Life and Career
Brustein was born in New York City. His parents were Max, a businessman, and Blanche (Haft) Brustein. He was educated at Amherst College, where he received a B.A. in 1948, and Columbia University, where he received an M.A. in 1949 and a Ph.D. in 1957. During this time, he served in the Merchant Marine on tankers and Victory ships, and later at Kings Point Academy on Long Island. He also held a Fulbright Fellowship to study in the United Kingdom from 1953 to 1955, where he directed plays at the University of Nottingham. After teaching at Cornell University, Vassar College, and Columbia, where he became a full professor of dramatic literature in the English department, he became Dean of the Yale School of Drama in 1966, and served in that position until 1979. It was during this period that he founded the Yale Repertory Theatre.
In 1979, Brustein left Yale for Harvard University, where he founded the American Repertory Theatre (ART) and became a Professor of English. He served for twenty-two years as Director of the Loeb Drama Center where he founded the Institute for Advanced Theatre Training at Harvard. He retired from the Artistic Directorship of ART in 2002 and now serves on the faculty of the Institute.
As the Artistic Director of Yale Rep from 1966 to 1979, and of ART from 1980 to 2002, Brustein supervised over 200 productions, acting in eight and directing twelve.
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