• Professor, Comparative Literature
• Professor, Performing Arts

Schvey

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• Ph.D. at Indiana University

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'The play's the thing' for Shakespearean expert Marjorie Garber explores Shakespeare's impact on modern culture Feb. 13, 2006 -- Courtesy photo Marjorie Garber Download Gleaned from her popular lectures covering three decades, Garber's 2004 book, Shakespeare After All, offers fresh meditations on the Bard's plays in an erudite and entertaining fashion. She is a professor of English and director of the Humanities Center at Harvard University. The talk, which is free and open to the public, will be held at 4 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 23, in Edison Theatre.

His 'Blue Period' Previously unknown Tennessee Williams poem found in the budding playwright's 1937 Greek exam April 8, 2005 -- Tennessee Williams' 'blue' book Download A piece of literary history has returned to Washington University in St. Louis, thanks to a fortuitous find in a New Orleans bookstore. In 2004, Henry I. Schvey, Ph.D., professor and chair of the university's Performing Arts Department in Arts & Sciences, co-directed the world premiere of "Me, Vashya," a one-act play written in 1937 by then-student Tennessee Williams. Only weeks later, Schvey happened upon another important Williams-related artifact from 1937: a small blue Washington University test booklet containing what appears to be Williams' Greek final, which he had worried about passing, as well as a previously unknown poem. It is assumed Williams wrote the 17-line poem, which he appropriately titled "Blue Song," in the back of the booklet while taking his exam.

Staging The Awakening Original adaptation of controversial classic debuts at Edison Theatre Oct. 14-17, Missouri Historical Society Oct 28-29 Sept. 16, 2004 -- Joe Angeles/WUSTL Photo Services "The Awakening" Download The Awakening (1899) by St. Louis author Kate Chopin (1850-1904) was perhaps the most controversial novel of its day. In October, Washington University's Performing Arts Department in Arts & Sciences will mark the centennial of Chopin's death with an original stage adaptation of The Awakening by Henry I. Schvey, Ph.D., chair and professor in the PAD. Performances begin Oct. 14-17 in Edison Theater, and continue Oct. 28 and 29 at the Missouri Historical Society.

Hand in Hand to Hell Shakespearean actor Gareth Armstrong to present lecture/performance on Richard III and Macbeth April 28 March 23, 2004 -- Armstrong Download Shakespearean actor Gareth Armstrong, a former member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, will present Hand in Hand to Hell: Richard III and Macbeth—An Actor's Perspective, the fifth annual Helen Clanton Morrin Lecture, for Washington University's Performing Arts Department (PAD) in Arts & Sciences April 28.

'Surprising little play' 20 years after his death, a Tennessee Williams' work is staged for the first time Dec. 19, 2003 -- Photo courtesy of Washington University Archives A Tennessee Williams play will be staged for the first time. Download Twenty years after his death, one of Tennessee Williams' plays is seeing the light of a stage for the first time. "Me Vashya," an early play by Williams, will receive its world premiere at Washington University in St. Louis in February. Written in 1937 while Williams was a student here and known as Tom, his birth name, the play has remained in Washington University archives for more than 60 years. It has never been published or performed — until now.

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Unpublished Williams poem found in bookstore Associated Press and 115 others April 15, 2005 -- A previously unpublished poem by Tennessee Williams, described as having been "written out of absolute, complete despair," has been discovered in his blue test booklet from a college course in 1937. The poem has been acquired by WUSTL, where Williams, as a student in his mid-20s, plummeted into depression before fleeing the city he said he despised. WUSTL performing arts chair Henry Schvey found the poem and test booklet last March at Faulkner House Books in New Orleans.

More recently, he has turned his attention to writing. His first play, Hannah's Shawl, first commissioned by the St. Louis Holocaust Museum and Learning Center in 1999, was performed on Holocaust Remembrance Day before more than one thousand people. A revised, two-act version of Hannah's Shawl, under the direction of Annamaria Pileggi, was staged at Washington University in 2000. He has also completed a novel, The Poison Tree, and an original stage adaptation of Kate Chopin's novella The Awakening, which will be performed in the fall of 2004. This past summer, he participated in the inaugural Playwriting Workshop sponsored by the American College Theatre Festival at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.

He has been married to his wife Patty for thirty-three years, and has two daughters, Jerusha and Natasha, a son Aram, and far too many dogs and cats to mention by name. Although born in New York, he has been a rabid Cardinals fan since 1968.