Biography
In the 1960s Michael Lessac built a multifaceted career that spanned theatrical directing, acting, and work as a singer-songwriter. While such overlapping pursuits echoed those of figures like Richard Fariña and Leonard Cohen, his doctorate in psychology from the University of Pennsylvania, completed at age 24, marked him as distinct. Born in the early 1940s, Lessac first performed on television at ten on a program directed by his father; by twelve he sang with a children's chorus, an activity he dropped after his voice changed. Into his late teens and early twenties he concentrated on theater, moving from actor to director, yet still found room for music while attending Swathmore and the University of Pennsylvania. He performed as part of the antiwar movement and briefly pursued a recording career. During the second half of the decade he was managed by David Zimmerman, Bob Dylan's brother, whose cerebral, bespectacled, nearly owlish bearing stood in sharp contrast to the scruffy folk-rock icon. The association brought him to the attention of John Hammond, Sr., who produced Lessac's 1968 Columbia Records LP Sleep Faster, We Need the Pillow. These activities placed him as a minor yet documented participant in the wider circle surrounding Dylan. His Eric Andersen-style folk music, however, proved insufficiently commercial to sustain a career, so by the 1970s Lessac worked almost exclusively as a theater director. He later maintained a lengthy and lucrative career directing television, with a focus on comedy.
Albums