Robert Brustein

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Robert Brustein
New York City, New York, U.S.
DiedOctober 29, 2023(2023-10-29) (aged 96)
Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S.
OccupationTheatre critic, producer, playwright, educator
EducationAmherst College (BA)
Yale University
Columbia University (MA, PhD)
Spouse
  • Norma Ofstrock
    ​
    (died 1979)​
  • Doreen Beinart
    ​
    (m. 1996)​
Children2 stepsons, including Peter Beinart

Robert Sanford Brustein (April 21, 1927 – October 29, 2023) was an American theatrical critic, producer, playwright, writer, and educator. He founded the

New Haven, Connecticut, as well as the American Repertory Theater and Institute for Advanced Theater Training at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he was a creative consultant until his death, and was the theatre critic for The New Republic. He commented on politics for the HuffPost
.

Brustein was a senior research fellow at Harvard University and a distinguished scholar in residence at Suffolk University in Boston.[1] He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1999,[2] and in 2002, was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame.[3] In 2003, he served as a senior fellow with the National Arts Journalism Program[4] at Columbia University, and in 2004/2005, was a senior fellow at the National Endowment for the Arts Arts Journalism Institute in Theatre and Musical Theatre[5] at the University of Southern California. In 2010, he was awarded the National Medal of Arts by President Barack Obama.

Life and career

Robert Sanford Brustein was born in

Yale School of Drama in 1966, and served in that position until 1979. It was during this period, in 1966, that he founded the Yale Repertory Theatre.[13]

In 1979, Brustein left Yale for Harvard University, where he founded the American Repertory Theater (ART) and became a professor of English. At Harvard, he founded the Institute for Advanced Theater Training. He retired from the artistic directorship of ART in 2002, and then served on the faculty of the institute. He was a distinguished scholar in residence from 2007, at Suffolk University, where he taught courses in Shakespeare Analysis.[14] As the artistic director of Yale Rep from 1966 to 1979, and of ART from 1980 to 2002, Brustein supervised over 200 productions, acting in eight and directing twelve.[14]

Personal life and death

Brustein was married to actress Norma Ofstrock until her death in 1979. (Brustein was the stepfather to Norma Ofstrock's son from a previous marriage, Phil Cates). That marriage resulted in son Daniel Brustein.[6] In 1996, he married activist and academic Doreen Beinart; through this marriage, he became the stepfather of journalist Peter Beinart and of Jean Stern.[6]

Brustein died at his home in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on October 29, 2023, at the age of 96.[6]

Critical writing

Brustein was the theatre critic for The New Republic from 1959 to "about 2000",

The Huffington Post
. He authored sixteen books on theatre and society:

Brustein was the writer and narrator of a

Huffington Post
.

Conflict with August Wilson

In 1996 and 1997, Brustein was involved in an extended public debate – through their essays, speeches and personal appearances – with African-American playwright

race impacts on the craft and practice of theatre in America.[30][31][32][33][34] "The feud," wrote Bruce Weber in the New York Times, "... reached a climax in 1997 with an extraordinary public debate in front of a sold-out house at Town Hall in Midtown Manhattan."[6]

Other conflicts

Brustein criticized the not-for-profit theaters for developing commercial work and becoming tryout houses for Broadway.[35] His fellow directors of regional theaters felt betrayed. A series of articles and letters followed in the New York Times and elsewhere.[36] Critics from the Boston Globe and the Boston Phoenix attacked Brustein for his dual roles as producer/director and theater critic, calling it a conflict of interest. The critic Davi Napoleon wrote an essay that included quotations from other critics who said that Brustein's dual roles made him uniquely qualified to review theater with insight and intelligence. Napoleon pointed out that while Brustein sometimes reviewed colleagues and former students, he did not always review them favorably.[37]

Playwright

As a playwright, Brustein both authored plays and adapted the material of other authors.

Adaptations

During his tenure at ART, Brustein wrote eleven adaptations, including

Enrico IV;[41] and Brustein's final production at ART, Lysistrata[42] by Aristophanes, directed by Andrei Serban
.

Adaptations which he also directed while at ART include a Pirandello trilogy:

The Father, and Thomas Middleton's The Changeling.[44]

Brustein also conceived and adapted the musical

American Music Theatre Festival, who co-produced the show, Shlemiel the First was revived several times in Cambridge and subsequently played at the Lincoln Center Serious Fun Festival, the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco,[48] and the Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles,[49] as well as touring theatres on the east coast of Florida and in Stamford, Connecticut.[50] The play has also been produced at Theater J[51] in Washington, D.C.. A remount of the original David Gordon production was presented by Peak Performances at Montclair State University's Kasser Theatre in January 2010,[52] and went on to a three-week run at New York University's Skirball Center for the Performing Arts
.

Brustein's klezmer musical, with composer Hankus Netsky, The King of Second Avenue, an adaptation of Israel Zangwill's The King of the Schnorrers, was produced at the New Repertory Theatre in 2015.[53]

Original works

Brustein's full-length plays include Demons,

Nobody Dies on Friday
, The Face Lift, Spring Forward, Fall Back, and his Shakespeare Trilogy The English Channel, Mortal Terror, and "The Last Will."

Demons, which was broadcast on

Singapore Arts Festival and the Pushkin Theatre in Moscow. It was included in Marisa Smith's anthology New Playwrights: Best Plays of 1998.[55]

Spring Forward, Fall Back was produced in 2006 at the Vineyard Playhouse[56] on Martha's Vineyard and at Theater J[57] in Washington. The English Channel was produced at the C. Walsh Theatre of Suffolk University in Boston and at the Vineyard Playhouse in the fall of 2007.[58] In the Fall of 2008, it played at the Abingdon Theatre in New York where it was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.

His short plays Poker Face, Chekhov on Ice, Divestiture, AnchorBimbo, Noises, Terrorist Skit, Airport Hell, Beachman's Last Poetry Reading, "Sex For a Change", and Kosher Kop were all presented by the Boston Playwrights' Theatre and form a play called "Seven/Elevens.[59]

Brustein was also the author of Doctor Hippocrates is Out: Please Leave a Message an anthology of theatrical and cinematic satire on medicine and physicians, commissioned by the Institute for Healthcare Improvement for its 2008 convention in Nashville. Brustein's musical satire, Exposed, was performed in 2014 at the Martha's Vineyard Playhouse.[60]

Awards and honors

Brustein was the recipient of many awards and honors, including:

In addition, Brustein received the Pirandello Medal, and a medal from the Egyptian government for contributions to world theatre. His papers are housed at the Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center at Boston University.[77]

References

  1. ^ Celebrated Writer-Director Robert Brustein Joins Suffolk University
  2. ^ a b Current Academicians
  3. ^ a b Complete List of ATHOF Inductees (pdf)
  4. ^ National Arts Journalism Program Past Fellows
  5. ^ NEA Arts Journalism Institute Previous Faculty
  6. ^ a b c d e f Weber, Bruce (October 30, 2023). "Robert Brustein, Passionate Force in Nonprofit Theater, Dies at 96". The New York Times. Vol. 173, no. 59957. p. A21. Retrieved October 29, 2023.
  7. ^ Napoleon, Davi. "Theater Talk: Robert Brustein and His Dads" The Faster Times (June 4, 2011)
  8. ^ "Drama, Robert Brustein". VEERY JOURNAL. Retrieved July 16, 2021.
  9. ^ Wolfson, C.K. "Theatre: Robert Brustein: Best of all worlds," Archived November 4, 2016, at the Wayback Machine The Martha's Vineyard Times (September 20, 2007).
  10. ^ Aucoin, Don (October 29, 2023). "Robert Brustein, Influential Founder of American Repertory Theater, Dies at 96". Boston Globe. Retrieved November 8, 2023.
  11. ^ Robert Sanford Brustein. "Italian Court Satire and the Plays of John Marston." Ph.D. dissertation--Columbia University, 1957. .
  12. ^ a b Robert Brustein, "A Critic in the Making"(pdf), Nottingham Alumni Online, 2001. p.15
  13. Yale School of Drama
    website
  14. ^ a b "Robert Brustein" on the Suffolk University website
  15. ^ Rocamora, Carol (November 28, 2017). "A Critical Lion in Winter: Robert Brustein Looks Back". AMERICAN THEATRE. Retrieved March 4, 2018.
  16. ^ A Havoc of Meddling Fools Wrapped Up in One Man
  17. ^ Kirkus Reviews
  18. ^ Book Detail
  19. ^ Norton catalog
  20. ^ Kirkus Reviews
  21. ^ Google Books
  22. ^ Kirkus Reviews
  23. ^ Google Books
  24. ^ Publishers Weekly
  25. ^ Google Books
  26. ^ Robin Lippincott in the New York Times
  27. ^ Kirkus Reviews
  28. ^ Google Books
  29. ^ Yale University Press catalog
  30. ^ William Grimes, "On Stage and Off: Face to Face on Multiculturalism", New York Times (December 13, 1996).
  31. ^ William Grimes, "Face-to-Face Encounter on Race in the Theater", New York Times (January 29, 1997).
  32. ^ Frank Rich, "Two Mouths Running", New York Times (February 1, 1997)
  33. ^ Margo Jefferson, "Oratory vs. Really Talking About Culture", New York Times (February 4, 1997).
  34. ^ Wilson vs. Brustein
  35. ^ ["The Siren Song of Broadway is a Warning," New York TImes, May 22, 1988]
  36. ^ "Who Exercises Artistic Control?". The New York Times. July 3, 1988.
  37. ^ How Much Should a Critic Know? Davi Napoleon, TheaterWeek Magazine, June 12–18, 1995, p 41-43
  38. ^ ART Past Productions: The Wild Duck
  39. ^ ART Past Productions: The Master Builder
  40. ^ ART Past Productions: Three Farces and a Funeral
  41. ^ ART Past Productions: Enrico IV
  42. ^ ART Past Productions: Lysistrata
  43. ^ ART Past Productions: Six Characters
  44. ^ Harvard Crimson review
  45. ^ According to Alvin Klein, writing in the New York Times: "It can be said that Singer is the original author, Mr. Brustein is the adapter and Mr. Gordon is the auteur."
  46. ^ According to John Lahr, writing in The New Yorker: "In its artfulness and eloquence, "Shlemiel the First" is far better than anything currently on Broadway."
  47. ^ ART Past Productions: Shlemiel the First
  48. ^ ACT Production History
  49. ^ Variety review
  50. ^ 'Shlemiel' Continues A Path to Broadway
  51. ^ Theater Shlemiel the First
  52. ^ Shlemiel the First at Peak Performances
  53. ^ "The King of Second Avenue" on the New Repertory Theatre website
  54. ^ ART Past Productions: Nobody Dies On Friday
  55. ISBN 1-57525-171-X
    .
  56. ^ Vineyard Playhouse Production History
  57. ^ 2006–2007 Season
  58. ^ Vineyard Playhouse: The English Channel
  59. ^ BPT: Production History
  60. ^ "Exposed" on the Martha's Vineyard Playhouse website
  61. ^ 1961 Fellows Archived February 4, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
  62. ^ George Jean Nathan Award
  63. ^ 1962 Nathan winner
  64. ^ 1987 Nathan winner
  65. ^ "1964 winners". Archived from the original on February 12, 2009. Retrieved January 20, 2008.
  66. ^ "Urban Land". 1987.
  67. ^ 1st thru 9th Norton Award winners
  68. ^ NETC Major Award winners of the 1980s
  69. ^ Award Winners
  70. ^ ATHE Career Achievement Award
  71. ^ 2001 Winners
  72. ^ Robert Ridge: Broadway Beat Archived November 17, 2006, at the Wayback Machine
  73. ^ USITT Award Winners Archived December 2, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
  74. ^ Playbill News: Mulgrew, Jones, Durang Honor Robert Brustein
  75. ^ Around Waltham
  76. ^ 2008 International O'Neill Conference
  77. ^ Howard Gottlieb Archival Research Center Acquires the Person Archive of Robert Brustein

Bibliography

  • Plotkins, Marilyn J. The American Repertory Theatre Reference Book: The Brustein Years, 2005.
    ISBN 0-313-28913-1

External links

Wikiquote has quotations related to Robert Brustein.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Robert_Brustein&oldid=1201888554"