Christopher Speeth

Christopher Eric Speeth began his theatrical training with his three brothers at the Cleveland Playhouse, where he not only studied under K. Elmo Lowe and Esther Mullen, but also performed in many plays on stage, radio, and television. Speeth went on to act in a stage production of Carson McCullers's "The Member of the Wedding" at The Karamu House with his brother Jeffrey and won a dramatic competition at Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio by directing "Wozzeck." Following college Christopher went to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and started the Philadelphia Theatre for Children. At this time Speeth became known for staging hundreds of plays that ranged from early Greek Satyr plays to more contemporary works by Ionesco, Samuel Beckett, Jonathan Kleinbard, and Chandler Brossard. Moreover, Christopher worked with Jerome Bruner of Harvard University in developing educational materials for children during the 1960's Sputnik scare. After studying film under Solomon Wishnepolsky at the Annenberg Center of the University of Pennsylvania, Speeth went on to produce many experimental shorts and documentaries. Christopher directed the oddball indie horror cult favorite Malatesta's Carnival of Blood (1973) in 1973. In addition, his documentary "Eakins" about American painter Thomas Eakins was especially well received: It was given a rave review by noted film critic and journalist Gerald Pratley in the top show business trade paper Variety and has been placed in the permanent collection of the Whitney Museum of Modern Art. Documentary footage taken by Speeth has been featured in an assortment of TV shows that include ABC News Nightline (1980) and America's Most Wanted: America Fights Back (1988).