BIOGRAPHY
Willie Reale
With his composer/brother, Robert Reale: A Year With Frog and Toad, Childrens’ Theater Company in Minneapolis, New Victory Theatre, and Cort Theater on Broadway (two Tony nominations for book and lyrics); Once Around The City, New York Stage and Film and Second Stage Theatre in New York; Quark Victory, Williamstown Theatre Festival; and The Dinosaur Musical, The Arden in Philadelphia. Founder and Artistic Director for 18 years of The 52nd Street Project, an organization that brings inner-city children together with professional theater artists to create theater. For the Project, he has written dozens of plays, the lyrics to hundreds of songs and “52 Pick Up,” the Project’s how-to manual. The programs of The 52nd Street Project are currently being replicated at many sites across the country and Europe. In 1994, he was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship in recognition of his ingenuity in creating theater and theater education programs for young people. Television credits: “Damages,” “Homicide: Life on the Streets,” “Deadline,” “Mr. Sterling,” “Keen Eddie,” “The Jury,” and “Tilt.” He created a series called “Out There” for Sesame Workshop and the BBC shot in Australia (Australian Film Institute Award, Prix Jeunesse, and Writers’ Guild of America nominations). He served as head writer and Co-Executive Producer on the team that reinvented “The Electric Company,” now airing on PBS. Film work: Dreamgirls (lyrics to the song “Patience,” Oscar nomination).