Bardo Thodol
van Itallie has written over thirty plays. He wrote the ensemble play "The Serpent" with Chaikin's Open Theater. "The Serpent" premiered at Rome's Teatro dell'Arte in 1968. Van Itallie's "Tibetan Book of the Dead, or How Not to Do It Again", based on the Bardo Thodol and with music by Steven Gorn, premiered at La MaMa in 1983.