Shantigar Foundation
in Western Massachusetts
Arts
Meditation
Nature
Jean-Claude van Itallie, Founder
1936 - 2021
Jean-Claude van Itallie
Scholarship Fund
Meet the Shantigar Team
Jean-Claude van Itallie
(May 25, 1936 - September 9, 2021)
Founder
Jean-Claude van Itallie was a renowned Off-Broadway playwright whose work catalyzed a new era in the revolutionary theatre of the 1960s. His play, America Hurrah, was an Off-Broadway hit, hailed as the watershed political play of the era. As playwright for the Open Theater, Jean-Claude wrote The Serpent with the company. His luminous translations of Chekhov’s major plays are revered by directors and actors. Other plays and operas include Bag Lady, Light, The Tibetan Book of the Dead, and Mila.
Jean-Claude taught theater at Harvard (his alma mater), Yale, Princeton, NYU, Amherst, University of Colorado, Middlebury, Columbia, and other schools.
Didi Goldenhar
Co-Director & Board of Directors
Didi is a writer and strategist on social change whose articles have been featured in The Stanford Social Innovation Review, National Public Radio, and the Open Society Foundation, among others. She is co-author of Leveling the Playing Field, a guide to dismantling gender bias in the social sector.
Didi’s strategy work focuses on city-based transformation through dynamic networks of nonprofits, philanthropy, government, and grassroots organizers. Didi met Jean-Claude in the 1980s; her first job in NYC was assisting him on his translation of Chekhov plays and on his The Tibetan Book of the Dead for Reading Aloud. Their friendship was rooted in their common Belgian background and histories of fleeing WW2.
In 2020, Didi and Jean-Claude presented an online program about her first documentary film, Return to Calais which links her family’s refugee story with the current global crisis.
Deb Katz
Co-Director & Board of Directors
Deb is executive director of Citizens Awareness Network, a grassroots New England organization fighting for clean air, democracy, and environmental justice. CAN was instrumental in the closure of nuclear reactors in MA, VT and CT. Deb collaborates with multiple institutions, including the Massachusetts Department of Health, Harvard School of Public Health, and Clark University, to investigate diseases caused by long-term exposure to radioactive releases from nuclear power reactors. She has testified before Congress, coordinated environmental justice tours and Action Camps, and led a national People's Summit on Nuclear Waste. Her leadership and service has been recognized with a citation from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and a Giraffe Award for her protection of New England reactor communities.
The Valley of the Shadow, her picture book on the grief process for those left behind, includes a foreword by Jean-Claude van Itallie.
Rosemary Quinn
Co-Director & Board of Directors
Rosemary, Director of the Experimental Theatre Wing at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, teaches Acting, Improvisation, and Storytelling. She also works as an actor, director, producer, and community arts activist. Her career includes collaborations with Sam Shepard, Susan Sontag, Joe Chaikin, Robert Ashley, Richard Armstrong, The Other Theater, Mabou Mines, The Talking Band, Three-Legged Dog’s Dyke Division, and many of today’s cutting-edge theater makers.
Rosemary is a member of the National Alliance of Acting Teachers. She teaches voice work at The Roy Hart Theatre of France and has guest-taught at Hampshire College, Williams College, and Princeton University.
For more than forty years, Rosemary worked with Jean-Claude, performed in his plays, including Sunset Freeway, written for her, and they taught together at Naropa and Shantigar. Rosemary produced Jean-Claude's final play, The Fat Lady Sings, at LaMama ETC.
Connie Childs
Board of Directors
Connie met Jean-Claude at a LaMama workshop in 2010. His weaving of theatre and Emilie Conrad's Continuum work was transformative and affirmed Connie's intuition about the wisdom of the body. Moved by Jean-Claude's gift of making people feel deeply seen, she began to visit Shantigar and became a devoted friend. Connie has been a certified personal trainer at the 92nd Street Y and practices Chi Kung, which weaves physical movement and meditation.
Her creative work includes sand tray-play and other forms of art therapy that help people express their stories through symbols. She also has explored shamanism as a pathway to healing and soul retrieval. Connie values Shantigar as a place where people are supported by the peace and space of nature and where they encounter meditation, healing, play, discovery, and a meaningful connection to self and the world.
Rand Engel
Board of Directors
Rand served as director of Balkan Sunflowers (BSF), a humanitarian program in Kosovo from 1999-2015. He is proud that children served by BSF and former BSF volunteers are now leading local and international humanitarian and human rights programs, making films, teaching, and getting the first college degrees in their families. Rand has been Director of the Insight Meditation Society, Vice President of Wisdom Publications, and founder of an energy conservation company and has run garment buying offices in Malaysia and Sri Lanka. His writing has been published in the Boston Globe, Baltimore Sun, International Herald Tribune, and Rantt.com, as well as in Kosovo publications Koha Ditore and Balkan Insight.
He is author of the books Trump’s Corruption: 128++ Examples and Walking the Camino Portuguese—Demons and Delights on the Path. Rand holds the rank of Sandan in Aikido.
Josh Adler
Board of Advisors
Josh is an American artist, filmmaker, and conservationist now based in the Laurentians of Quebec. Josh works across many sectors to design and produce tech, science, civic programs, and original content that create common ground while exploring compelling questions in science, health, and social justice. Along the way he's contributed to projects for Netflix, Amazon, HBO, National Geographic, Discovery, VICE, Open Earth Foundation, diverse online and print publications, conferences, arts programs and festivals, and educational institutions. He is currently co-producing a podcast with Indigenous Led, due to launch in Spring 2025. Other recent projects include co-creating the film: The Quest for Sleep, narrated by actress Octavia Spencer. In recent years, Josh has devoted himself to exploring the intersection of land stewardship and enterprise, hosting diverse groups at Shantigar, including Acadians Unite, Regen Network, BioFi Project, and the Indigenous Collective.
Michael Schreiber
Board of Advisors
Michael is a teaching artist and leadership coach who brings theatre techniques, meditative practices, and business acumen to a wide range of clients. He is currently building The Black Box, an online space for regenerative personal and professional development. Trained as an actor and director, Michael has served as Shantigar’s Program Director and co-led its Meditation Challenges and online Home Theatre Workshops, created by Jean-Claude during the pandemic.
Michael launched the Young Artists program (YAP) which brought students from LaGuardia Community College in NYC to Shantigar and connected them to nature, meditation, and creativity.
Michael produced a video library of Jean-Claude showing "Games of Transformation", drawn from his book Tea with Demons. In recent years, Michael has focused on how organizations serve and enliven their ecological ecosystems and facilitates gatherings at Shantigar dedicated to regenerative land use and stewardship.
Marisa Viola
Board of Advisors
Marisa has been meditating and studying Buddhism since 2008. She took Refuge and Boddhisattva vows in the Tibetan Buddhist Gelugpa tradition with Venerable Robina Courtin and has studied with the Venerable Thich Nhat Hahn and other great teachers of various lineages. Marisa began teaching in 2013 after completing the Interdependence Project's Immersion and Teacher Training Program with Ethan Nichtern.
Marisa has taught meditation in monasteries, universities, corporations, prisons, and hospitals. As a faculty member of MNDFL in New York City, she taught thousands of classes and special events; she also served as a mentor in their teacher training program.
Marisa has co-led online meditation programs at Shantigar, including seasonal Meditation Challenges, weekly meditation sanghas, and Lojong studies. She also offers online meditation sessions and teachings through MNDFL, the Open Heart Project, and Shantideva Center, as well as one-on-one.
Veronique Bryant
Outreach & Design
Veronique has assisted Jean-Claude with his Shantigar, his design, and his translations for more than 10 years until his passing. For Shantigar, Veronique provides photography and graphic design and keeps our community connected through social media and newsletters. She has over 30 years of experience as an administrative and executive assistant in the Netherlands and the US and when she’s not assisting The Shantigar Foundation, she works with her clients on bookkeeping, graphic design, and grant writing. Away from the computer screen, she is a mosaic and watercolor artist, and loves recycled and upcycled fashion design. Veronique is also a passionate polyglot and traveler whose recent journeys have included Iceland, Spain, and Argentina.
Peter Columbus
Operations
Peter is a devoted Zen practitioner and a leading expert on the work of Alan Watts. His edited anthologies include Alan Watts—Here and Now: Contributions to Psychology, Philosophy and Religion and The Relevance of Alan Watt in Contemporary Culture, among others. He also lectures on Watts and Zen Buddhism at colleges and universities.
Peter manages day-to-day operations at Shantigar and serves as its workshop administrator, ensuring that participants are welcomed and made comfortable throughout their stay.