RIP Stefan Brecht, Theatre Historian
Stefan Brecht (pictured), an immensely important avant-garde theatre historian and the son of the playwright Bertolt Brecht, passed away April 13 in Manhattan. He was 84. He was responsible for three major books: “Queer Theatre”, “The Theatre of Visions: Robert Wilson”, and “Peter Schumann’s Bread and Puppet Theatre” which were part of a series exploring the avant-garde theatre movement in New York in the 1960’s and 1970’s under the title “The Original Theatre of the City of New York: From the Mid-Sixties to the Mid-Seventies”. Brecht was widely respected and revered by the theatre community and was himself a poet and photographer, captured most authoritatively in a 2006 release called “Eighth Avenue“. He held the deepest respect for his father’s work throughout his life and was unquestionably brilliant and passionate about his art and the theatre itself. On a personal note, Brecht died of a frustratingly debilitating mental condition known as Lewy Body Dementia, from which my grandmother also suffered until her death in 2006. Learn more about it here. Brecht is survived by his wife, Rena Gill, and his three children and three grandchildren.
