Robert Sanford Brustein

Robert Sanford Brustein 1927-, American educator and drama critic, b. New York City. As dean of the Yale Univ. Drama School (1966-78), he made it one of the major American training grounds for the theatrical arts. During this period he also founded and directed the Yale Repertory Theatre. In 1979, Brustein became head of the Loeb Drama Center at Harvard. He also directed (1966-2002) the American Repertory Theater, which was headquartered at Harvard after 1980, and has been largely responsible for Harvard's association with the Moscow Art Theater School, which began in 1997. Brustein is an exacting critic of the modern American theater. His books include The Theatre of Revolt (1964) and such essay collections as Seasons of Discontent (1965), Revolution as Theatre (1971), Making Scenes (1981), Cultural Calisthenics (1998), and The Siege of the Arts (2002). He has also written several plays.

Brustein, Robert [Sanford] (b. 1927), critic, manager, and author. After studying at the High School of Music and Art in his native New York, he attended Amherst, Yale School of Drama, and Columbia. He acted with stock companies and on television before becoming drama critic for the New Republic from 1959 to 1968, his criticism winning several awards. During his tenure he also taught drama at Vassar and Columbia. In 1965 Brustein was appointed professor of Drama and English Literature at Yale, where he founded and served as artistic director for the Yale Repertory Theatre. The troupe quickly became one of the leading collegiate ensembles in America. In 1979 he left Yale for Harvard where he became artistic director of American Repertory Theatre for twenty years. Among his many books are The Theatre of Revolt (1964), Revolution as Theatre (1970), Critical Moments (1980), Who Needs Theatre (1987), Dumbocracy in America (1994), and The Siege of the Arts (2001).