Leslie Lee (1930 – January 20, 2014) was an American

playwright A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes play (theatre), plays, which are a form of drama that primarily consists of dialogue between Character (arts), characters and is intended for Theatre, theatrical performance rather than just Readin ...

, director and professor of playwriting and screenwriting.

Life and work

Leslie Lee grew up in West Conshohocken,

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

. He earned a bachelor's degree from the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...

and a master's degree from

Villanova University Villanova University is a Private university, private Catholic Church, Catholic research university in Villanova, Pennsylvania, United States. It was founded by the Order of Saint Augustine in 1842 and named after Thomas of Villanova, Saint Thom ...

. Lee's early theatre experience was at Ellen Stewart's La Mama Experimental Theatre Club in the

East Village, Manhattan The East Village is a neighborhood on the East Side (Manhattan), East Side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, New York. It is roughly defined as the area east of the Bowery and Third Avenue, between 14th Street (Manhattan), 14th Street on the ...

. His play ''Elegy for a Down Queen'' was produced at La MaMa in 1970 and in 1972 by John Vaccaro's Playhouse of the Ridiculous. ''Cops and Robbers'' was produced at La MaMa in 1971 by La MaMa GPA Nucleus Company. 1997, marked the beginning of Mr. Lee's theatre collaboration (spanning twenty years) with his Dramatic Writing Student from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts whom he deemed his protégé, Sophia Romma (née Murashkovsky). Colonel Lee directed Sophia Murashkovsky's play, ''Love, In the Eyes of Hope, Dies Last'' which was produced at La MaMa in 1997, and he also directe
Sophia Murashkovsky
s critically acclaimed play, ''Coyote Take Me There!'' at La MaMa in 1999. In 2004, Leslie Lee directed Ms. Murashkovsky's epic, mystic play, ''Defenses of Prague'' at La MaMa. Mr. Lee continued to successfully collaborate in the theatre with Dr. Sophia Romma and in 2006, directed her heart-wrenching émigré saga, ''Shoot Them In the Cornfields!'' which premiered at the American Theatre of Actors. Mr. Lee, who seldom took on the role of director, believed that Dr. Romma's unique staccato lyrical voice, her poignant themes of advocating for multicultural tolerance, religious, ethnic and minority acceptance, and most importantly her stark depictions of the trials and tribulations of immigration/assimilation were well worth exploring on the theatrical stage. Ms. Murashkovsky (Romma) in turn, directed Mr. Lee's short play, ''We're Not Here to Talk About Beethoven'' at John McTiernan's New York Performance Works. Lee also worked with the

Negro Ensemble Company The Negro Ensemble Company (NEC) is a New York City-based theater company and workshop established in 1967 by producer-actor Robert Hooks, playwright Douglas Turner Ward, and theater manager Gerald S. Krone, with funding from the Ford Foundatio ...

along with Sophi
Romma https://www.broadwayworld.com/people/Sophia-Romma/
who served as Literary Manager of NEC. His significant work includes his history play ''Colored People's Time'', a production of which featured Angela Bassett and Samuel L. Jackson, and ''Hannah Davis.'' He received a 1975

Obie Award The Obie Awards or Off-Broadway Theater Awards are annual awards given since 1956 by ''The Village Voice'' newspaper to theater artists and groups involved in off-Broadway and off-off-Broadway productions in New York City. Starting just after th ...

for Best Play, a 1976

Tony Award The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Broadway Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes excellence in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ce ...

nomination for Best Play, and an Outer Circle Critics Award for his play ''First Breeze of Summer''. In 2006, the

produced his play ''Sundown Names and Night Gone Things'', based on Richard Wright's life in 1930s Chicago, featuring Stephen Tyrone Williams and Dewanda Wise. In 2008, the Signature Theatre Company produced a revival of ''First Breeze of Summer'', directed by Ruben Santiago-Hudson and starring

Leslie Uggams Leslie Marian Uggams (; born May 25, 1943) is an American actress and singer. After beginning her career as a child in the early 1950s, she garnered acclaim for her role in the Broadway theatre, Broadway musical ''Hallelujah, Baby!'', winning a T ...

, Brandon J. Dirden and Jason Dirden, and Yaya DaCosta. Lee's film credits include ''Almos' A Man'', an adaptation starring LeVar Burton of a Richard Wright story; '' The Killing Floor,'' which won first prize at the National Black Film Consortium; and an adaptation (with Gus Edwards) of James Baldwin's novel '' Go Tell It On The Mountain,'' starring Paul Winfield and Rosalind Cash.

Teaching and grants

Lee taught playwriting at the College of Old Westbury on

Long Island Long Island is a densely populated continental island in southeastern New York (state), New York state, extending into the Atlantic Ocean. It constitutes a significant share of the New York metropolitan area in both population and land are ...

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...

's Tisch School of the Arts,

The New School The New School is a Private university, private research university in New York City. It was founded in 1919 as The New School for Social Research with an original mission dedicated to academic freedom and intellectual inquiry and a home for p ...

Eugene Lang College of Liberal Arts Eugene Lang College of Liberal Arts, commonly referred to as Lang, is the seminar-style, undergraduate, liberal arts college of The New School. It is located on-campus in Greenwich Village in New York City on West 11th Street off Sixth Avenue ( ...

, and the Frederick Douglass Creative Arts Center in Manhattan, where he and Sophia Romma taught playwriting and screenwriting workshops under the leadership of Ray Gaspard, Kermit Frazier, and Marc Henry Johnson. He was a playwright-in-residence at the

, and received grants from the Shubert Foundation, the

Rockefeller Foundation The Rockefeller Foundation is an American private foundation and philanthropic medical research and arts funding organization based at 420 Fifth Avenue, New York City. The foundation was created by Standard Oil magnate John D. Rockefeller (" ...

, and the National Foundation of the Arts. He received a playwriting fellowship from the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center in Connecticut. In 2009, he was sponsored by a Likhachev Foundation grant to travel to

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

and complete a screenplay on

Alexander Pushkin Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin () was a Russian poet, playwright, and novelist of the Romantic era.Basker, Michael. Pushkin and Romanticism. In Ferber, Michael, ed., ''A Companion to European Romanticism''. Oxford: Blackwell, 2005. He is consid ...

Death and legacy

Lee died on January 20, 2014, due to complications of

heart failure Heart failure (HF), also known as congestive heart failure (CHF), is a syndrome caused by an impairment in the heart's ability to Cardiac cycle, fill with and pump blood. Although symptoms vary based on which side of the heart is affected, HF ...

. He is survived by a brother and sisters, and several nieces and nephews. The

and Signature Theatre Company held a memorial celebration of his life and work in March 2014.

References

External links

Leslie Lee Legacy Foundation

"Remembering Leslie Lee" (YouTube)
Signature Theatre Company
"Black Experience in the Arts: Playwright Leslie Lee"

University of Connecticut The University of Connecticut (UConn) is a public land-grant research university system with its main campus in Storrs, Connecticut, United States. It was founded in 1881 as the Storrs Agricultural School, named after two benefactors. In 1893, ...

Archives and Special Collections Blog
Lee's page on La MaMa Archives Digital Collections
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lee, Leslie University of Pennsylvania alumni Villanova University alumni Tisch School of the Arts faculty 1930 births 2014 deaths African-American dramatists and playwrights