Luke Yankee has directed, produced, taught, lectured and acted throughout the country and abroad. He has run two regional theatres, serving as Producing Artistic Director of the Long Beach Civic Light Opera (one of the largest musical theatres in America) and the Struthers Library theatre, a historic landmark in northwestern Pennsylvania.
As a guest lecturer, he created "E.H. On Film: An Eileen Heckart Retrospective" (a video and lecture discussion) which he presented with Ms. Heckart on the ms Crystal Symphony, the ms Rotterdam, the ms Nieu Amsterdam, at the William Inge Theatre Festival and various other venues throughout the US. He also created a similar program with Barbara Eden entitled "Barbara Eden: Still Dreaming" which he and Ms. Eden presented on the ms Crystal Symphony.
Off Broadway, he directed the political comedy, "High Infidelity" with John Davidson and Morgan Fairchild at the Promenade Theatre and Chekhov's "The Cherry Orchard" at the York Theatre with Penny Fuller and Cynthia Nixon. On Broadway, he has worked as an assistant director on the musical "Grind" starring Ben Vereen (as assistant to Harold Prince), "The Circle" with Rex Harrision and Glynis Johns, "Light Up the Sky" with Peter Falk and New York City Opera's "Brigadoon" with Tony Roberts.
As a director and producer of special events, Luke has worked with Quincy Jones, Stephen Sondheim, Alec Baldwin, Lily Tomlin, Annette Bening, Neil Simon, Barry Manilow, Debbie Allen, Dick Clark, Bill Pullman, John Guare, Roma Downey, Patti Austin, August Wilson, Alfre Woodard and Betty White in theatres ranging from Radio City Music Hall to The Shubert Theatre in Los Angeles.
Luke is currently the head of playwriting at California State University Fullerton and an adjunct faculty member at Chapman University. He has taught and guest directed extensively at colleges, universities and conservatories throughout the U.S. and abroad, including five years at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, Northwestern, Ohio State, AMDA, Denison, University of New Mexico, the Folkwang Hochschule (in Essen, Germany) and three years on the faculty of Columbia College-Hollywood. For twenty years, he was a panelist and guest instructor at the William Inge Theatre Festival, where he has performed with Marybeth Hurt, Holland Taylor and George Grizzard. He also served as a member of their Advisory Board.
He is the son of the late actress Eileen Heckart, who won an Academy Award for "Butterflies Are Free" and appeared in over 15 feature films, 20 Broadway plays, and countless television programs. Ms. Heckart is a member of the Theatre Hall of Fame and a multiple Emmy and Tony Award winner.
Luke’s first book, JUST OUTSIDE THE SPOTLIGHT: GROWING UP WITH EILEEN HECKART (foreword by Mary Tyler Moore) chronicles his life growing as a showbiz kid and surrounded by some of the greatest showbiz legends of our time. The book has received rave reviews from coast to coast and has been praised as “One of the most compassionate and illuminating showbiz books ever written.”
He has toured extensively with DIVA DISH, his critically acclaimed, multimedia one-man show on which his book was based. He has performed the show in theatres, lecture halls, for corporate events and on more than twenty-five cruises worldwide. Critic Rex Reed calls it, “Touching, hilarious and completely entertaining! Luke Yankee is such a wonderful storyteller, you’ll want to hear his stories again and again!”
Luke studied at the Juilliard School of Drama, New York University, Northwestern University, Circle in the Square and the Herbert Berghof Studio.