Leland Moss

Leland Moss (March 30, 1948 – January 24, 1990) was an American theatre director, writer, and gay activist. Born in San Francisco, California, he was the son of actress Thelma Moss and producer Paul F. Moss, born Paul F. Moskovitz. Moss died from AIDS at the age of 41.

A graduate of Beverly Hills High School and a National Merit Scholar, Moss pursued his education at Harvard University and the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. Following his studies in London, he relocated to New York City to build a career in theatre, where he became affiliated with La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club, Playwrights Horizons, and the New York Shakespeare Festival.

His earliest directorial work at La MaMa dates to 1971, when he staged And Things That Go Bump in the Night, adapted from the play by Terrence McNally. That production originated at the Loeb Experimental Theatre in Cambridge, Massachusetts, before transferring to La MaMa in Manhattan and subsequently playing at Emmanuel Church in Boston. In 1972, Moss performed with La MaMa's Great Jones Repertory Company on a European tour spanning Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, Lebanon, France, and Denmark. The company presented a production of Euripides' Medea adapted and directed by Andrei Serban, with music by Elizabeth Swados.

Moss continued his directing work at La MaMa in 1973 with a production of Shakespeare's Measure for Measure. That same year, he directed his company, the "Y" La MaMa Workshop, in Roy Kift's Play Mary Play, which opened at the YM-YWHA of Mid-Westchester in Scarsdale, New York, before moving to La MaMa in Manhattan. His Broadway career included an appearance in 1975 in Yentl.

After relocating to San Francisco, Moss worked with Theatre Rhinoceros and created The AIDS Show in 1984, a collaborative work that became the project most closely associated with his name. A documentary about the production was made for public television and broadcast in November 1986.