Who is this guy?

Robert Brustein

Born in 1927, Brustein studied at the High School of Music and Art in New York. He also went to school in his native homeland at Amherst, Yale School of Drama and Columbia. He acted with various Stock companies and even on television before he became a well known, and respected theatre critic for the New Republic during the years, 1959-1968. During which time, he won several awards.

He became a teacher at Columbia and later joined Yale, as a professor of there and English. During his time there he founded and served as artistic director for the Yale Repertory theatre, pushing their department to one of the leading collegiate ensemble in America. However, he left in 1979 to join Harvard University in Cambridge Mass. There he utilized the school as a foundation for developing the American Repertory Theatre, yet another bonus for any university.

Brustein never truly gave up being a critic and developed a keen sense for there and it relation with society. For instance, some of his books, The Theatre of Revolt (1964), Revolution as Theatre (1970, and The Cultural Watch(1975) demonstrate his major contribution to theatre. An exploration of theatre and society allows us all to understand tradition and change.