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

playwright A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes plays. Etymology The word "play" is from Middle English pleye, from Old English plæġ, pleġa, plæġa ("play, exercise; sport, game; drama, applause"). The word "wright" is an archaic English ...

, director and professor of playwriting and screenwriting.

Life and work

Leslie Lee grew up in West Conshohocken, Pennsylvania. He earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Pennsylvania and a master's degree from Villanova University. Lee's early theatre experience was at Ellen Stewart's

La Mama Experimental Theatre Club La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club (La MaMa E.T.C.) is an Off-Off-Broadway theatre founded in 1961 by Ellen Stewart, African-American theatre director, producer, and fashion designer. Located in Manhattan's East Village, the theatre began in the ...

in the East Village, Manhattan. His play ''Elegy for a Down Queen'' was produced at La MaMa in 1970 and in 1972 by

John Vaccaro Theatre of the Ridiculous is a theatrical genre that began in New York City in the 1960s.Bottoms, Stephen J. Chapter 11: "The Play-House of the Ridiculous: Beyond Absurdity". ''Playing Underground: A Critical History of the 1960s Off-Off-Broadway M ...

'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 Sophia Romma () is an American playwright known for her one act plays and experimental films. Her work has been reviewed by ''The New York Times'' and ''The Village Voice.'' Early life and education Dr. Romma was born in Moscow and emigrated wi ...

(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 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 Angela Evelyn Bassett (born August 16, 1958) is an American actress. She had her breakthrough with her portrayal of singer Tina Turner in the biopic ''What's Love Got to Do with It'' (1993), which garnered her a nomination for the Academy Award ...

and Samuel L. Jackson, and ''Hannah Davis.'' He received a 1975

Obie Award The Obie Awards or Off-Broadway Theater Awards are annual awards originally given by ''The Village Voice'' newspaper to theatre artists and groups in New York City. In September 2014, the awards were jointly presented and administered with the A ...

for Best Play, a 1976 Tony Award nomination for Best Play, and an

Outer Circle Critics Award The Outer Critics Circle Awards are presented annually for theatrical achievements both on Broadway and Off-Broadway. They are presented by the Outer Critics Circle (OCC), the official organization of New York theater writers for out-of-town newspa ...

for his play ''First Breeze of Summer''. In 2006, the Negro Ensemble Company produced his play ''Sundown Names and Night Gone Things'', based on Richard Wright's life in 1930s Chicago, featuring

Stephen Tyrone Williams Stephen Tyrone Williams (born 1982) is an American actor best known for such films and television series as ''The Knick'', ''Da Sweet Blood of Jesus'', ''Elementary'' and ''Phil Spector''. Williams is also a stage actor known for such plays as Ath ...

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, 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 James Arthur Baldwin (August 2, 1924 – December 1, 1987) was an American writer. He garnered acclaim across various media, including essays, novels, plays, and poems. His first novel, '' Go Tell It on the Mountain'', was published in 1953; de ...

'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 island in the southeastern region of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, part of the New York metropolitan area. With over 8 million people, Long Island is the most populous island in the United Sta ...

, New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, The New School's Eugene Lang College of Liberal Arts, 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 University of Pennsylvania, 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 second-oldest major philanthropic institution in America, after the Carneg ...

, 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 and complete a screenplay on Alexander Pushkin.

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, a group of signs and symptoms caused by an impairment of the heart's blood pumping function. Symptoms typically include shortness of breath, excessive fatigue, a ...

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