Early years Ball was born in
Chicago, Illinois, on April 29, 1931. His parents were Russell Ball and Catherine Gormaly. He has two brothers and a sister: Russell Ball, Donald Ball and Cathie Ball. He attended
Iona Preparatory School and
Fordham University. From 1953 through 1955, he studied acting, design, and directing at the Fine Arts School of Carnegie Institute of Technology (which later became
Carnegie Mellon University).
Career Ball founded the
American Conservatory Theater in
Pittsburgh in 1965. In 1979, ACT received the Tony Award for excellence in regional theatre. Ball was often provocative. His interpretation of Albee's
Tiny Alice brought threat of a lawsuit from the playwright, who tried to withhold the performance rights only to discover that they had never been granted in the first place. Some observers thought that Ball's operatic production (with an added aside condemning the Vietnam war) may have solved some problems inherent in the text. Ball was the author of the book,
A Sense of Direction: Some Observations on the Art of Directing (1984). He appeared in
Suburban Commando and has a nonspeaking cameo in
Foul Play as a bishop attending the pope, portrayed by ACT benefactor
Cyril Magnin.
New York City Opera At the
New York City Opera, from 1959 to 1964, Ball directed productions of Weisgall's
Six Characters in Search of an Author (world premiere, with
Beverly Sills), Mozart's
Così fan tutte (with
Phyllis Curtin), Egk's
The Inspector General (with the composer conducting), Gershwin's
Porgy and Bess (with
Julius Rudel conducting), Britten's ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' (with
Tatiana Troyanos as Hippolyta), Mozart's
Don Giovanni (with
Norman Treigle in the title role), and Hoiby's
Natalia Petrovna (world premiere).
Personal life On July 30, 1991, Ball died in
Los Angeles, California. ==Bibliography==