Christopher Lukas

The Player, in ROSENCRANTZ AND GUILDENSTERN ARE DEAD.

Otto, in JACKRABBIT SKY, a feature film

Biography


Writer, Director, Producer, Actor


VIDEO/​TELEVISION
2009-Present
Director/​camera/​editor: The Choreographer, a one-hour documentary; The Cellist, one hour documentary; JumpCuts, two hour film on Charles Mingus III.

2005-2008
Senior Producer/​Co-Writer: “The Mystery Of Love,” two-hour documentary for PBS; Producer/​Writer, Edward R. Murrow Awards for the Radio & Television News Directors’ Association (yearly); Producer/​Director/​camera, “Art & Music,” documentary for the Art Students’ League. Producer/​Director/​Camera, public service videos for the Ovarian Cancer National Allicance, International Rescue Committee, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

1997-2005
Producer/​Writer/​Director: Six videos for Last Acts (a coalition of 700 non-profit health organizations, funded by Robert Wood Johnson, with the goal of changing America’s way of dealing with dying.) Nine videos for the Union of American Hebrew Congregations (see next page for details). Videos on advance directives for the Citizen’s Committee for Health Care Decisions. Videos for Hazelden Foundation, Symphony Space, American Jewish Committee. DVD for the Darthmouth Medical School.

1987-1997
Sr. Producer/​Director/​Writer, Alvin H. Perlmutter, Inc. Responsible for script & proposal writing, supervising production teams, directing, producing.
1979-1986
Chairman and Professor, Department of Film & Video, City College of New York.
1974-1979
Producer/​Director, National Programming -- KQED, San Francisco’s public television center. Senior Producer/​Head Writer, Pilot and first season of Over Easy, hosted by Hugh Downs.
1973-1974
Head Writer, Villa Alegre, bilingual daily children’s series on PBS.
1963-1971
WNET: Director of Cultural Programming, Director of Programming, Supervision of programming nominated for 25 Emmy Awards, winning 12. Producer/​Writer, one hundred and fifty hours of primetime programming.
OTHER POSITIONS
Consultant, WNET, 1982-1983
Consultant, PBS, National Endowment for the Arts, and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, 1978.
Film Advisory Panel, New York State Council on the Arts, '81-'82.
Advisory Panel, National Endowment for the Humanities, '82-'83.

EDUCATION
B.A. SWARTHMORE COLLEGE. HIGH HONORS, PHI BETA KAPPA, 1956.

BOOKS:
Directing for Film & Television - 1985 (Doubleday), 2001 (Allworth Books)
Silent Grief: Living in the Wake of Suicide -1988 (Scribners, Bantam Books), 1998, (Jason Aronson). Also published in Brazil, Russia, England, and China.
Staying in Charge: Practical Plans for the End of Your Life (John Wiley & Son; 2004). The First Year: Prostate Cancer (Marlowe Books, 2005)
Blue Genes: A memoir of Loss and Survival (2008, Doubleday)

ACTING
2010: Another Part of the Forest (L. Hellman St. Clement's Theatre, NYC.
2009: Narrator: The Battle at Pussy-Willow Creek (Feature film)
2008: The Antibody (Aery Theatre) (A one-man play I wrote)
2007: Lead role, feature film: Jackrabbit Sky
2007: East Village Chronicles #4 (Metropolitan Playhouse)
2006: Krapp’s Last Tape, (Symphony Space, NYC)
2006: Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead. Community Theatre




Selected Works

Memoir
My family history of depression
Theatre piece and, soon to be a full length documentary
A one-act, one-man tragic-comedy about life and death.
Non-fiction book
How to conceptualize for film and television directing.
Self-help; supportive
How to deal with the suicide of a loved one.
Medical
How to deal with chronic illness -- psychologically and logistically.