Joyce Piven obit

Joyce Piven, acting teacher and mother of Jeremy Piven, dies at 94

“She was graceful until her last breath,” Jeremy Piven writes of his mom, whose Piven Theatre Workshop in Evanston trained stars, including John and Joan Cusack.

 She was not on the list.

Joyce Piven, the influential acting teacher who co-founded Evanston’s Piven Theatre Workshop and was the mother of actor Jeremy Piven and filmmaker Shira Piven, has died at age 94.

“She was graceful until her last breath. Always the teacher,” Jeremy Piven said in an Instagram post Sunday.

With her husband, Byrne Piven, who died in 2002, Joyce Piven created the famed workshop in the early 1970s as a place where students could “celebrate play while finding their unique creative voice through the study of improvisation, theatre games, scene study and story theatre,” according to the school’s website.

Over the decades the workshop trained thousands of aspiring artists, including Piven’s two children and such eminent actors as John Cusack, Joan Cusack, Aidan Quinn, Kate Walsh and Lili Taylor.

Piven was part of a 1950s theater movement at the University of Chicago that laid the groundwork for what would become Chicago’s improv scene. She and husband were among the founding members of the popular Playwrights Theatre Club, led by Paul Sills, and performed in many of its plays. Sills would go on to help launch the improvisational Compass Players and then, in 1959, The Second City.

After several years in New York, the Pivens returned to the Chicago area, where they started the workshop and Joyce Piven appeared often on Chicago stages.

The style of teaching developed by Piven and her husband is outlined in a book she co-wrote, “In the Studio With Joyce Piven.”

Piven was instrumental in the creation of an upcoming movie starring her son and directed by her daughter. Jeremy Piven (“Entourage,” “Ellen”) wrote that 15 years ago, “she gave me a short story by Arthur Miller called ‘The Performance.’ She hung on all these years until we got it made into a film. She would ask me about it daily.”

Jeremy Piven plays a tap dancer in the film, also called “The Performance.” Set to open Feb. 28 after preview screenings last month in Chicago, it’s the next directing credit for Shira Piven, known for her 2015 Kristen Wiig vehicle “Welcome to Me.”

“Not quite sure how to navigate without her,” Jeremy Piven wrote Sunday, “yet this beautiful life is about transformation, which was one of her theater games. [She] taught us comedy & drama can exist simultaneously (just like life). She affected so many lives. ...

“We don’t know how long we have here in this human form, but I can tell you that we lost a good one. She’s dancing with my father. Be good to each other.”

Writer

Full Body Whisper

story

2013

 

Actress

Malcolm McDowell, Terrence Howard, Jeremy Piven, Don E. FauntLeRoy, Daniel Adams, Justin Chatwin, Michael Mailer, Timotheus Davis, Robert ToTeras, Katie Douglas, Justin Williams, Martin B Tedrick, Lovie Simone, and Anastasiya Mitrunen in The Walk (2022)

The Walk

5.3

Mrs. Bunkley

2022

 

Kristen Wiig in Welcome to Me (2014)

Welcome to Me

5.9

Miriam Klieg

2014

 

Kevin Dillon, Adrian Grenier, Jeremy Piven, Kevin Connolly, and Jerry Ferrara in Entourage (2004)

Entourage

8.4

TV Series

Temple Goer #2 (as Joyce Piven)

2007

1 episode

 

Underground Women

8.2

Short

Woman

2002

 

Frank Beaty and Lisa Kotin in Temporary Girl (1998)

Temporary Girl

8.0

Blooma Byrnestein

1998

 

The Untouchables (1993)

The Untouchables

7.6

TV Series

Patricia Pagano

1993

1 episode

 

Dolly Parton in Straight Talk (1992)

Straight Talk

5.7

Joan (voice)

1992

 

Thanks

John Cusack in Grace Is Gone (2007)

Grace Is Gone

6.7

special thanks (as Joyce Piven)

2007

 

Self

Full Body Whisper

Self

2013

 

E! Live from the Red Carpet (1995)

E! Live from the Red Carpet

3.7

TV Series

Self

2007

1 episode