Robert Sanford Brustein, a titan of the theatre world who launched two seminal institutions, the Yale Repertory Theatre and the American Repertory Theater, nurtured numerous careers and was honored with the National Medal of Arts by President Barack Obama, died on Oct. 29 at his home in Cambridge. He was 96.
Mr. Brustein was a longtime Vineyarder, his relationship with the Island stretching back to the 1960s. Most recently he lived seasonally on Lambert’s Cove with his wife Doreen Beinart.
In Peter Simon’s book On the Vineyard 2, Mr. Brustein described his relationship to the Island this way: “It is the one geographical constant in the hearts of a family that always valued emotional constancy. It is our root, our base, our home.”
Robert Brustein was born in Brooklyn in 1927 and as a child he wanted to be a musician. He studied clarinet and recalled that time in a 2006 interview with the Vineyard Gazette, when his band’s first dance gig was canceled. He was devastated, he said in the interview, but two days later they got another gig, and from that small lesson a career in perseverance was born.
“I learned from that never to despair, and how to bounce back from disappointment,” he said.
Mr. Brustein eventually turned toward theatre and never looked back. His accomplishments and accolades span decades. He was an esteemed theatre critic, playwright, director and professor. As founder of the Yale Repertory Theatre in New Haven, Conn., and the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, he helped launch the careers of many acting legends, including Meryl Streep.
In addition to the National Medal of Arts, he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters and was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame. He was the longtime theatre critic for The New Republic and the author of 16 books.
Fellow Vineyarder Tony Shalhoub studied with Mr. Brustein for two years at the Yale School of Drama, and then when Mr. Brustein moved on to start the American Repertory Theater, he invited Mr. Shalhoub to join him again, which he did for another four years.
“He was a very important figure in my life. He was a second father to me,” Mr. Shalhoub said. “And I always kept him in mind when I had decisions to make about jobs I was deciding on. I would think, what would Bob think of this.”
Mr. Shalhoub said when he often crossed paths with Mr. Brustein on the Island, his mentor adding kayaking and clamming to the long list of educational tutorials he received.
“His knowledge and his wisdom was so vast I always appreciated the fact that he was also so accessible to his students and his actors,” Mr. Shalhoub continued. “I hope we have honored and will continue to honor his legacy and his vision.”
He also embraced a good fight. In the 2006 interview with the Gazette, Mr. Brustein recalled working with Samuel Beckett on his play Endgame. The collaboration did not go well and Mr. Beckett demanded the show to be shut down. Mr. Brustein refused to close the show, but allowed the playwright a program note informing audiences they should be disgusted.
On the Vineyard he was involved in the artistic life of the Island and its theatrical epicenter, the Martha’s Vineyard Playhouse. He was a longtime honorary board member of the playhouse and in more recent years premiered his own works there.
“I was in awe of him and his accomplishments, then I came to know him as such a lovely person,” said MJ Bruder Munafo, executive and artistic director of the Martha’s Vineyard Playhouse. “He laughed a lot, he hugged a lot and he gave encouragement all the time. We were so lucky to have him on the Vineyard and at the playhouse.”
“He was very active in the Monday Night Specials reading series,” Ms. Bruder Munafo continued, describing the events as readings of works in progress. “Spring Forward, Fall Back started there, along with his Shakespeare trilogy. And then Spring Forward, Fall Back and English Channel became full productions at the playhouse.”
“He was a theatre father for so many of us,” Ms. Bruder Munafo said. “He was a beloved friend and I am going to miss him.”
At a celebration in his honor at the Martha’s Vineyard Hebrew Center in 2014, Mr. Brustein was toasted and crowned with a laurel wreath.
“It goes without saying, this is probably the most thrilling day of my life,” Mr. Brustein said at the event. “It is extraordinary. I have never quite had anything like this before. It resembles an obituary, but I am glad to have ... one gala day.”
At the event, Mr. Brustein summed up his own career.
“I have had the privilege to help train some of the most glorious human beings and some of the most glorious artists in our country, and that is my testament,” he told the audience. “That is what I hope to live by and to be remembered for.”
He is survived by his wife, Doreen Beinart; son Daniel Brustein; stepson Peter Beinart; stepdaughter Jean Stern; two grandsons; and five step-grandchildren.
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