Brustein, Robert Sanford

Brustein, Robert Sanford, 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.