in the Off-Off-Broadway movement throughout the 1970s and into the 1980s, often working with the Playhouse of the Ridiculous at La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club in the East Village of Manhattan. The first production he contributed to was Jackie Curtis's Heaven Grand in Amber Orbit, which opened in 1969 and was first produced at La MaMa in 1970. Bernard wrote the lyrics with Curtis and Tom Murrin; the production was directed by John Vaccaro and performed by the Playhouse of the Ridiculous.La MaMa Archives Digital Collections. [https://catalog.lamama.org/Detail/Occurrences/675 "Production: Heaven Grand in Amber Orbit (1970)". Accessed May 29, 2018.]

Bernard's play, Night Club, or Bubi's Hide-Away, was produced at La MaMa by the Playhouse of the Ridiculous later in 1970, and featured Ondine in the title role.La MaMa Archives Digital Collections. [https://catalog.lamama.org/Detail/Occurrences/757 "Production: Night Club, or Bubi's Hide-Away (1970)". Accessed May 29, 2018.] Vaccaro directed a second play by Bernard in 1970, The Monkeys of the Organ Grinder, which was performed by the London-based La MaMa ensemble [https://catalog.lamama.org/Detail/Entities/1771 The Wherehouse].La MaMa Archives Digital Collections. [https://catalog.lamama.org/Detail/Occurrences/765 "Production: Monkeys of the Organ Grinder, The (1970)". Accessed May 29, 2018.] Vaccaro directed the Playhouse of the Ridiculous in Bernard's The Magic Show of Dr. Ma-gico in 1973,La MaMa Archives Digital Collections. [https://catalog.lamama.org/Detail/Occurrences/1214 "Production: Magic Show of Dr. Ma-gico, The (1973)". Accessed May 29, 2018.] and in The Sixty Minute Queer Show in 1977,La MaMa Archives Digital Collections. [https://catalog.lamama.org/Detail/Occurrences/1775 "Production: Sixty Minute Queer Show (1977)". Accessed May 29, 2018.] both at La MaMa.

In 1981, Vaccaro directed another production of Night Club, or Bubi's Hide-Away at La MaMa,La MaMa Archives Digital Collections. [https://catalog.lamama.org/Detail/Occurrences/2355 "Production: Night Club, or Bubi's Hide-Away (1981)". Accessed May 29, 2018.] and in 1984 directed a production of Bernard's La Fin du Cirque.La MaMa Archives Digital Collections. [https://catalog.lamama.org/Detail/Occurrences/2584 "Production: La Fin du Cirque (1984)". Accessed May 29, 2018.]

He received Guggenheim, Rockefeller, National Endowment for the Arts, National Endowment for the Humanities, New York Creative Artists Public Service, and New York Foundation for the Arts fellowships and grants.

Bernard was the author of eleven books, including the novel From The District File{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LPKqKeNcF-8C|title=From the District File|last=Bernard|first=Kenneth|date=1992|publisher=University of Alabama Press|isbn=9780932511539|language=en}} and Clown at Wall: A Kenneth Bernard Reader.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ab2wAAAAIAAJ|title=Clown at Wall: A Kenneth Bernard Reader|last=Bernard|first=Kenneth|date=1996|publisher=Confrontation Press|isbn=9780913057483|language=en}} His final book, "The Man in the Stretcher: Previously Uncollected Short Fiction," was published by Starcherone Books in 2005. {{Cite book|title=The Man in the Stretcher|last=Bernard|first=Kenneth|date=2005|publisher=Starcherone Books|isbn=9780970316561|language=en}}

Bernard died August 9, 2020, in Manhattan.{{Cite web|url=https://www.actualitte.com/article/monde-edition/mort-de-kenneth-bernard-ecrivain-qui-echappait-aux-standards-habituels/102169|title = Mort de Kenneth Bernard, écrivain qui "échappait aux standards habituels"}}