Mark Brokaw, Director of Classic Plays by Paula Vogel, Kenneth Lonergan, and More, Has Died

Mark Brokaw, a director of choice for veteran playwrights like Paula Vogel, Nicky Silver, Kenneth Lonergan, Craig Lucas, and Douglas Carter Beane, has died following a battle with cancer.

Six-foot-three and a Yale Drama graduate, the Illinois-native came to New York on a fellowship from the Drama League, during which he met Second Stage Theater producers Carole Rothman and Robyn Goodman, who were pivotal in his career. Brokaw was Rothman’s assistant director on Tina Howe’s Costal Disturbances in 1987, and she and Goodman gave him his first solo directing gig, Lanford Wilson’s The Rimers of Eldritch in 1988. It was his Second Stage production of Lynda Barry’s The Good Times Are Killing Me that really cemented his status as one to watch.

There is a sense of contemporary theater history around Brokaw’s early career works. In rapid succession, he staged the premieres of Lonergan’s This Is Our Youth (1996), Vogel’s How I Learned to Drive (1997), and Beane’s As Bees in Honey Drown (1997), plays that put their respective authors on the map, as well. Brokaw would return to these authors frequently, helming Lonergan’s Lobby Hero, Vogel’s The Long Christmas Ride Home and The Baltimore Waltz, five plays by Silver, including The Lyons, and a pair of Lucas plays, Reckless and The Dying Gaul.

On Broadway, Brokaw directed How I Learned to Drive, Reckless, Cinderella, Heisenberg, and Cry-Baby, among other titles. In London, he staged Lobby Hero at the Donmar Warehouse and The Lyons at the Menier Chocolate Factory.

Across America, he worked in venerable theaters like the Guthrie, Seattle Rep, Long Wharf, Yale Rep, Hartford Stage, La Jolla Playhouse, the Kennedy Center, and various others.

In a statement the Drama League said, “Since receiving his fellowship in 1986, Mark remained an integral part of our community—as a mentor, Master Director in our programs, and a board member for a number of years. Recently he joined an alumni committee to support The Directors Project—his generosity was enormous and leaves an incredible legacy. His artistic brilliance shaped countless productions and inspired generations of artists. We are profoundly grateful to him and mourn the loss of a guiding light in our community. He will be deeply missed.”