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Leonard Leone
 On September 13, 1914, Leonard Leone was born in Highland Park, Michigan. The son of Italian immigrant grocers, Leone became prominent in the Detroit community for establishing a nationally recognized and competitive theatre training program at Wayne State University.
Leone graduated from Berkley High School in Berkley, Michigan in 1933. Soon thereafter, he received a bachelor’s and master’s degree from Wayne State University. He then went on to study at the University of Wisconsin and at the University of Florence, Italy.
Leone taught speech in Detroit Public Schools from 1940 – 1945. He became a speech professor at Wayne State University in 1945. That same year, he was appointed the Director of Theatre for the WSU Department of Theatre.
Under Leone’s leadership as Director of WSU Theatres from 1945 through 1985, the Wayne State Theatre restored and reopened the historic Bonstelle Theatre, created the Hilberry Theatre, and established the nation’s first and only existing graduate repertory company. Among other contributions made by Leone were the establishment of a Black Theatre curriculum and Touring Company, a Children’s Theatre Touring Company, and four international tours sponsored by the State Department or the Defense Department and the USO.
In 1958, Leone directed Wayne State University Theatre’s tour to India for the Department of State under the sponsorship of American Theatre Association and American National Theatre and Academy. He served as cultural Ambassador with 16 Wayne State students and faculty, giving numerous lectures and seminars in many major Indian cities. Five plays were presented in repertory for a period of over 12 weeks in such major Indian cities as Bombay, Baroda, Ahmedabad, Delhi, Calcutta, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Madras. The tour was considered by the State Department at the time to be one of the most important cultural programs to have been sent to India.
In 1963, he established the Wayne State University Department of Theatre’s graduate repertory theatre company and created Hilberry Classic Theatre in association with the Graduate Performing Training Center. The first and only program of its kind in the country, the Hilberry Company provides training opportunities for more than 40 graduate students who are funded by scholarships and fellowships.
In cooperation with Keith Engar, University of Utah, Leone helped to establish University Resident Theatre Association in 1969, now one of the nation’s most important theatre associations. In 1970, he was elected to the University Resident Theatre Association Executive Board, which he served for the following three years.
In 1973, Leone was appointed Chairman of the American College Theatre Festival Central Committee, coordinating activities of 13 Regional Festivals and Washington National Festival. Later, from 1980-82, Leone was elected Vice President for Programs of the American Theatre Association.
In cooperation with the Nederlander Producing Company, Leone established the David Nederlander Playwriting Competition in 1976, a national contest focusing on potential plays for the professional theatre.
In February, 1979, Leone was the recipient of the American College Theatre Festival’s Gold Medallion Award of Excellence presented by the Amoco Corporation. The award presentation was made during the Great Lakes Regional - American College Theatre Festival at Bowling Green State University in Ohio.
Later that year, Leone developed the International Symposium for the Reconstruction of Shakespeare’s Globe. Distinguished world scholars presented papers at Symposium, held at Wayne State University in May, 1979. The project was funded by the Ford Fund, Michigan Council for the Arts and Wayne State Fund. In 1980, Leone established an Advisory Committee for the reconstruction of Shakespeare’s Globe on Detroit River Front – a cooperative project with Wayne State and the City of Detroit. One year later he edited and published “Feasibility Study on the Globe Project.”
After serving the Wayne State campus and Detroit community for 40 years, Leone retired from the Department of Theatre at the end of the 1984 – 1985 season. Hundreds of theatre alumni, members of the Detroit theatre community, past and present faculty members and loyal patrons gathered in the lobby of the Hilberry Theatre to congratulate and thank Leone for his dedication to teaching the craft of acting and for his contributions to theatre.
Leone now lives in Berkley, Michigan and continues to attend Wayne State Department of Theatre performances. During the 2004 – 2005 season, the department celebrated Leone’s 90th birthday.
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