Dennis Scott

NY Times Obituary, February 23, 1991

Dennis Scott, 51, Led Yale Program For Stage Directors

Dennis Scott, chairman of the directing program at the Yale School of Drama, died on Thursday at the Yale University Infirmary. He was 51 years old and lived in New Haven.

The family said he died after a long illness.

Mr. Scott was a teacher, playwright, poet, critic, dancer and actor. He was born in Jamaica, and received a B.A. degree with honors in English at the University of the West Indies in Jamaica in 1970 and a postgraduate diploma in dramatic education at the University of New Castle-Upon-Tyne in England in 1973.

He became a visiting professor of directing at the Yale School of Drama in 1983 and, the following year, the interim chairman of its playwriting program. In 1986 he became co-chairman of the directing program.

He directed productions for the Yale Repertory Theater and its festival of new American plays, and the theater company said his work as a director was strongly influenced by his experience as a performing member of the National Dance Theater Company of Jamaica. Three of his own plays have been produced in the Caribbean.

In recent years he acted in “The Warrior Ant” at the Spoleto Festival in Charleston, S.C., and the American Music Theater Festival in Philadelphia. He also appeared on NBC’s “Cosby Show” as Lester, the father-in-law of the Cosby character’s eldest daughter.

Collections of Mr. Scott’s poetry have been published in the United States and Britain, and his poems have appeared in anthologies in several countries.

Mr. Scott was formerly the head of Jamaica’s School of Drama. He taught and worked in theater in the West Indies and reviewed the performing arts for radio and television there.

Surviving are his wife, Joy R.; his son, Jon-David, and his daughter, Danielle, all of New Haven.