Ruth Maleczech (January , â€" September , ) was an American
avant-garde stage actress. She won three Obie Awards for Best Actress
in her career, for Hajj (), Through the Leaves, () and Lear () and an
Obie Award for Design, shared with Julie Archer, for Vanishing
Pictures (), which she also directed. Her performance as Lear was
widely acclaimed: her King Lear was portrayed as an imperious Southern
matriarch.Maleczech was born in Cleveland, Ohio as Ruth Sophia
Reinprecht, to Frank Reinprecht (â€") and Elizabeth Marie (née
Maletich) Reinprecht (â€"), Catholic Yugoslavian immigrant parents, a
steel worker and a seamstress, respectively. She was raised in
Phoenix, Arizona.Maleczech was the first in her family to attend
college, beginning theater studies at UCLA at . From there she went to
San Francisco to work, where she met Mabou Mines co-founder Lee
Breuer. The two became a couple and, in , they went to Paris and for
six years earned money dubbing films, sufficient to fund their
burgeoning theatrical experiments.In France, Maleczech and JoAnne
Akalaitis studied with the Polish director and drama theorist Jerzy
Grotowski; Maleczech also spent a month in East Berlin studying,
observing rehearsals and attending performances by Bertolt Brecht's
storied Berliner Ensemble. Returning to the United States, Maleczech
co-founded the experimental N.Y.C. theater company Mabou Mines, in ,
along with Akalaitis, Breuer, Philip Glass and David Warrilow.
Maleczech collaborated on nearly every piece Mabou Mines produced. She
adopted a phonetic spelling of her mother's maiden name as her
professional name (Maletich â†' Maleczech).
avant-garde stage actress. She won three Obie Awards for Best Actress
in her career, for Hajj (), Through the Leaves, () and Lear () and an
Obie Award for Design, shared with Julie Archer, for Vanishing
Pictures (), which she also directed. Her performance as Lear was
widely acclaimed: her King Lear was portrayed as an imperious Southern
matriarch.Maleczech was born in Cleveland, Ohio as Ruth Sophia
Reinprecht, to Frank Reinprecht (â€") and Elizabeth Marie (née
Maletich) Reinprecht (â€"), Catholic Yugoslavian immigrant parents, a
steel worker and a seamstress, respectively. She was raised in
Phoenix, Arizona.Maleczech was the first in her family to attend
college, beginning theater studies at UCLA at . From there she went to
San Francisco to work, where she met Mabou Mines co-founder Lee
Breuer. The two became a couple and, in , they went to Paris and for
six years earned money dubbing films, sufficient to fund their
burgeoning theatrical experiments.In France, Maleczech and JoAnne
Akalaitis studied with the Polish director and drama theorist Jerzy
Grotowski; Maleczech also spent a month in East Berlin studying,
observing rehearsals and attending performances by Bertolt Brecht's
storied Berliner Ensemble. Returning to the United States, Maleczech
co-founded the experimental N.Y.C. theater company Mabou Mines, in ,
along with Akalaitis, Breuer, Philip Glass and David Warrilow.
Maleczech collaborated on nearly every piece Mabou Mines produced. She
adopted a phonetic spelling of her mother's maiden name as her
professional name (Maletich â†' Maleczech).
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