I’m especially saddened to report to you the news of Nick Rudall’s having died a few days ago on June 19, in Tucson, Arizona, where he was staying with his daughter and her family. You may have heard this news already, since he was so widely known and loved and admired. Nick is a person whom I cherished as a friend and colleague. We both came to the University shortly before 1970, where Nick did splendid work with Court Theatre and with the student University Theater. With the University ‘s assistance he built the Court Theatre Building near to the Smart Museum. He continued there as actor and director until he was succeeded in 1994 by Charles Newell. Nick remained a much-honored member of the Court Theatre family. He provided the theatre with new translations of three Greek tragedies, that were performed just recently on succeeding years.

Born in Wales in 1940, Nick studied and practiced his thespian skills at Cambridge and then at Cornell University. He came to the University of Chicago as a professor of classical languages and literature in addition to his immense contribution as the founding genius of Court Theatre. He translated many plays from Classical Greece and also from modern European drama, most of them published by Ivan R. Dee of Chicago. I am happy and honored to quote from the Wikipedia article on him as follows: “Among undergraduates, Rudall is known particularly for his work with prominent Shakespearean David Bevington, with whom he created and co-taught a two-quarter sequence entitled ‘History and Theory of Drama’.” He and I did indeed begin and co-teach a course in drama from the ancient Greeks down to Tom Stoppard and Tony Kushner. He was a superb director, here and in many places around the world. Many people admired him for, among other things, his reading of Dylan Thomas’s “A Child’s Christmas in Wales.” Amazingly enough, he summoned what strength he had left in his few remaining months of his life to complete a remarkable play about Osip Mandelstam, which was read aloud in a staged reading at Court Theater two or three weeks ago, just before he died. Nick was great friends with Rory Childers, of our medical school, who also greatly admired Mandelstam; Nick and Rory, and Bernie Sahlins, were all extraordinary raconteurs about theater. All three are no longer with us, and I scarcely know how to imagine the world without them.

-David Bevington, Secretary of Faculty Emeriti and co-chair of the Emeriti Steering Committee

Read Professor Rudall's memorial notices in UChicago News, PerformInk and the Chicago Tribune. The memorial service will be held on September 17 at 6pm.