Benjamin Mordecai, 60; Yale Educator Staged Plays That Made Strong Social Statements

Benjamin Mordecai, a theatrical producer and educator known for staging plays with social themes, particularly those by August Wilson from “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” to “Radio Golf,” has died. He was 60.

Mordecai died Sunday of cancer at Yale Health Services in New Haven, Conn.

At the time of his death, Mordecai was associate dean and chairman of the Yale School of Drama’s department of theater management. He began championing Wilson’s plays in his previous position, managing director of the Yale Repertory Theatre from 1982 to 1993.

Throughout his career, Mordecai concentrated primarily on producing artistic plays with strong social statements, rather than the musicals and light comedies Broadway considered sure moneymakers.

Yet he built a solid record in professional theater -- marred slightly last fall when he was unable to obtain financing to stage Wilson’s “Gem of the Ocean” on Broadway and was replaced as producer.

During his tenure at Yale Repertory Theatre, Mordecai moved five Wilson plays from the New Haven stage to Broadway: “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” in 1984, “Fences” in 1987, “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone” in 1988, “The Piano Lesson” in 1990 and “Two Trains Running” in 1992.

He recently helped facilitate the Yale theater’s premiere of “Radio Golf,” which is Wilson’s 10th and final work in his cycle of plays depicting the black experience in 20th century America.

As executive director of the Sageworks producing group, Mordecai also brought Wilson’s “Seven Guitars” to Broadway in 1996, followed by the playwright’s “King Headley II” in 2001 and a revival of “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” in 2003. He brought “Jitney” to off-Broadway in 2000.

At his death, Mordecai was represented on Broadway by “Brooklyn the Musical.”

He earned Tony nominations for a dozen Broadway productions, and won the award twice, for helping produce “Fences” and Tony Kushner’s two-part “Angels in America.” The Yale Repertory Theatre also earned a Tony for regional theater in 1991 with Mordecai as its managing director.

In addition to the five Wilson plays, Mordecai moved several others from the Yale theater to Broadway, including Athol Fugard’s “Blood Knot,” Lee Blessing’s “A Walk in the Woods” and revivals of Eugene O’Neill’s “Long Day’s Journey into Night” and “Ah! Wilderness.”

Mordecai worked closely with former Mark Taper Forum artistic director Gordon Davidson to produce Wilson’s plays in Los Angeles, and in turn produced Broadway versions of plays Davidson initiated here such as Anna Deveare Smith’s “Twilight: Los Angeles.”

Born in New York City, Mordecai was educated in the Midwest and began his producing and directing career there. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Buena Vista University in Iowa and a master’s from Eastern Michigan University and did graduate study at Indiana University.

In 1971, he co-founded the Indiana Repertory Theatre in Indianapolis and served as its producing director until 1982, directing productions of such plays as “The House of Blue Leaves,” “Count Dracula” and “Our Town.”

Mordecai is survived by his wife of 30 years, Lynn Morley Mordecai, of Guilford, Conn., and a daughter, Rachel Elizabeth Mordecai of Los Angeles.