Speaking in New Delhi where he had come to attend the recent Bharat Rang Maha Utsav 2006 organised by the National School of Drama (NSD), and read the keynote paper at a seminar held in the course of the festival, Schechner asserts, "I have conducted workshops and research in Europe, Asia, Africa, and Latin America. I had been seriously incorporating anthropology into my work. The social sciences, humanities and the creative arts all ask basically the same question: What is it to be human? I prefer to bridge those different areas with frank and lively discussion".

A Professor of Performance Studies at the Tisch School of the Arts, New York University, Schechner also is the editor of The Drama Review (TDR), a scholarly journal concerned with the broad range of performance in rituals and in the arts.

Schechner is widely recognised as the founder of 'performance studies' as an academic discipline. In the process of working out what performance studies is, Schechner and his colleagues at New York University created new ideas and new ways of thinking that still affect today's world of performance, theatre, dance, and the social sciences. As 'the journal of performance studies', TDR did much to shape the new discipline. This is an interdisciplinary approach to social performances, including anthropological rituals, political demonstrations, theatrical productions, and performing arts events such as dance and music. Schechner says, "TDR continues to champion experimentation, intercultural, and the careful study of the broad range of performance from the performing arts to rituals, plays, and the performances of everyday life. As TDR celebrates its 50th birthday in 2006, its outlook is youthful, its core editorial values unchanged. TDR continues to challenge the conventional performing arts world, broadening horizons while introducing both established and new writers and artists to eager readers in scores of countries."

Schechner has earned a place in every theatre history textbook for his ground-breaking work in environmental theatre in the 1960s and 1970s and for his vision in helping to establish the discipline of performance studies. His books such as Public Domain, Environmental Theatre, The End of Humanism, Performance Theory, Between Theatre and Anthropology, The Future of Ritual, Performance StudiesAn Introduction, Over, Under, and Around and Between Theatre and Anthropology have won global appreciation.

He says, "My books have been translated into Spanish, Korean, Chinese, Japanese, Serbo-Croatian, German, Italian, Hungarian, Dutch, and Bulgarian."

In 1967 Schechner founded The Performance Group (TPG) in New York. With TPG, Schechner directed some notable productions including Dionysus in 69, Mother Courage and Her Children, Oedipus, The Tooth of Crime, and The Balcony. To quote Schechner, "In those days I became known for developing a new theatre form-- environmental theatre. As I had always been fascinated by the performances of rituals across a wide range of cultures, I developed this theory."

Currently as artistic director of theatre troupe East Coast Artists, Schechner has directed his own version of the Faust legend, Faust/gastronome, Three Sisters, Hamlet, and Waiting for Godot.

Moreover, Schechner has directed plays in many parts of the world. As he says, "Of my remarkable overseas works I would like to mention The Cherry Orchard, which I directed with the Repertory Theatre of the National School of Drama in New Delhi, August Wilson's Ma Rainey's Black Bottom for the Grahamstown Festival in South Africa, Sun Huizhu's Tomorrow He'll Be Out of the Mountains at Shanghai Peoples' Art Theatre, and The Oresteia (in his own adaptation) with the Taiwanese troupe Contemporary Legend Theatre."

On the current theatre scenario in USA, Schechner says, "Theatre is still popular in USA side by side with Hollywood, internet culture and soap opera. There are many quality educational institutions, which provides theatre education. Each year many overseas students from Europe go there to study theatre. In New York alone, there over 200 theatre troupes, of which about 50 are totally professional. About 10 theatre companies get government support. Besides many Indians and overseas artistes perform in theatre troupes of 'Off Broadway'.

"Younger dramatists' plays dealing with contemporary issues such as global politics, gender, human rights, genetics, science and technology, homosexuality and others are popular in USA. And the presentations of the plays are also very diverse.

"The directors are greatly influenced by Afro-American performing art forms, Latin indigenous performing art forms and European theatre forms. The Loose narrative technique is used in case of autobiographical plays. Moreover, directors can use expensive hi-tech effects to make the plays interesting for the present day US audience", adds Schechner.

Shechner has watched a few Bangladeshi productions. In the recent theatre festival, he has seen Raarang and Sonai Bibir Pala. Commenting on the status of Bangladeshi theatre, he says, "It is really difficult to critically analyse a nation's theatre without knowing much about it. However, I would say that that Bangladeshi theatre deals effectively with contemporary global issues. The artistes are hard working while a few over act."

Schechner is the winner of many prestigious awards such as Mondello Prize (Italy, 1985), a Lifetime Achievement Award from Performance Studies International (2002) and others. In March 2005 the 'Richard Schechner Centre for Performance Studies' was inaugurated as part of the Shanghai Theatre Academy, where Schechner is an Honorary Professor.