Esser Leopold "Lee" Breuer (February 6, 1937 – January 3, 2021) was an Obie Award-winning and Pulitzer-, Grammy-, Emmy- and Tony-nominated American playwright, theater director, academic, educator, filmmaker, poet, and lyricist.[1][2] Breuer taught and directed on six continents.[2]
In 2013, Breuer directed the La Divina Caricatura: Part I The Shaggy Dog which was co-produced by Mabou Mines.[4] In 2005, Breuer's previous Mabou Mines production Red Beads, was adapted by Breuer from a Russian folk story, created in collaboration with puppeteer Basil Twist and composer Ushio Torikai.[5] Of the September 2005 New York City premiere, the New York Times critic wrote "...theater as sorcery; it is a crossroads where artistic traditions meet to invent a marvelous common language. It is a fairy tale, a puppet play and a chamber opera… amazing work."[6]
Mabou Mines Dollhouse, a deconstruction of the Ibsen classic, won 2004 Obie Awards for Best Director and Best Performance. The production toured nationally and internationally.[7] Breuer directed high definition video adaptation of stage production for Arte television France, which was aired throughout Europe.[7]
Breuer authored/directed Mabou Mines' trilogy, Animations, including The B Beaver, The Red Horse and The Shaggy Dog Animation, which was awarded the Obie for Best Play in 1978.[10] In 1980 Breuer received two Obies for writing and direction of his play, A Prelude to a Death in Venice. He also wrote and directed An Epidog, the winner of the President's Commission Kennedy Center-American Express Award for Best New Work.[10]
Breuer's best-known work is The Gospel at Colonus, a Pentecostal Gospel rendering of Sophocles' Oedipus at Colonus, created with composer Bob Telson, starring Morgan Freeman and Clarence Fountain.[11] It premiered at the Brooklyn Academy of Music's "Next Wave Festival".[12] It was later performed on Broadway at the Lunt-Fontanne Theater in 1988 for which he was nominated for a Tony Award. The production received numerous awards, including a Pulitzer Prize nomination (1988), an Obie Award for Best Musical (1984), and an Emmy.[13]
The Gospel at Colonus would go on to performances worldwide (Paris, Spoleto, Edinburgh, Moscow, Barcelona, London, Avignon). It was recreated for the 70th Anniversary of New York's legendary Apollo Theater for two weeks in the fall of 2004 starring Charles S. Dutton and Jevetta Steele.[14][15]
Breuer's music-theater collaborations with Bob Telson include Sister Suzie Cinema (featuring 14 Karat Soul), which premiered at The Public Theater and was televised on the PBS series, "Alive from Off Center" and “The Warrior Ant” which premiered at BAM in 1988. [17]
Breuer has directed 13 Obie Award-winning productions over a period of more than 40 years including: David Warrilow in The Lost Ones (1974); Bill Raymond in A Prelude to Death in Venice (1979); Ruth Maleczech in Hajj (1986); Yoshida Tamamatsu in The Warrior Ant (1990); Ruth Maleczech, Isabel Monk, Karen Kandel and Greg Mehrten in Mabou Mines Lear (1991); Karen Kandel in Peter and Wendy (1997); and Maude Mitchell in Mabou Mines Dollhouse (2004). His involvement outside of the U.S. includes directing Yi Sang Counts to Thirteen by Sung Rno, which had its debut in South Korea at the Seoul Theater Festival 2000.[18]
Lee taught an acting workshop in New Delhi, India during the summer of 2011 where he wrote and directed a workshop production of La Divina Caricatura. Divina is a Bunraku pop-opera that uses puppetry and draws from the traditional format of Indian epics such as the Mahabharata.[19]
Personal life
Breuer was born in Philadelphia.[20] He studied English at the University of California, Los Angeles.[20] Breuer married Maleczech in 1978. They had two children (Clove Galilee and Lute Breuer) and remained legally married until her death in 2013, but spent much of the latter period separated.[20] He also had three children (Alexander Tiappa Klimovitsky, Mojo Lorwin, and Wah Mohn) by other relationships.[20] Ms. Mitchell and Mr. Breuer met in 1999 at Sundance Theater Lab and became partners; they married in 2015.[20] In addition to Mitchell, he was survived by his daughter, Clove Galilee; his sons, Lute Ramblin Breuer, Alexander Tiappa Klimovitsky, Mojo Lorwin and Wah Mohn; daughters-in-law Jenny Rogers and Martha Elliot[21] and three grandchildren.[20]
Breuer's children all grew up to be artists. Like their mothers — Maleczech, Klimovitskaya, Lorwin and Leslie Mohn (died 2007) — all had collaborated with him.[20]
Breuer died at his home in Brooklyn Heights on January 3, 2021, at age 83. He had advanced kidney disease and metastatic lung cancer.[20]
From the Other Side of the Century Collection. Sun & Moon Press
1998
Awards, et al
2011 Named USA Ford Fellow in Theater Arts by United States Artists
2011 Elliot Norton award for "Best Touring Production" Mabou Mines DollHouse
2008 Honored by the Cairo International Experimental Theatre Festival
2008 XI Festival Iberoamericana de Teatro de Bogota 2007
2008 Herald Archangel Award, Edinburgh Festival
2007 Edwin Booth Award presented to the Artistic Directors of Mabou Mines by the Doctoral Theatre Students Association at the Graduate Center, CUNY.
2006 Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters, Ministry of Culture of France[23]
2004 OBIE Award for 'Direction' for MABOU MINES DOLLHOUSE
1997 OBIE Award for 'Best Production' to PETER AND WENDY
1994 Fund for New American Plays Award, Best American Play, for THE EPIDOG (Breuer)
1986 OBIE Award for 'Sustained Achievement' to Mabou Mines[23]
1985 National Institute for Music Theater Award 'Outstanding Achievement' to GOSPEL AT COLONUS
1985 Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Concept to GOSPEL AT COLONUS
1985 Los Angeles Dramalogue Award for Best Direction and Text to GOSPEL AT COLONUS
1985 National Black Programming Award for Best Production Communicating Excellence to Black Audiences to GOSPEL AT COLONUS 1985 National Institute of Music Theater's Award for the Advancement of Music Theater
1984 OBIE Award for 'Best Musical' to GOSPEL AT COLONUS
1984 National Gospel Association Award 'Outstanding Production' to GOSPEL AT COLONUS
1984 Brandeis University Creative Arts Awards Citation in Theatre Arts to Mabou Mines for 'extraordinary artistic achievement,' re: script for HAJJ (Breuer)
1983 National ASCAP Popular Song Award for GOSPEL AT COLONUS lyrics
1983 United Gospel Association Award for Best Production to GOSPEL AT COLONUS
1983 American Theater Wing Joseph Maharam Award 'Consistently Excellent Collaborative Design'
1981 Villager Downtown Theatre Award to Mabou Mines for Outstanding Season
1980 OBIE Award to Lee Breuer for his script and direction of A PRELUDE TO DEATH IN VENICE.
1980 San Francisco Critics' Circle Award: Best Touring Production to A PRELUDE TO DEATH IN VENICE
1980 Villager Downtown Theatre Award for 'Best Musical' to SISTER SUZIE CINEMA
1979 Los Angeles Dramalogue Critics' Award to Lee Breuer (Direction) for THE LOST ONES
1978 OBIE Award for Best Play to Lee Breuer for THE SHAGGY DOG ANIMATION
1978 Villager Downtown Theatre Award to THE SHAGGY DOG ANIMATION
1978 Soho News Award for Best Ensemble to THE SHAGGY DOG ANIMATION
1974 OBIE Award for 'General Excellence' to Mabou Mines
1958-9 UCLA 'Best Play' Award to A PLAY and THE LINE
1958 Samuel French Award to A PLAY
Nominations
1988 Tony Nomination for Best Book - GOSPEL AT COLONUS (officially declined)
1988 Pulitzer Prize Nomination for Best Play - GOSPEL AT COLONUS
1987 NAACP Image Award Nomination - GOSPEL AT COLONUS
1986 Grammy Award Nomination for Best Theatrical Album - GOSPEL AT COLONUS
1986 Emmy Award Nomination for Best Direction (with Tod Browning) - GOSPEL AT COLONUS
