Lee Breuer (born 1937) is an American academic, educator, film maker, poet, lyricist, writer and stage director.
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Lee Breuer is a founding artistic director of Mabou Mines Theater Company in New York City, which he began in 1970 with colleagues Philip Glass, Ruth Maleczech, JoAnne Akalaitis, David Warrilow, and Frederick Neuman.
Breuer's most recent work with Mabou Mines was the puppet opera, Red Beads, created in collaboration with puppeteer Basil Twist and composer Ushio Torikai. Of the September 2005 New York City premiere, the New York Times said: "… 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."
His previous Mabou Mines production, Mabou Mines Dollhouse, a deconstruction of the Ibsen classic, won 2004 Obie Awards for Best Director and Best Performance. The production continues its international touring with upcoming featured engagements including Paris, Hong Kong, and tours in Europe, America, Asia and Australia. Another production is being planned for production in Buenos Aires and touring in South America, and a high definition video production is being planned for international production and release.
Most of Breuer's previous work with Mabou Mines premiered at The Public Theater (NYC) under the patronage of the late Joseph Papp, and at the La Mama Experimental Theater Club under the patronage of Ellen Stewart. These include his Obie-winning adaptation of three works by Samuel Beckett: Play, Come and Go and The Lost Ones.
He authored/directed Mabou Mines' trilogy, Animations, including The B Beaver, The Red Horse and The Shaggy Dog Animation, which was awarded the Obie for Beat Play in 1978. 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.
Breuer's best-known work is The Gospel at Colonus, a Pentecostal Gospel rendering of Sophocles' Oedipus at Colonus, created with composer Bob Telson and starring Morgan Freeman and Clarence Fountain. It premiered at the Brooklyn Academy of Music's "Next Wave Festival". 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), the Obie for Best Musical (1984), and an Emmy.
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.
Previously Lee Breuer mounted The Tempest for Joseph Papp's Shakespeare in the Park, starring Raul Julia.
His music-theater collaborations as author and director with Bob Telson include Sister Suzie Cinema, which premiered at The Public Theater and was televised on the PBS series, "Alive from Off Center".
Lee Breuer has directed eleven Obie Award winning productions over a period of thirty 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 "Yi Sang Counts to Thirteen", which is now open-run in Korea(South)
Breuer has been:
He has won the Edinburgh Herald's Archangel Award and The Helen Hayes Award, in addition to numerous Obies.
He was a Japan-United States Friendship Commission exchange fellow and delivered the inaugural lectures for the Beckett Chair at Trinity College, Dublin, supported by a grant from CIES.
In 1998, Breuer, was awarded an honorary degree from California Institute of the Arts.
Breuer has taught at the Yale University School of Drama (1986–99); Stanford University (1995–99); UC Santa Cruz (1994); Arizona State University West (1992–93) and Harvard University (Writers and Directors Seminar, 1981).
Breuer's books include:
Lee Breuer was born, Asher Leopold, February 6, 1937 in Philadelphia Pennsylvania to Joseph Breuer, an architect and Sara Leopold Breuer, a designer. He met both his life and artistic partner, actress and director, Ruth Maleczech (nee Reinprecht), at the age of 19 as an undergraduate at UCLA. After college, the two moved to San Francisco and worked with Herb Blau and Jules Irving at the Actor's Workshop and with Ronnie Davis at the San Francisco Mime Troupe. In San Francisco, they also met JoAnne Akalitis, Philip Glass and Bill Raymond. In 1964, they traveled to Europe so Lee could write, living in Greece for a year and then settling in Paris. They reconnected with JoAnne Akalaitis and Philip Glass in Paris and Ruth and JoAnne studied with Grotowski together and performed in many English-language theater productions. They left Paris for New York City in 1969 and lived for a time with JoAnne and Philip on Avenue B, ultimately settling at 6th street and Avenue A in Manhattan. In 1971, Ruth and Lee formed the Avant Garde theater company, Mabou Mines along with JoAnne Akalaitis, Philip Glass and David Warrilow. They premiered their first piece, The Red Horse Animation, which Breuer wrote and directed at Paula Cooper Gallery in 1970. Ruth Maleczech and Lee Breuer were married July 27, 1978 and remain married to this day. They have two children together: actress and director, Clove Galilee and writer and performer, Lute Breuer. They also have one grandchild, Bella Breuer. Lee also has three other children: musician, Alex Klimovitsky, born 1980, son of Lee Breuer and Polina Klimovitskya, musician, Joseph Lorwin, born 1985, son of Lee Breuer and Liza Lorwin, and writer, James Wah Mohn, born 1990, son of Lee Breuer and Leslie Mohn. A member of the Actor's Studio, Breuer tours worldwide. Between tours he lives in Brooklyn, New York.