Brooks McNamara

In later life, McNamara was diagnosed with sporadic cerebellar ataxia. He died in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, of pneumonia on 8 May 2009.

McNamara was instrumental in the transformation of that NYU Department into the Performance Studies Department, which was officially launched in 1981. He founded the archives of Shubert Theatre in 1976 and served as director for 20 years. McNamara's research, writing, and curatorial pursuits resulted in numerous publications, exhibitions, productions, and archival collections. His life work spans the areas of theatre history, popular entertainments, public celebrations, and New York performance history. After retiring in 1996, McNamara remained professor emeritus of performance studies and director emeritus of the Shubert Archive.

Meanwhile, Schechner and TDR, renamed "The Drama Review," relocated in 1967 to NYU where he became a Professor in the Graduate Drama Department. In the fall of 1968, McNamara also became ja professor at NYU's Graduate Drama Department. In 1969, Schechner directed "Makbeth," a version of Shakespeare's "Macbeth." For this production, McNamara designed "The Makbeth Maze." The two, along theatre designer Jerry Rojo, co-authored "Theatres, Spaces, Environments: Eighteen Projects" (1975).

McNamara was born in Peoria, Illinois. Upon graduation from Knox College, he pursued a Master of Arts degree at the University of Iowa. Following military service, McNamara earned his PhD in theater arts at Tulane University where Richard Schechner was a professor and editor of the Tulane Drama Review (TDR). After earning his PhD, McNamara taught theater history in the Drama Department at the University of Delaware, between 1966 and 1968. At Tulane, Schechner had crystallized a set of principles to describe environmental theater. McNamara illustrated many of them in his set design for his Delaware academic colleague, William Bruehl's production of Faustus.

Brooks Barry McNamara (1937–2009) was an American theater historian, professor, and contributing editor of The Drama Review.