Tony-winning theater director Mel Shapiro, 87, died on Dec. 23. Shapiro was a regular director at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, Connecticut's Hartford Stage Company, and the Center Theatre Group in Los Angeles; he also worked with Joe Papp at New York’s Public Theater for six years. Shapiro directed many of John Guare’s works, including the first production of House of Blue Leaves, co-wrote musical version of Two Gentlemen of Verona (Tonys for all!), and directed Guare’s Bosoms and Neglect, Rich and Famous, and Marco Polo Sings a Solo. He co-founded New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, and taught at the Carnegie Mellon School of Drama, the University of California (L.A.), the Queensland University of Technology and the National Institute of Dramatic Art in Australia. “I had a roommate in the Army who knew I was very interested in the theater," Shapiro said. "He suggested I go to Carnegie on the GI bill when I was discharged. By the time I got to Carnegie I was so full of myself I thought I knew everything. I have tremendous admiration for the way they put up with me. When I went into teaching, I tried to see myself in students and be very patient with them."
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