of the residential Broadway Central Hotel, physically collapsed. Frankel, who had been conducting a rehearsal at the time, noticed the ceiling and walls beginning to buckle and heroically led the actors and several residents to safety; five people died in the collapse. Only his last theater was a financial success, serving as home to artistic director Christopher Groenwald's New Mercury Players and as a satellite location for artistic director Marilyn Majeski's Grove Street Playhouse. In 2003 Frankel made Gail Thacker Managing Director of the Gene Frankel Theatre and Film Workshop at the Bond Street location. Upon Frankel's death his legacy passed into Thacker's trust. Family Frankel had two children, Laura Frankel and Ethan Frankel. His son, an aspiring actor, who studied at his father's school had struggled with psychiatric illness which led him to leap off the top of a Manhattan 17-floor-building in 1995 during a psychosis from which he survived. After a lengthy coma and therapy to learn to walk again Ethan was placed in a group home in the Bronx where he was murdered by a fellow resident the following year. Frankel created a scholarship at his theater in his son's name. Productions Broadway The Night That Made America Famous, February 26, 1975 – April 6, 1975 The Lincoln Mask, October 30, 1972 – November 4, 1972 Lost in the Stars, April 18, 1972 – May 21, 1972 The Engagement Baby, May 21–23, 1970 Indians, October 13, 1969 – January 3, 1970 A Cry of Players, November 14, 1968 – February 15, 1969 Once There Was a Russian, February 18, 1961 Off-Broadway A Gun Play, Cherry Lane Theatre To Be Young, Gifted and Black, Cherry Lane Theatre The Niggerlovers, Orpheum Theatre The Firebugs, Maidman Playhouse Brecht on Brecht, Sheridan Square Playhouse Brecht on Brecht : His Life in Art, Lucille Lortel Theatre Brecht on Brecht, Lucille Lortel Theatre The Blacks: A Clown Show, St. Mark's Playhouse Volpone, Rooftop Theatre Awards and honors Frankel was awarded the first Obie Award for directing, with his production of Volpone (1958) and then won two more also for directing. He also received the first Lola d'Annunzi and Vernon Rice awards for outstanding achievement in theater. Obie Awards 1956–57 Best Director for Ben Jonson's Volpone 1959–60 Best Director for Sophie Treadwell's Machinal 1960–61 Best Play for Jean Genet's The Blacks Other Drama Desk Vernon Rice Award for Outstanding Achievement in Theatre Lola D'Annunzio