JoAnne Akalaitis is well known as the first ex-wife of Philip Glass.
JoAnne Akalaitis is an avant-garde Lithuanian-American theatre director and writer. She won five Obie Awards for direction and was founder in 1970 of the critically acclaimed Mabou Mines in New York City.
A Lithuanian descent, Akalaitis was a pre-medical student at the University of Chicago, and she later transferred to Stanford University to study philosophy, before leaving for San Francisco at age 22 without a degree.
After she chose acting as a career, she studied with the Actor’s Workshop in San Francisco, the San Francisco Mime Troupe, The Open Theater Workshop in New York, and acting theorist Jerzy Grotowski in France.
Akalaitis is a founder of an experimental theatre company Mabou Mines which was founded in 1970 and based in New York City.
Mabou Mines was among 406 New York City arts and social service organizations to receive part of a $20 million grant from the Carnegie Corporation, which was made possible through a donation by New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg in 2005.
Akalaitis married Glass 1965, through their marriage, the pair share two children; Juliet and Zachary Glass. The couple marriage ended in 1980.