| Born
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West Hartford CT, April 2, 1944 |
Education
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Williams College, BA in philosophy, cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, 1965
Williamstown Theatre Festival, apprentice, 1964
Yale Drama School in directing, 1965 -67
Yale University Graduate School in philosophy, 1972
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| Career
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1965 -
66
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Montserrat Summer Festival
Theatre, Montserrat, British West Indies - co-founder, co-producer, director, actor, designer |
1967 -
68
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New York Shakespeare Festival -
assistant to Joseph Papp, playreader, assistant director, co-author with Joseph Papp,
The Naked Hamlet
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"Shakespeare's language
remains undisturbed in this version, but Papp's imaginative
scissoring and repasting has sculpted a Hamlet of crystalline
tensity." Time, January 5, 1968, p.55
|
1968-71
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New York Shakespeare Festival - first managing director of the Other
Stage, experimental wing of the NYSF |
1969
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New York Shakespeare Festival - directed No Place to be Somebody
which won the Pulitzer Prize for drama, the first off-Broadway play to
receive that honor.
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"Let's be simple about
this. Charles Gordone is the most astonishing new playwright to
come along since Edward Albee, and with 'No Place to Be
Somebody,' now running in the Public Theatre's downstairs tryout
room he lurches at us...like the ripe and roaring Albee of
'Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?'... Everything, under Ted
Cornell's strict and vigorous stage direction, is extremely well
performed; the cast has been immaculately selected, and the
interplay is the easiest and most effective since 'The Boys in
the Band.' " Walter Kerr, The New York Times, May 18, 1969,
Section 2, p.1, ff.
|
| 1967 -
1991 |
Director of more than 70 theatre
productions for The New York Shakespeare
Festival, The Long Wharf Theatre, Arena Stage,
The Hartford Stage Company, The Indiana Repertory Theatre, Playwrights' Horizons, The Actors Studio,
and The
Brooklyn Academy of Music among others. |
| 1972 -
1973 |
New York Shakespeare Festival -
Associate Director for Television - one of my
responsibilities was to coordinate the production of Sticks
and Bones by David Rabe,
directed by Robert Downey, as a television film produced by the
NYSF for CBS as one of a series of specials. We devised an
original production technique employing one of the portable
video cameras, then used on the sidelines at football games,
which had been specially equipped to accept film lenses.
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"I don't think plays and novels
should be movies; I'm really against it. What I tried to do in 'Sticks
and Bones' was to overcome that inherent impossibility. I think tape is
the answer to every fantasy a filmmaker ever had!" Bob Downey, Sticks
and Bones by Ted Cornell, Peter Powell and Bob Downey, Filmmakers'
Newsletter, Volume 6, Number 7, pp. 20-26
|
| 1975
- 90 |
The Franklin House Tenants Union
- co-founder and first helmsperson of a tenants' group which organized a rent strike and gained control of an
historical building on the
Brooklyn waterfront. My sons continue to live in this landmark
hotel under the Brooklyn Bridge. |
| 1978
|
The Penn Central Railroad -
freight brakeman |
| 1978
- 79 |
The Actors Studio -
co-coordinator of the Playwrights and Directors Unit |
| 1980
|
The Brooklyn Academy of Music -
directed Johnny On a Spot for the BAM Theatre Company.
|
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"...you can't help dreaming about
the ideal cast, including James Cagney, Pat O'Brien, Raymond Walburn and
Joan Blondell. But under Edward Cornell's lickety-split staging, the
Bamsters do nicely...and it's the funniest play in New York..."
Jack Kroll, Newsweek, March 17, 1980, pp. 85, 86
|
|
|
"Stage View, Selected Highlights
of the Season, ...Directors - Edward Cornell lighted the hidden fires of
'Johnny on a Spot.' Peter Brook did everything that could be done to
transcend the trite spiritual message of 'Conference of the Birds,' and
Hal Prince did another kind of snazzy confidence job in sugarcoating Eva
Peron." Frank Rich, The New York Times, June 8, 1980, Section D,
p.1, ff.
|
| 1981
- 89 |
John W. Loofbourrow
Associates, Inc. - Associate - This investment banking firm with
offices at One World Trade Center, specialized in tax exempt
bonds for rural health care institutions. We created and
privately placed bonds ranging in size from two to thirty
million dollars employing original, computer-based derivatives
invented by Loofbourrow. |
| 1981
- 91 |
Ohio University,
Hofstra University, New York University (Circle in the Square) -
Visiting Professor and Acting Instructor, variously, repeated
visits |
| 1990/present
|
Crooked Brook
Studios - purchased and renovated an early twentieth century
farmhouse, barn, and outbuildings on a 140 acre tract of land in
the Adirondack Park in upstate New York. The land is now part of
an undesignated wildlife corridor within the park and is managed
under a 480a New York State logging agreement. Two wetlands and
ponds were created on the property in 1995 by the United States
Department of the Interior under a continuing Fish and Wildlife
Restoration Agreement. The house and barns are my living
quarters and studios and the nearby lands on Crooked Brook are
the site of my environmental sculptures. |
| 1991/present |
The Wadhams Free
Library - volunteer and president of the trustees - beginning in
1996 we carried out a three-year renovation and expansion of the
library in commemoration of its centennial. |
| 1996 |
Crooked Brook
Studios - one man show curated by Atea Ring
|
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"Stillness permeates his works: a
hushed poetry that in its unsentimental and trenchant character recalls
the views of empty roads and impenetrable woods of Edward Hopper."
Susan Alyson Stein, Curator of European Paintings, Metropolitan Museum
of Art, Exhibition Catalogue
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1996 - 2001
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Atea Ring Gallery - gallery
artist |
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1998/present
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The Depot Theatre - board
member, program committee member and actor as part of this LORT D equity
theatre |
|
1999 - 2002
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Town of Essex - chairman of
the planning board - helped write the new comprehensive plan and zoning
ordinance for the town and was central to the creation of the Essex Farm
initiative which introduced production-scaled organic farming
procedures to the Boquet Valley. |
|
1999
|
Adirondack Park Visitor
Interpretive Center - "Two Views" an exhibition of paintings
by Adirondack painters Linda Fisher and Edward Cornell
|
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"For Cornell the wilderness serves
as a window to the modern day rather than a place to hide." Robin
Caudell, The Plattsburgh Press Republican, August 26, 1999, pp. C1, C4
|
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2000
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Crooked Brook Studios - one man
show
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"Almost without fail, motorists
slow down on Walker Road in Wadhams when they catch sight of artist
Edward Cornell's property. His 'Rotating Installation of a Minimally
Processed Found Object' qualifies as a traffic stopper...The sculpture
challenges the viewer's imagination...Some have referred to it as an
Adirondack prayer wheel." Robin Caudell, The Plattsburgh Press
Republican, October 5, 2000, p. C2
|
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2002
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Town of Essex - Election Day, oil
on canvas, 35" x 48," placed on permanent loan to the town,
now hangs in town hall |
|
2003
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The Depot Theatre - donated Depo'
Heat 25 Yea!, oil on canvas, 48" x 48," to the theatre in
celebration of its twenty-fifth anniversary. The design became the logo
of the anniversary celebrations, and the painting now hangs in the
theatre lobby. |
|
2004
|
Merricks Bread and Coffee, Wadhams
NY - The Bakery Show, summer-long, one man show of figurative and
abstract oils |
|
2002/present
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The Diogenes Society -
founding member of this non-partisan advocacy group demanding honesty in
public discourse. Designed the organization's logo and numerous signs
and props. |
|
2002/present
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The Boquet River
Association - as a board member of this local environmental advocacy
group, I re-designed the organization's logo and contribute drawings to
its publications.
|
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2005/present
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Crooked Brook Studios are featured
as the Art Farm on the Adirondack Harvest farm tour offering open
studio access to my paintings and monumental environmental
sculptures. |
|
2007
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The Williams Club, New York City -
Life in the Slow Lane - one man show of oil paintings and
collage, March 29 thru May 10. |
|
2007
|
North Country Cultural Center for the Arts, Plattsburgh, NY - Old Work and New - two man show with John Kokoszka of oil paintings, sculpture and collage, May 12 thru June 18. |
Awards
|
1980
|
Obie Award for outstanding
achievement in directing Johnny on a Spot at the Brooklyn Academy
of Music |
|
2004
|
Mary G. Leggett Award from the
Clinton Essex Franklin Library System - as outstanding trustee in the
Clinton Essex Franklin area |
Selected Bibliography
|
William Shakespeare’s Naked
Hamlet, Joseph Papp assisted by Ted Cornell; The McMillan Co., 1969
Not Since Edward Albee, Walter Kerr, The New York
Times, May 18, 1969, Section 2, p.1, ff.
No Place to be Somebody, Charles Gordone; Bobbs-Merril Company, Inc., 1969
Enter Joseph Papp, Stuart W. Little; Coward, McCann and Geohegan, Inc., 1974
A Dream Grows in Brooklyn, Jack Kroll, Newsweek, March 17, 1980, pp. 85, 86
Joe Papp, An American Life, Helen Epstein; Little, Brown and Company, 1994
A Visit to Crooked Brook, an art farm, Lee Manchester,
Lake Placid News, January 6, 2006, p 21ff.
Art Farm Creations, Kim Smith Dedam, Plattsburgh
Press-Republican, September 7, 2006, C1ff.
Edward Cornell, the Change Artist, Elizabeth Ward,
Adirondack Life, January/February 2007, p.19ff.
Sculptor Ted Cornell Reinvents Self, Brian Mann, North Country Public
Radio, Interview, October 25, 2007
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