Mee returned to playwriting in 1985. His libretto for choreographer
Martha Clarke's
Vienna: Lusthaus was his first produced script since his Off-Off Broadway days. In 2002 Mee revised about a third of his
Vienna: Lusthaus script. It was reprised as
Vienna: Lusthaus (Revisited). Clarke and Mee collaborated again in
Belle Époque (2004). For years he continued working his day job as the editor-in-chief at consumer health publisher Rebus, Inc. and writing books. Mee's daughter,
Erin B. Mee, also became involved in theater. In 1988 she was invited to direct a production at HOME for Contemporary Theatre and Art in
SoHo. She chose to premiere her father's play,
The Imperialists at the Club Cave Canem (1988), which received positive reviews from
The Village Voice and
The New York Times. The play was picked up by
Joseph Papp for a run at
The Public Theater. In 2000 Erin B. Mee staged another production of
The Imperialists at the Club Cave Canem at The Market Theatre in
Cambridge, Massachusetts, which she updated with the dramaturg for this production.
Another Person is a Foreign Country (1991) was the first of Mee's many collaborations with the director
Anne Bogart. The
En Garde Arts site-specific performance took place in the courtyard of the decrepit Towers Nursing Home in New York City. In 1992 his
Orestes was directed by
Robert Woodruff at the
University of California, San Diego and by Anne Bogart at the
Saratoga International Theater Institute (SITI). In the summer of 1992,
Tina Landau directed an En Garde Arts production as
Orestes 2.0 on an abandoned pier on the
Hudson River in Manhattan. This play was the first of ten plays for which Mee used the Greek texts as a base and added new fragments of text; he then would "throw the scaffolding away and call whatever remained the script." In 1996, his
The Constitutional Convention: A Sequel, was produced by
Clubbed Thumb. In 2001 Erin B. Mee staged the premiere of her father's
First Love at
New York Theatre Workshop. He had written it specifically for her to direct, and it starred
Ruth Maleczech and Fred Neumann of
Mabou Mines. Erin Mee staged a second production in 2002 at the
Magic Theatre in
San Francisco with Joan Mankin and Robert Parnell. In other plays, Mee explores twentieth-century American history and culture through the points-of-view of contemporary visual artists in:
bobrauschenbergamerica (
Robert Rauschenberg),
Hotel Cassiopeia (
Joseph Cornell),
soot and spit (the musical) (James Castle), and
Under Construction (
Jason Rhoades and
Norman Rockwell). His comedies and romances include
Summertime,
First Love,
True Love,
Big Love,
Wintertime,
Fetes de la Nuit,
A Perfect Wedding, and
Fire Island. As source material, Mee would use Greek tragedy, Shakespeare, Molière, Anton Chekhov, René Magritte paintings, Bollywood musicals, and his own writing. He is the only resident playwright of the theatre ensemble SITI Company, for whom he wrote
Orestes,
bobrauschenbergamerica,
Hotel Cassiopeia,
Under Construction, and
soot and spit (the musical). Mee was the
Signature Theatre Playwright-in-Residence for the 2007–2008 season. In 2008, Shakespeare and Renaissance scholar
Stephen Greenblatt collaborated with Mee to write
Cardenio. It premiered at
American Repertory Theater (A.R.T.) in 2008. In 2014 Mee co-wrote This Is Not A Theatre Company's
Pool Play. Audiences sat at the edge of the pool with their feet in the water for an exploration of America's long, joyful, and complicated relationship with the swimming pool. The production included synchronized swimming, an existential boatman, musical numbers, and a snarky fish, along with stories about segregated pools, and a meditation on pollution. Sarah Lucie of
Show Business Weekly said: The entirety of the play is well executed, featuring a strong ensemble that has absolutely no fear of diving into whatever quirky material is presented to them. Their playfulness is contagious, ultimately creating an uplifting theatrical experience that leaves the audience joyous and refreshed—and maybe a little wet. Pool Play, while undeniably light-hearted, manages to communicate some profound and political themes to those who choose to pay attention.
Theatre is Easy wrote: Pool Play ... is definitely worth the trip ... The entire ensemble showed moments of skill, wit, and brevity far beyond their years. Erin B. Mee does a superb job directing this young group of artists to create a cohesive look at our fascination with the water, entertaining and engaging the audience along the way. In fall 2015 Mee co-wrote
Versailles 2015, a site-specific play for a New York City apartment, conceived and directed by Erin B. Mee.
New York Theatre Review noted that "Versailles 2015 is over far too quickly. It is an hors d'oeuvre plate of scenes that collectively ... have a message about elitism and the vanity of apathy ... Brief and poignant, Versailles 2015 will linger in your mind long after you see it." Courtney Escoyne of
Thoughts from a Ballet Nerd wrote: "Versailles 2015 is a meditation upon privilege…It blurred the lines between audience and performer, ignored entirely the idea of a fourth wall, and managed to fit in some wonderfully crafted dialogue." Finally, Stephen Kaplan of
Theatre Is Easy said: "Delightful and provocative ... Amidst the countless atrocities that confront us every day, at our core we are all struggling to find the naked honesty in our own lives ... Versailles 2015 allows us the time to contemplate this in its characters and in ourselves." Mee's play
The Glory of The World about
Thomas Merton, a noted Trappist monk and activist, was directed by
Les Waters at the
Actors Theatre of Louisville in the spring of 2015. It transferred to the
Brooklyn Academy of Music in February 2016, with support from philanthropist
Roy Cockrum. Mee teaches playwriting at the
Columbia University School of the Arts. ==Style and method of writing==