Godspell with David Greene. Tebelak once said that he "walked into a theatre at the age of nine and stayed there." He was a lifelong member of the Episcopal Church, considered becoming a priest, and may have attended an Episcopal seminary for a time. He was dramaturge for the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City and staged liturgical drama there. According to Reverend James Parks Morton, "whether it was a sermon series or a two-day conference on the environment, he turned it into theater." In 1980, Tebelak was sued in New York State Supreme Court by his former live-in companion, Richard Hannum. Hannum was represented by famed divorce lawyer Marvin Mitchelson, and was working with Norman Mailer on an adaptation of a play about Marilyn Monroe called Strawhead. The lawsuit was an early effort to define the rights of cohabiting homosexual couples. Tebelak returned to his hometown of Berea, Ohio, to direct the 10th anniversary production of Godspell at the Berea Summer Theater in the summer of 1980. He subsequently directed Cabaret there in the summer of 1981. He directed a revival of Godspell at La MaMa in 1981 and then another revival production billed as the 10th anniversary reunion production in Los Angeles in December 1981 with the majority of his original New York cast. In 1983, he directed Diversions: Or Proof that it is Impossible to Live, based on the life and work of Franz Kafka, written by Aubrey Simpson, and starring Michael Mayer, at La MaMa. Tebelak died in New York City on April 2, 1985, of a heart attack. Filmography References External links John Michael Tebelak at musicalschwartz.com (biography and interview) Tebelak's page on La MaMa Archives Digital Collections John-Michael Tebelak on IMDb 1949 births 1985 deaths American Episcopalians American musical theatre directors Carnegie Mellon University College of Fine Arts alumni American LGBT dramatists and playwrights LGBT people from Ohio 20th-century American dramatists and playwrights American gay writers