Playwright Charles Marowitz Passes Away at 80

According to published reports, playwright Charles Marowitz passed away on May 2 in Agoura Hills from complications of Parkinson's disease. He was 80 years old.

Marowitz was an American critic, theatre director, and playwright, regular columnist on Swans Commentary. He was perhaps best known for being a "close collaborator" with Peter Brook at theRoyal Shakespeare Company and for founding and directing The Open Space Theatre, both in London.

He is also the co-founder of Encore magazine which was published between 1954 and 1965, and co-editor of The Encore Reader: A Chronicle of the New Drama (1965). He was a regular contributor to publications such as The New York Times,The Times (London), TheaterWeek, and American Theatre and was the lead critic on the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner until it ceased publication.

He was additionally the author of Murdering Marlowe, which imagines a rivalry between William Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe, which was selected as a finalist for the GLAAD Media Awards of 2002, and of the 1987 Broadway playSherlock's Last Case with Frank Langella in the lead role. His free translations of Shakespeare have been collected in The Marowitz Shakespeare.