Robert Brustein, who just passed away at the age of 96, was one of the titans of American theater in the 20th century: producer, critic, mentor, public intellectual, playwright and adaptor, educator. I studied with him only from afar, but I learned something very important from him — to assess artists and institutions by the body of their work, not on the basis of hits and flops. I interviewed him a few times for major publications (the New York Times, the Village Voice, American Theatre) and made many pilgrimages to Boston to see shows at the American Repertory Theater. I felt respected by him, which meant a lot to me as a young journalist and theater critic. I just posted the text from my 1987 American Theatre cover story — check it out here.
another eye opens 