Michael Lederer

Michael Lederer (born 9 July 1956 in Princeton, New Jersey) is an American poet, novelist and playwright living in Berlin, Germany. His first novel, Nothing Lasts Forever Anymore, was published in 1999 by Parsifal Ediciones, Barcelona and Cadaques. The novel was illustrated by Genia Chef. It has also been published in Spanish translation as Ya Nada Dura Eternamente.
In the mid 1970s, Lederer was one of a group of so-called hippies living in the Santa Cruz mountains of California in a community called The Land. Founded by Joan Baez and her then-husband David Harris, it was originally known as the Institute for the Study of Non-Violence. An interview with Lederer is included on the Wiki site devoted to The Land.
Lederer received his B.A. in Theatre Arts in 1981 from Binghamton University. Who is Who in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland notes that Lederer began his career as an actor. A member of the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) and Actors' Equity Association (AEA), he was an original member of TheatreWorks in Palo Alto, California. Among the leading roles he played for TheatreWorks were Charlie now in Da (1982), Cyrano in Cyrano de Bergerac (1983), and Prince Serpuhovsky in Tolstoy's Strider (1983). In February 1989, while playing Claudius in a production of Hamlet for Performance Exchange in London, he helped publicize the discovery of Shakespeare's Rose Theatre in Southwark. The Rose was the first Elizabethan theatre ever unearthed, and news of the find had not yet been publicly acknowledged when Lederer discovered that the archaeological remains were being threatened by land developers proposing to build an office tower on the site. Lederer alerted The Evening Standard newspaper, and announcement of the discovery was made the next day in the Evening Standard, 14 February 1989. That article noted that "Mr. Michael Lederer, an American scholar visiting the site, said 'The area is so rich that I am amazed that this would be allowed to happen.'" The day after the article appeared protesters began gathering at the site urging that it not be destroyed. Those protests continued to grow over the ensuing weeks and months to include such celebrities as Ian McKellan, Laurence Olivier, Vanessa Redgrave and Dustin Hoffman. The result was that building plans were amended, and today the site of the Rose Theatre is preserved and accessible to the public.
Michael Lederer was co-founder of Safe Haven Museum in Oswego, New York, and is a member of their Board of Advisors. Lederer's father, Ivo John Lederer, was a professor of diplomatic history at Princeton, Yale and Stanford universities.
On 23 January 2010 Lederer's play Mundo Overloadus was given a staged reading at The Poetry Cafe in London's Covent Garden, featuring Graham Sack (Dunston Checks In, Law & Order), Olga Fedori (BBC's Holby City, EastEnders), and Lederer himself playing Rambler. The play is scheduled to premiere (http://www.ps122.org/performances/mundo_overloadus.html) at New York City's PS 122 on 7 September 2010.
In addition to Berlin, Lederer and his wife Katarina have homes in London, U.K., and Dubrovnik, Croatia. In Dubrovnik in 2008 they also bought the 17th century Villa Zed near Ploce Gate which they are converting into a theatre.
Lederer has one son, Nicholas Lederer, born 1988.

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