Maryat Lee (born Mary Attaway Lee; May 26, 1923 – September 18, 1989) was an American playwright and theatre director who made important contributions to post-World War II avant-garde theatre, pioneering

street theatre Street theatre is a form of theatrical performance and presentation in outdoor public spaces without a specific paying audience. These spaces can be anywhere, including shopping centres, car parks, recreational reserves, college or university c ...

Harlem Harlem is a neighborhood in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It is bounded roughly by the Hudson River on the west; the Harlem River and 155th Street (Manhattan), 155th Street on the north; Fifth Avenue on the east; and 110th Street (Manhattan), ...

and later founding the Eco Theater, which developed drama productions out of oral histories in

Appalachia Appalachia () is a cultural region in the Eastern United States that stretches from the Southern Tier of New York State to northern Alabama and Georgia. While the Appalachian Mountains stretch from Belle Isle in Newfoundland and Labrador, Ca ...

Life and career

Lee was born in

Covington, Kentucky Covington is a list of cities in Kentucky, home rule-class city in Kenton County, Kentucky, Kenton County, Kentucky, United States, located at the confluence of the Ohio River, Ohio and Licking River (Kentucky), Licking Rivers. Cincinnati, Ohio, ...

;William W. French
"Maryat Lee"
''The West Virginia Encyclopedia'', retrieved December 16, 2014. her father, Dewitt Collins Lee, was a lawyer and businessman, and her mother, Grace Dyer, was a musician.Michael Ridderbusch and John Cuthbert, "Ecotheater: A West Virginia Playwright's Vision for Dramatic Art", ''West Virginia and Regional History Collection Newsletter''
14.8
(Fall 1998) pp. 3–6]. After graduating from the

National Cathedral School National Cathedral School (NCS) is an independent Episcopal private day school for girls in grades 4–12 located on the grounds of the Washington National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., United States. Founded by philanthropist and suffragist Phoe ...

she studied drama at

Northwestern University Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern is the oldest chartered university in Illinois and is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in the world. Charte ...

, but found it too "artificial" and "commercial"; she transferred to

Wellesley College Wellesley College is a private women's liberal arts college in Wellesley, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1870 by Henry and Pauline Durant as a female seminary, it is a member of the original Seven Sisters Colleges, an unofficial g ...

, where she graduated with a degree in religious studies in 1945, then did graduate study at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

and received an MA from Union Theological Seminary with a thesis on the religious origins of drama.Brad Gooch, ''Flannery: A Life of Flannery O'Connor'', New York: Little, Brown, 2009,
n.p.
At one point she worked for

Margaret Mead Margaret Mead (December 16, 1901 – November 15, 1978) was an American cultural anthropologist who featured frequently as an author and speaker in the mass media during the 1960s and the 1970s. She earned her bachelor's degree at Barnard Co ...

. Lee was a pioneer of street theatre in the 1950s. On a commission from the Parish Council, she wrote and produced ''Dope!'', a one-act play about drug abuse that William French calls "the original modern street play"; it was performed in 1951 in a vacant lot in Harlem, the action including a junkie "shooting up" on stage.William W. French
"A Double-Threaded Life: Maryat Lee's Ecotheatre"
''The Drama Review'' 27.2, Grassroots Theatre (Summer 1983) 26–35, p. 30.CoEvolution Quarterly, No. 43 (Fall 1984); Joyce Marshall, "EcoTheater—A Theater for the Ecozoic Era

/ref> It attracted much press attention, and was named one of the best plays of the 1952–53 season; it continued to be widely performed for two decades."Maryat Lee, Playwright, 66"
Obituaries, ''The New York Times'', October 10, 1989. In 1970 two actors who had been in productions of the play died from

heroin Heroin, also known as diacetylmorphine and diamorphine among other names, is a potent opioid mainly used as a recreational drug for its euphoric effects. Medical grade diamorphine is used as a pure hydrochloride salt. Various white and brow ...

overdoses. During the 1950s she also worked with Jacob L. Moreno at his Institute of Psychodrama.French, p. 32. In 1965, when the street theatre movement was becoming popular, she founded the Soul and Latin Theater, known as SALT, in

East Harlem East Harlem, also known as Spanish Harlem or and historically known as Italian Harlem, is a neighborhood of Upper Manhattan, New York City, roughly encompassing the area north of the Upper East Side and bounded by 96th Street to the south, F ...

, and taught street theatre classes at

The New School The New School is a private research university in New York City. It was founded in 1919 as The New School for Social Research with an original mission dedicated to academic freedom and intellectual inquiry and a home for progressive thinkers. ...

. In 1970 she moved to Powley Creek, near

Hinton, West Virginia Hinton is a city in Summers County, West Virginia, United States. The population was 2,266 at the 2020 census. It is the county seat of Summers County. Hinton was established in 1873 and chartered in 1897. Hinton was named after John "Jack" Hin ...

, and in 1975 founded the Eco Theater, for which she developed plays out of

oral histories Oral history is the collection and study of historical information about individuals, families, important events, or everyday life using audiotapes, videotapes, or transcriptions of planned interviews. These interviews are conducted with people wh ...

. In 1984 she incorporated the Eco Theater and moved to Lewisburg, where she taught her methods to enable it to spread as a theatre movement. She died from heart disease at her home there. He
papers
are in the Regional and History collection at the

West Virginia University West Virginia University (WVU) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Morgantown, West Virginia. Its other campuses are those of the West Virginia University Institute of Technology in Beckley, Potomac State College ...

library.Anne Swedberg, "Participatory Audiences, East Harlem Street Theater, and Maryat Lee, 1951", ''Youth Theatre Journal'' 21.1 (2007) 70–80
p. 70

Philosophy

Lee used local people in her productions in both New York and West Virginia. She believed that by teaching untrained actors for the first time, she could "bring out the hidden person underneath the roles and masks that society imposes." In a 1984 article in the precursor of ''

Whole Earth Review ''Whole Earth Review'' (''Whole Earth'' after 1997) was a magazine which was founded in January 1985 after the merger of the '' Whole Earth Software Review'' (a supplement to the ''Whole Earth Software Catalog'') and the ''CoEvolution Quarterly ...

'', she wrote: "The words 'acting' and 'actor' have an association with pretension for most people outside the theater. I want something different. I just want people simply, and not so simply, to be themselves." She liked to quote

Lope de Vega Félix Lope de Vega y Carpio ( , ; 25 November 156227 August 1635) was a Spanish playwright, poet, and novelist. He was one of the key figures in the Spanish Golden Age of Baroque literature. His reputation in the world of Spanish literature ...

on the essence of theatre: "Three planks, two actors, and a passion". Her brother John described this and the use of oral histories as making her theatre "close to ecology". EcoTheater initially used teenagers, who received a small stipend through a state grant for summer youth employment; later she used unpaid senior citizens. Lee wanted to have the drama arise from the society and reveal its ideals, as in the medieval English

mystery play Mystery plays and miracle plays (they are distinguished as two different forms although the terms are often used interchangeably) are among the earliest formally developed plays in medieval Europe. Medieval mystery plays focused on the represen ...

s. Audience participation was a major factor in both New York and West Virginia, and Eco Theater performances were followed by discussions. William French, who has published journal and encyclopedic articles on Lee, noted that Lee gave co-credit to the actors for writing '' A Double-Threaded Life: The Hinton Play'', a series of monologues and dialogues performed on a bare stage. That play, which detailed the lives of ordinary people from

, had no particular narrative line and sections were put in and taken out based on actors' availability. Crediting these performers was stretching the truth a bit: since "Lee exercise firm artistic control over the final script, infusing it with poetic touches and revising it for economy and coherence", but, according to French, "the script reflects her desire to create a people's theatre".

Personal life

Lee married an Australian furniture designer and artist, David Foulkes Taylor, in 1957; he died in 1965. She was however openly lesbian or bisexual. She was a friend of

Flannery O'Connor Mary Flannery O'Connor (March 25, 1925August 3, 1964) was an American novelist, short story writer and essayist. She wrote two novels and 31 short stories, as well as a number of reviews and commentaries. She was a Southern writer who often ...

(who sent her drafts of her work for comments and suggestions), and exchanged many letters with her. Her sexuality has been used to argue that O'Connor was also lesbian, but the idea is generally rejected.Kirk, pp. 12
268

Selected publications

Plays

* ''Dope!'' (1953; rev. ed. 1967) * ''The Classroom'' (1968, published online 2004) * ''Day to Day'' (1969) * ''Four Men and a Monster'' (1969) * ''John Henry'' (1979, published online 2004)

Essays

* "Street Theatre in Harlem – Soul and Latin Theatre – SALT", ''Theatre Quarterly'' 2.8 (October–December 1972) 35–43 * "Legitimate Theatre Is Illegitimate", in ''Toward the Second Decade: The Impact of the Women's Movement on American Institutions'', ed. Betty Justice and Renate Pore, Contributions in women's studies 25, Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood, 1981,
"To Will One Thing"
''Drama Review'' 27.4, ''Anniversary Issue: Dreams, Proposals, Manifestos'' (Winter 1983) 47–53

Productions

*1950 – ''Christmas Mystery Play'' *1951 – ''Dope!'' *1955 – ''Kairos'' *1960 – ''Meat Hansom'' *1963 – ''The Tightrope Walker'' *1964 – ''Fulmania'' *1967 – ''Four Men and a Monster'' *1968 – ''After the Fashionshow'' *1968 – ''The Classroom'' *1969 – ''Luba'' *1970 – ''Day to Day'' *1971 – ''Fuse: A Mystery'' *1978 – ''Ole Miz Dacey'' *1979 – ''John Henry'' *1980 – ''The Day Hinton Died'' *1982 – ''The Hinton Play: A Double-Threaded Life''