Sally Lesser Wiki – Sally Lesser Biography
Sally Lesseris the wife of George Ferencz, one of the mainstays of the Off-Broadway scene that directed premieres and revivals of works by Sam Shepard, Aishah Rahman and Amiri Baraka, died on September 14 after a long illness. I was 74
His death was announced today by three-time Emmy-winning costume designer Sally Lesser, his wife of 35 years and collaborator of more than 65 years. theater productions.
Among the other then-new playwrights directed by Ferencz in significant performances were Jean-Claude van Itallie, Mac Wellman, and Yasmine Rana. Ferencz also directed established plays by playwrights such as Eugene O’Neill, Bertolt Brecht, Tennessee Williams, Sean O’Casey, and Agatha Christie.
“We regularly ran into his colleagues and former students on the street,” actor Jenne Vath, who has worked on numerous Ferencz productions, said in a statement. “Invariably they said George changed their lives. George was a great spirit and rock star from a director who deeply understood the music and magic of the theater. He channeled that inspiration to his colleagues and ultimately to audiences who experienced his brilliant visceral productions. ”
Ferencz also collaborated on original pieces with artists from outside the world of theater, including journalists Jimmy Breslin (1988’s The queen of the leaky roof circuit). A collaboration with journalist Pete Hamill and pioneering jazz drummer Max Roach, who passed away in 2020 and 2007, respectively, over Brooklyn and titled Broken earth, has not yet occurred.
As La MaMa’s resident director since 1982, Ferencz spearheaded numerous productions and original readings, and founded and directed La MaMa’s Experiments Reading series from 1998 to 2014.
Born in Cleveland, Ohio, Ferencz moved to New York in 1970 and in 1975 co-founded The Impossible Ragtime Theater with Ted Story, Pam Mitchell and Cynthia Crane. His breakthrough came the following year with the successful productions of two Eugene O’Neill plays starring his old friend Ray Wise.
“George reawakened the actor in me and set me on a path that I still follow today,” Emmy and Obie winner Wise said in a statement today.
In 1979, Ferencz directed Shep in Rep (The Rock ‘n Roll plays), with works by Shepard as early as Cowboy mouth (the playwright’s collaboration with Patti Smith), Mad Dog Blues, Crime Tooth, Melodrama Play, and Melodrama Play. The project would mark the first of 19 productions of works by Shepard de Ferencz. The following summer, Ferencz began a series of collaborations with the poet and playwright Amiri Baraka with the production of Slave ship and At The Dim Cracker Party convention.
In 1982, Ferencz began a long association with the Off-Broadway theater company La MaMa and its founder Ellen Stewart with the production of Money, a jazz opera, with a book by Baraka and music by George Gruntz.
Mia Yoo, currently artistic director of La MaMa said, “George had an innate ability to make challenging, non-traditional texts and plays breathe and come to life on stage. In addition to all the notable productions he directed, Ellen Stewart had a special relationship with him and visited him when things didn’t work out on particular projects. “George, come fix it,” it said. He was deeply linked to La MaMa and the unconventional writers who joined him to open paths to create new forms in theatrical creation ”.
In addition to La MaMa, Ferencz worked with theater companies such as Theater for the New City, INTAR (where he co-founded the Hispanic American Music Theater Lab with Tito Puente) and Woodie King’s New Federal Theater, where he directed the premiere of Baraka. Boy and Tarzan appear in a clearing with music by Hugh Masekela.
Ferencz taught conducting in the graduate department at Columbia University for 15 years and acted and directed at Yale University, Brooklyn College, NYU, Marymount Manhattan, Michael Howard Studio, and the Lee Strasberg Institute.
He also taught at his alma mater, Kent State University, where he had been a student in 1970 when the Ohio National Guard opened fire on student protesters, killing four. Three years later, Ferencz was also at the scene of a disaster in New York City when he was inside the famous Mercer Arts Center near New York University when it collapsed, killing four people.
In addition to his wife, Ferencz is survived by his son Jack Ferencz.
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