Herbert Blau was born on May 3, 1926 in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA. He was married to Kathleen Middlekauff Woodward and Beatrice Manley. He died on May 3, 2013 in Seattle, Washington, USA.
Playwright Samuel Beckett once praised Blau as 'overpoweringly intellectual'.
One of the experimental theater groups he created, Kraken, which had several homes included actor Bill Irwin and director Julie Taymor.
Blau earned a degree in chemical engineering from NYU. Though he grew up without ever seeing a professional play, he wrote some plays in college and submitted them to Stanford University, which led to his acceptance to the dram program there. He collected a master's in drama and then added a Ph.D in English literature.
[berating the conventionality of theater, in 1964] There are times when, confronted with the despicable behavior of people in the American theater, I feel like Lear on the heath, wanting to kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill!