Piscator, Maria Ley (1899–1999)

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Piscator, Maria Ley (1899–1999)

Austrian actress, teacher and director. Born Aug 1, 1899, in Vienna, Austria; died Oct 14, 1999, in New York, NY; m. 3rd husband, Erwin Piscator (theatrical director), 1936.

Began career as a dancer in Berlin and Paris and later turned to choreography; helped stage several productions with Max Reinhardt, including A Midsummer Night's Dream; immigrated with Erwin Piscator to US, where they founded the Dramatic Workshop at New School for Social Research in NYC; directed stage productions off-Broadway and in Europe; became honorary director of Elysium Theater in Munich (1993); wrote The Piscator Experiment (1967); was the subject of Dolly, Lotte, und Maria, a West German documentary by Rosa von Praunheim concerning Piscator, Lotte Goslar, Dolly Haas (1987).

See also autobiography, Mirror People (1989).