SCHENKER, JOEL W.

SCHENKER, JOEL W. (1904–1985), U.S. theatrical producer and builder. Born in Manhattan, Schenker attended New York University and went into the real-estate business. But he also worked as an actor and co-wrote a play, This Our House, which folded after two performances on Broadway in 1935. He swore off the theater for years. In the construction field, he headed the Gregory-Roth-Schenker Construction Corporation and the Webb & Knapp Construction Corporation, building housing for veterans after World War II and then high-rise apartment houses and office buildings. He became prominent as a producer or co-producer of serious theater after he and Cheryl Crawford revived Sean O'Casey's Shadow of a Gunman in a widely hailed Actors Studio production. His first commercial hit on Broadway, A Far Country (1961), was Henry Denker's drama about Sigmund Freud. He then produced Seidman and Son (1963) with Sam Levene, and, in the same year, A Case of Libel, again by Denker and inspired by the book My Life in Court by louis nizer . Schenker was a mainstay of the American Shakespeare Festival, serving as a trustee and executive producer. He also raised funds and served as an officer of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America and the building division of the United Jewish Appeal. (Stewart Kampel (2nd ed.)