Odyssey Theatre Founding Artistic Director Ron Sossi Dies at 85

BroadwayWorld is saddened to report that Odyssey Theatre Ensemble's founding artistic director Ron Sossi passed away on Wednesday, March 19, at the age of 85.

Born on November 22, 1939 in Detroit, Ron graduated from the University of Michigan with a degree in writing for theater and television before moving to L.A. to attend UCLA film school. There, he supported himself as a wedding photographer and water filter salesman while earning his M.F.A. In addition to writing, Ron was an actor and a singer. He traveled to Korea, Japan and Guam, courtesy of the USO, with a college production of Carousel, where he met fellow student and co-star Bonnie Franklin, and the two were briefly married, from 1967 until 1970. After winning the Samuel Goldwyn Award for screenwriting at UCLA, Ron was hired as a program executive at ABC, where he oversaw productions of shows including Bewitched, The Flying Nun and Love American Style, among others.

In 1969, frustrated and bored by his work in the television industry, Ron founded the Odyssey Theatre in a former storefront church on the seedy end of Hollywood Boulevard. With the raucous sounds of the porn theater next door seeping through, the Odyssey opened its inaugural productions of A Man's A Man by Bertolt Brecht, The Serpent by Jean Claude van Italie, The Threepenny Opera by Brecht and Kurt Weill, and The Bacchae by Euripides. Long runs of these four plays sealed Ron's reputation as a maverick with critics and audiences alike. In 1973, he moved the Odyssey to a larger venue in West Los Angeles on the corner of Bundy and Ohio where, starting out with one 99-seat performance space, he gradually expanded it into a three-theater complex. Critically acclaimed, award-winning productions included Peer Gynt, Woyzeck, White Marriage, The Adolf Hitler Show, The Chicago Conspiracy Trial, Nightclub Cantana, Tracers, Mary Barnes, Master Class, Edmond, Rapmaster Ronnie, McCarthy, Idioglossia (later to become the Oscar nominated movie Nell), and Steven Berkoff's Kvetch—the Odyssey's longest running show at eight years. During the company's 16-year tenure in that space, Ron produced and directed two thirds of the Bertolt Brecht canon, including Baal (in which he also starred in the title role), The Caucasian Chalk Circle, Mother Courage and Brechtfest 1 and 2. When the building was sold in 1989, Ron moved the Odyssey to its current home on Sepulveda Boulevard, a city-owned warehouse formerly used to manufacture gas tanks. The new Odyssey opened its doors in 1990 with his production of Faith Healer.

Throughout the theater's 56-year history, Ron remained dedicated to presenting edgy, risk-taking live theater experiences, including an eclectic mix of new work and boldly re-envisioned classics. He was always particularly drawn to work by German and Eastern European playwrights, as well as to plays exploring metaphysical and spiritual subject matter — part of a lifelong devotion that included studying and practicing Siddha Yoga, Hinduism, Sufism, Tibetian Buddhism, The Gurdjieff Work and, most recently, Bhakti Yoga and Advaita Vedanta. In 2001, Ron created KOAN, a resident ensemble dedicated to the regular creation of unique, devised works. (In Zen Buddhism, a Koan is a paradoxical anecdote or riddle used to demonstrate the inadequacy of logical reasoning and to provoke enlightenment.) Ron's KOAN productions included The Faust Projekt, Kafka Thing and Buddha's Big Nite!, as well as Sliding Into Hades, which received the LA Weekly Award for “Best Production of the Year” and Theater in the Dark, an LA Weekly “Best Production” award nominee. More recent productions included a revival of The Serpent for the Odyssey's 50th anniversary; Wakings, an evening of short “mind excursions” exploring some of the many states of human awareness; and Elephant Shavings, subtitled “a lazy person's guide to enlightenment,” which he also wrote.

At the helm of the Odyssey for 56 continuous years, Ron was the recipient of numerous awards, including the LA Weekly Career Achievement Award. He was twice honored with the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle prestigious Margaret Harford Award for “demonstrating a continual willingness to experiment provocatively in the process of theater,” as well as with the circle's Ron Link Award for “consistent quality of direction.” According to a 1982 Los Angeles Times article by Lawrence Christon, “When the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle debated Ron's merit as this year's recipient of the Margaret Harford Award—they decided he deserved it—two adjectives that cropped up in discussion were ‘exasperating' and ‘incorrigible.'” Christon went on to note that Ron “wished they had put ‘incorrigible' on the award.”

Ron is survived by his wife, Séverine Larue, and by his sister, Nancy Foley.

In accordance with his instructions, no service or ceremony will be held. It was Ron's wish that the ongoing vibrancy of the theater he built would serve as his only memorial. The Odyssey's curtain will continue to rise, and every future performance will be a testament to Ron Sossi's enduring legacy.