Joyce Piven, renowned Chicago area theatre teacher and mother of Jeremy Piven, dies at 94
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Joyce Piven, the co-founder of a celebrated acting school in Evanston and the mother of actor Jeremy Piven, has died.
Jeremy Piven announced his mother's death in an Instagram post on Sunday. Joyce Piven was 94.
Ms. Piven became involved in the campus theatre scene as an undergraduate at the University of Chicago in the early 1950s. UChicago does not have a theatre department back than and still does not now, but at the time, it had an active theatre scene led by U of C student and later inaugural director of The Second City Paul Sills.
As documented in a 1992 Chicago Reader article by Jack Helbig, Ms. Piven and her future husband, Byrne Piven, became members of the Playwrights Theatre Club — based in Old Town led by Sills and director David Shepherd. The group began in 1953 and only lasted a couple of years, but put on 25 productions, Helbig wrote.
"Piven and her future husband Byrne were among those who built the theater, performed in shows, and even lived illegally in the theater, sleeping in the cubbyholes where restaurant booths used to be," Helbig wrote.
Joyce and Byrne Piven then moved to New York City, where they taught acting, joined a touring production of "Camelot," Helbig wrote. While in New York, the couple also became the parents of two children — Shira, now 63, and Jeremy, now 59.
The Pivens later returned to Chicago, an established what became the Piven Theatre Workshop in Evanston in 1971. The workshop, located at 927 Noyes St. just west of the Northwestern University quads, became famous as a training studio for young people — with alumni including Joan and John Cusack, Aidan Quinn, Aimee Garcia, and Jeremy Piven himself.
The school is known for the Piven Training Technique, a group of skill-building exercises and theatre games that help students develop their creativity and voice while also focusing on collaboration and ensemble work.
The Piven Training Technique was inspired by the work of theatre teacher and acting coach Viola Spolin — Paul Sills' mother — and Byrne and Joyce Piven's own collaborations with Sills himself, according to the workshop website.
Jeremy Piven — known in particular for his role as Ari Gold in the HBO series "Entourage" — characterized his mother as a passionate teacher who "genuinely enjoyed the evolution of her students. Taught us to respects the space we occupy when we perform, instilled the integrity of the work and how lucky we are to get it."
"Not quite sure how to navigate without her yet this beautiful life is about transformation which was one of her theater games. Taught us comedy and drama can exist simultaneously (just like life)," Jeremy Piven wrote. "She affected so many lives. She taught acting not so that you could be a professional, but so that you could learn more about yourself."
Byrne Piven died in 2002 at the age of 72. Shira Piven works as a theatre and television director.