Breuer is most widely known for his revelatory, upending adaptations of classic works of theater: Mabou Mines DollHouse, adapted from Ibsen; The Gospel at Colonus, adapted from Sophocles’ Oedipus at Colonus; Peter & Wendy,  adapted by Liza Lorwin from J.M. Barrie’s novel "Peter And Wendy".  All continue to tour festivals and theaters around the world.
 
“I was torn between writing and directing for a long time,” he adds.  “My directing was successful but my writing wasn’t.  Shaggy Dog Animation winning the OBIE in 1978 was a big turning point.  Eventually, I was able to resolve the tension by taking a view of directing as the final re-write.  If I couldn’t solve something directorially, I’d change the text.”
 
Breuer is also noted for his extensive work with puppets.  It is Breuer’s “deep purpose” to bring puppetry into serious American theater.  “I first saw Bunraku in Japan in 1968 and fell madly in love with puppetry.  It is quite simply the deconstruction of working with an actor and with acting itself.”
 
Breuer recently directed his first film, a further-adapted version of his Ibsen adaptation, Mabou Mines DollHouse, filmed live on stage at King’s Theater in Edinburgh, Scotland and released on DVD in 2009.  The disk includes the companion documentary, “Looking for a Miracle”, which features extensive interviews with the director and members of the cast.
 
Lately Breuer is considering  his legacy and very focused on exercising his writer’s voice.  The work he wants to complete, La Divina Caricatura, draws on his Ecco Porco, Shaggy Dog Animation, A Prelude to a Death in Venice and An Epidog, to create a trilogy of fictions with animals in the starring roles.  Described as “ Dante for puppets and cartoons,” the anarchic work has its own Inferno, Purgatorio and Paradiso that, “instead of being sequential, are inter-cut” to riotous and insightful comic effect, “animated by the pathos of living in scary millennial times.”

Breuer is a MacArthur Fellow, a Bunting Fellow, a Guggenheim Fellow and twice a Fulbright Fellow. He has collected many OBIES as well as the prestigious Golden Herald of the Edinburgh International Festival, the French Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, and the Helen Hayes Award.  He delivered the inaugural lectures for the Samuel Beckett Chair at Trinity College, Dublin and his teaching resume includes time as Co-Chair for Directing at the Yale University School of Drama, as well as positions at Stanford, Harvard, Arizona State University West, NYU, Columbia, Penn State, UC Berkeley, Drama Institute Beijing, Aristotle University Thessaloniki, Athens University, and the Moscow Art Theater School of Acting.
 
“People ‘buy’ different aspects of my work and it’s all fine with me,” Breuer says.  “I can tell you I’m very proud to have directed thirteen OBIE Award-winning performances over nearly forty years. Even a dog puppet won.”