Michael Lessac

Michael Lessac (born 1940 -) is an American born theatre, television, and film director and screenwriter.

Biography

He initially completed a Ph.D. in developmental and perceptual psychology at the University of Pennsylvania (1965), then was then given a McKnight Fellowship to the Tyronne Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, going on to work at the national theatres of England, Italy, France, Poland, Romania, Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union. He also developed an interest in music and was signed to Columbia Records in 1968.

In 1974 he founded and became the Artistic Director of Colonnades Theatre Lab, Inc in New York, managing its trained a company of eighteen actors, three playwrights, four composers, and a lighting, sound, set design/construction team. Up to to 1984 he produced and directed over thirty productions with them.

He has also maintianed a very successful career in Film and TV.

Contribution to SA theatre, film, media and/or performance

He founded a South African version of Colonnades Theatre Lab in South Africa, and in the period 2003-2006 oversaw the creation of, and directed, Truth in Translation (working with Sam Tammi, Hugh Masekela and the original cast), a piece about the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in the country, a piece that would play widely in many countries.