Richard Gilman, noted theater critic and former professor at the Yale School of Drama, passed away last fall at his home in Kusatsu, Japan at the age of 83.

Yale University Press published three books by Mr. Gilman: Chekhov’s Plays, winner of the Choice 1996 Outstanding Academic Book Award, The Making of Modern Drama and a collection of his essays, The Drama is Coming Now: The Theater Criticism of Richard Gilman, 1961-1991.

Aileen Kelly wrote in The New York Review of Books of “Chekhov’s Plays” that “Gilman’s exposition of the relation between Chekhov’s ideas and his dramatic techniques should be required reading for the producers and critics who persist in interpreting the plays as studies in failure and despair.”

A re-print of his obituary by current New York Times theater critic Ben Brantley can be found on the website of All About Jewish Theatre.