Mechele Leon

Mechele Leon is a theatre scholar and artist. She focuses on French theatre in the context of national identity, cultural history, and performance practices. Her book, Molière, the French Revolution, and the Theatrical Afterlife (University of Iowa Press, 2009) is winner of the 2010 Barnard Hewitt Award for Outstanding Research in Theatre History from the American Society for Theatre Research. She is editor of A Cultural History of Theatre in the Enlightenment, the fourth volume in the series A Cultural History of Theatre (forthcoming from Bloomsbury Press, 2017. Series editors Tracy C. Davis and Christopher B. Balme). Her current project explores France and cultural diplomacy through the work of French language theatre in the United States. She has translated and directed several of Molière’s plays, as well as plays from the European and American avant-garde tradition including Brecht’s Man Equals Man, Genet’s The Maids, and Rice’s The Adding Machine. Dr. Leon received her Ph.D. in Theatre Arts from Cornell University and a D.E.A. in Théâtre et arts du spectacle from the University of Paris under the direction of Christian Biet. Living in France from 1996-2001, she taught theatre history, theory, and acting at the American University of Paris and held a post as lecturer in English at the University of Paris.