Eve Adamson founded the Obie Award winning Jean Cocteau Repertory of New York City, and built it into a respected classical theater company. In 1971, disappointed with the projects she was finding as an actress, Ms. Adamson gathered a group of actors and started an ensemble in a converted storefront in the East Village. An enthusiast of the absurdist tradition, Ms. Adamson named it the Jean Cocteau, after the French avant-garde polymath. Soon the company moved into the Bouwerie Lane Theater and became a staple of the burgeoning Off Broadway theater scene. Ms. Adamson was artistic director for 18 years, producing over 200 plays with her company in a demanding repertory: works by
Pinter and Pirandello alongside Restoration comedies, Chekhov dramas and Shakespeare standards.