Interviewed on November 21, 2018 and March 19, 2019

“What you have to understand, at that particular point, there was a lot of drugs, a lot of 60s stuff going on, and it was ‘the summer of love.’  The Actor’s Workshop was supposed to be on the edge of things but we thought it was a little sedate…we wanted to collaborate with a lot of painters, mimes, dancers…we were setting the stage for performance art.”

LEE BREUER is a writer, director, producer, film maker, poet and lyricist. Breuer Co-Founded Mabou Mines along with Ruth Maleczech, JoAnne Akalaitis, Philip Glass, David Warrilow, and Frederick Neumann. Breuer, Maleczech, Akalaitis and early company member Bill Raymond met in California. Connections were deepened in Paris, including with Glass, Warrilow, and Neumann. In Europe contact with Grotowski and The Berliner Ensemble amongst others influenced their artistic aspirations. Once back in the USA they founded Mabou Mines in 1970. As a collective ensemble each member developed separate works for the company. 

By blending disciplines and techniques from widely different cultures, Breuer has created a unique performance genre fusing sound and musical components, visual arts, arresting movement/dance puppetry into a groundbreaking form for internationally known and toured productions such as: THE RED HORSE ANIMATION (1970), THE B. BEAVER ANIMATION (1972), THE SAINT AND THE FOOTBALL PLAYERS (1973),THE LOST ONES (1975), THE SHAGGY DOG ANIMATION (1978),  A PRELUDE TO DEATH IN VENICE (1980),  SISTER SUSIE CINEMA (1980), HAJJI (1983),THE GOSPEL AT COLONUS (1982 - 2018),THE WARRIOR ANT (1986), AN EPIDOG (1996), PETER AND WENDY (1996 -2011), ECCO PORCO (2001), MABOU MINES DOLL HOUSE (2003 -2011),  RED BEADS (2005),  CHOEPHORAE (2006), SUMMA DRAMATIC AND PORCO MORTO (2009), UN TRAMWAY NOMME DESIR(2011), LA DIVINA CARICATURA (2013), GLASS GUIGNOL (2017).  

Publications include: ANIMATIONS (Performing Arts Journal Publications, 1979),  A PRELUDE TO A DEATH IN VENICE (Theatre Communications Group, 1982), LA DIVINA CARICUTURA (Seagull books, 2019), GETTING OFF: Lee Breuer on Performance (Theatre Communications Group, 2019).

Breuer received numerous awards including a Chevalier Des Arts et Lettres award from the French Ministry of Culture, and a MacArthur Fellowship. Breuer received Obie awards for Playwriting, Direction, Lifetime Achievement. In addition to directing thirteen Obie award winning performances. Breuer’s iconic THE GOSPEL AT COLONUS, a collaboration with composer Bob Telson was nominated for a Pulitzer, Grammy, Tony and Emmy award and is now a classic of the contemporary stage as is his post-Brechtian production MABOU MINES DOLLHOUSE.   THE GOSPEL OF COLONUS celebrated its thirty-fifth-year anniversary with a run at the Delacorte theater in Central Park in 2018. Breuer also directed and wrote the screen play for the ARTE commissioned film version of MABOU MINES DOLLHOUSE (2008).

“You understood acting as being able to be something noble and of service and not about narcissism or entertainment, and I felt like, ah, I can catch a hold of this...How could I be an actor if I didn't understand it as service....”Maude Mitchell

MAUDE  MITCHELL is an actor, dramaturge, adapter, and teacher. She trained with Sanford Meisner at The Neighborhood Playhouse, was introduced to ‘Viewpoint’ work by director Mary Sutton, and collaborated with Moises Kaufman in NYC during the development of ‘Moment-Work.’ She uses these disciplines when teaching.

Mitchell’s childhood was spent in Hong Kong and Tallahassee making her sensitive to ‘outsider’  and political/class issues. As an adolescent she took her first acting class in Tallahassee with dialect expert Gillian Lane-Plescia. Five members of The Royal Shakespeare Company (Including Ben Kingsley) in residence at Oberlin College in 1978 profoundly inspired Mitchell. 

Mitchell was drawn to collaborative ensembles. In the late 80’s she was a founding member of The RAPP Arts Center, NYC. In the 90’s, collaborating with numerous directors including: Joe Calarco, Leigh Fondakowski, and Moises Kaufman, she originated roles by a wide variety of playwrights including: Julia Jordan, Adam Rapp, and Naomi Iizuka. With Moises Kaufman and other members of The Tectonic Theater Project Mitchell is one of the co-creators of THE LARAMIE PROJECT. Extensive dramaturgy underpins her work.

For her performance in MABOU MINES DOLLHOUSE (co-adapted by Mitchell and Breuer) she received an Elliot Norton Award, Drama League Nomination, Backstage West Garland Award, and a Village Voice OBIE Award.

Mitchell and Breuer met when both were at The Sundance Theater Lab in 1999. They formed a collaborative couple and over a twenty year span they worked and lived together on six continents.

Breuer died of lung cancer and advanced kidney disease at Breuer and Mitchell’s home base in Brooklyn January 3, 2020. His archives are at Yale’s Beinecke Library.

• New York Times Obituary - Published January 4, 2021 - written by Laura Collins-Hughes