Jean-Claude van Itallie was a seminal force in the New York Off-Broadway theater of the sixties. A student of Trungpa, Rinpoche since 1968, van Itallie wrote the play, Tibetan Book of the Dead, and is currently co-writing the opera libretto of MILA, Great Sorcerer, about the life of Milarepa. An inspired teacher of play writing and performance, van Itallie has transformed the old farm in Western Massachusetts where he lives into Shantigar Foundation for theater, meditation, and healing.