# Maria Ley-Piscator
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{{Short description|Wife of Erwin Piscator}}
[[File:Maria Ley (1898–1999) 1925 © Franz Xaver Setzer (1886–1939).jpg|thumb|Maria Ley-Piscator (photographed by [Franz Xaver Setzer](/source/Franz_Xaver_Setzer))]]
'''Maria Ley-Piscator''' (born '''Friederike Flora Czada''', 1 August 1898 – 14 October 1999) was an Austrian-American dancer and choreographer. She is best known as the wife of [Erwin Piscator](/source/Erwin_Piscator) (1893–1966), Germany's famous left-wing [theater director](/source/theater_director). Born on 1 August 1898 in Vienna, Austria-Hungary (now Austria), Maria Ley sought to create a theatrical career for herself as a [dancer](/source/dancer) in [Paris](/source/Paris) and [Berlin](/source/Berlin). Later, she turned to [choreography](/source/choreography) and helped in several stage productions with [Max Reinhardt](/source/Max_Reinhardt), including ''[A Midsummer Night's Dream](/source/A_Midsummer_Night's_Dream)''.[{{Cite news |date=1999-10-25 |title=Maria Piscator, 101, Theater Arts Teacher |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1999/10/25/arts/maria-piscator-101-theater-arts-teacher.html |access-date=2022-03-16 |issn=0362-4331}}]
Maria Ley also studied literature at the [Sorbonne](/source/University_of_Paris), where she met Erwin Piscator (her third husband) during his exile in 1936. After marrying in Paris, the couple moved to Manhattan in 1939, where they founded the [Dramatic Workshop](/source/Dramatic_Workshop) at the [New School for Social Research](/source/The_New_School). Their students included [Harry Belafonte](/source/Harry_Belafonte), [Marlon Brando](/source/Marlon_Brando) and [Tony Randall](/source/Tony_Randall). Ley-Piscator directed several theatrical productions off Broadway.[{{Cite web |last=Art |first=Sebastian Izzard Asian |title=MARCH 2004 and APRIL 2004 |url=https://www.izzardasianart.com/blogs/news/march-2004-and-april-2004 |access-date=2022-03-16 |website=Sebastian Izzard Asian Art |language=en}}] Even after Erwin's death, Maria remained a fixture in NYC cultural circles. In 1988, encountering the 90-year-old matron of the arts at a reception at the former [Goethe-Institut New York](/source/Goethe-Institut%2C_New_York) building at 1014 Fifth Avenue, journalist Claudia Steinberg described Ley-Piscator as a "tiny, delicate lady in the lilac velvet suit" who "continues to philosophize in whispers about the interplay between art and life."[{{Cite web |last=Steinberg |first=Claudia |date=2021-09-30 |title=Phoenixes in Fine Feather |url=https://www.1014pastandfuture.org/stories/blog-post-title-four-b3lfa |access-date=2022-03-17 |website=1014: Past and Future |language=en-US}}]
Ley-Piscator died in New York in 1999 at the age of 101.