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Permission to publish or reproduce is required from the copyright holder. For more information, please see the Permissions and Copyright page on the West Virginia and Regional History Center website.

Conditions Governing Access

No special access restriction applies.

Researchers may access digitized materials by visiting the link attached to each item or by requesting to view the materials in person by appointment or remotely by contacting the West Virginia & Regional History Center reference department at https://westvirginia.libanswers.com/wvrhc.

Preferred Citation

[Description and date of item], [Box/folder number], Maryat Lee, Playwright, Papers, A&M 3300, West Virginia and Regional History Center, West Virginia University Libraries, Morgantown, West Virginia.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Gift from Lee, Robert, 1998 June 5.

Gift from Lee, Robert, 1998 July 11.

Transfer from West Virginia University Art Museum, 2022 April 29.

Biographical / Historical

Maryat Lee was an American playwright and theater director who made important contributions to post-World War II avant-garde theater. She pioneered street theater in Harlem and later founded EcoTheater in West Virginia, a community-based theater project.

Maryat Lee was born as Mary Attaway Lee in Covington, Kentucky on May 26, 1923, to Grace Barbee Dyer Lee and Dewitt Collins Lee. Maryat, as she came to be known, grew up with her musician mother, lawyer and businessman father, and two older brothers, John and Robert.

She graduated from Wellesley College in Wellesley, Massachusetts with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Bible History in 1945.

In the following years, Lee was employed in various jobs in New York City, including editing religious films, transcribing oral history tapes for Columbia University, and serving as an assistant to Margaret Mead at the Society for Applied Anthropology.

Inspired by a conversation with East Harlem storefront church ministers about declining local interest in religion and surging drug usage, Lee sought to become acquainted with the population of Harlem, a largely African American neighborhood in New York City. This led to the writing of her first play, DOPE! which began showings in storefront churches, on sidewalks, and in alleys in 1951, using the local people Lee had met in Harlem as actors. Interest in this street theater, as it would come to be known, faded quickly, but it set the foundation for much of Lee's later work.

In 1957, she met and began a friendship with author Flannery O'Connor that would last until the latter's death in 1964. That same year, in 1957, she married Australian furniture designer David Foulkes Taylor in Japan. The couple parted ways soon after, and Taylor died in a car accident in Australia in 1965.

In 1966, Lee began a long business and romantic relationship with photographer Fran Belin, with whom she would go on to co-found the Women's Farm and EcoTheater.

She founded the East Harlem Soul and Latin Theater (SALT) in New York City in 1970, building upon her work with Harlem residents seventeen years prior. SALT used non-actors and encouraged audience reactions in opposition to what Lee viewed as the more stifling contemporary theater.

Soon after, Lee parted ways with SALT after troupe members became discontented with the way she was handling copyright of the works produced, and the troupe dissolved two years later.

In 1971, Lee moved to Powley's Creek, West Virginia with Belin and founded the Women's Farm, as part of a wider Back-to-the-land movement that occurred in America in the 1960s and 1970s. The Women's Farm sought to provide a work retreat for artists and musicians and serve as the foundation for a new type of local theater.

During this time, Lee focused on learning about her local community in Hinton, West Virginia, and wrote plays inspired by what she heard, including John Henry and Ole Miz Dacey . Both plays would be shown on Lee's farm and performed by youth from the Governor's Summer Youth Program, marking the beginning of EcoTheater in 1975.

EcoTheater, described by Lee as "indigenous Appalachian theater" produced plays based on oral histories collected from the local community, and as with DOPE! and SALT, used non-actors in its performances.

In 1984, Lee moved to Lewisburg, West Virginia, where she worked on her EcoTheater Workbook. From 1987 to 1989, Lee focused her energies on producing several theater workshops in West Virginia and Kentucky.

Maryat Lee passed away at her home in Lewisburg, West Virginia on September 18, 1989, while working on her EcoTheater Workbook.

Scope and Contents

This collection mostly contains materials created and collected by Maryat Lee between 1951 and 1989 during her work on a wide variety of art and theatre projects, including Street and Latin Theater (SALT), the Women's Farm, and EcoTheater. Also present in the collection are materials created by Maryat Lee's parents, Grace Barbee Dyer Lee and Dewitt Collins Lee between 1910 and 1945. Materials present beyond Maryat Lee's death in 1989 consist of various EcoTheater and the Women's Farm administrative and promotional writings.

Materials include reports, newsletters, correspondence, newspaper clippings, photographs, cassette tapes, VHS tapes, posters, manuscripts, notes, scripts, screenplays, published plays, genealogical research, journals, drawings, and paintings. Also present is a piece of stained glass created by Lee, a dress worn by Lee, and an EcoTheater T-Shirt.

The collection is divided into seven series based upon Maryat Lee's original folder labeling and the prevalence of certain subject matter. Due to the fact that Lee did not package the materials for donation herself, some boxes and folders within the series are physically out of order in relation to their intellectual arrangement. Addendum are also split between series.

Series 1. Writings: This series contains writings by Maryat Lee outside of her workshops and various programs, such as notes and manuscripts.

Series 2. Subjects: This series contains materials labeled as "subjects" by Maryat Lee. It includes correspondence and research materials mostly related to individuals involved in theater, writing, and publishing.

Series 3. Audiovisual Material: This series contains reels, VHS, and cassette tapes created by Maryat Lee or one of her associates. The audiovisual material contains music, plays, family gatherings, workshops, board meetings, and presentations. Box 62 is an addendum of 2005/04/12.

Series 4. Theater Programs and Workshops: This series contains working papers from Maryat Lee's involvement in a wide variety of theater and theater-adjacent programs. Most prominent in this series are materials relating to Soul and Latin Theater (SOUL), the Women's Farm, EcoTheater, the Governor's Summer Youth Program (GSYP), theater workshops, and prison theater programs. Materials include grant applications, correspondence, newspaper articles, manuscripts, notes, proposals, press releases, newsletters, and photographs. Boxes 59-61 are an addendum of 1998/07/22. Boxes 63-64 are an addendum of an unknown date.

Series 5. Personal: This series contains materials personal to Maryat Lee. It includes materials related to her family and friends outside of their associations with Maryat's various theater programs. Included are photographs, photo slides, negatives, correspondence, scrapbooks, journals, medical information, drawings, and planners. Boxes 58-61 are an addendum of 1998/07/22. Boxes 63-64 are an addendum of an unknown date.

Series 6. Publications: This series contains published plays collected, but not written, by Maryat Lee.

Series 7. Paintings and Busts: This series contains nine paintings by Maryat Lee and a plaster bust of Maryat Lee. Paintings 7-8 are an addendum of 2022/04/29.

This collection was reprocessed on 2024/11/07. A crosswalk between the original organization and the new organization is available upon request.

Select audiovisual materials have been digitized. Researchers may access digitized materials by requesting to view the materials in person by appointment or remotely by contacting the West Virginia & Regional History Center reference department at https://westvirginia.libanswers.com/wvrhc.

Subjects and Indexing Terms

• Community arts projects
• Community theater
• Hinton (W. Va.)
• Lee, Maryat, 1923-1989
• Lee, Robert
• New York (N.Y.)
• West Virginia Feminist Activist Collection
• West Virginia University. Art Museum
• Women authors, American -- 20th century
• Women in community organization