Edmond Eugène Alexis Rostand (1868 – 1918) was a French poet and dramatist. He is associated with neo-romanticism and is best known for his play CYRANO DE BERGERAC. Other well-known plays include CHANTECLER and LES ROMANESQUES, on which the longest-running Off-Broadway musical of all time, THE FANTASTICKS, was based.

Brian is a playwright, lyricist, and translator whose rhymed-verse translations of the works of Euripides and Molière have been published by the literary journals Asymptote and The Mercurian. Other theatrical works include an unabridged translation of CYRANO DE BERGERAC crafted completely in rhymed couplets, a modernization of Thackeray's VANITY FAIR, and musicals based on Rostand's CHANTECLER and Booth Tarkington's THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS. His musical, THE ALLEN STREET YIDDISH THEATRE PALACE PRESENTS: CINDERESTHER, has received grants from the Minnesota Regional Arts Council and Brin Jewish Arts Endowment, and his award-winning play, TEN MINUTES 'TIL CHRISTMAS, is being performed in many cities across North America. He has adapted novels by Newbery Award–winning authors James Lincoln Collier and Lloyd Alexander for the stage and has served on the faculties of William Patterson University and Regional Center for the Arts High School. Brian is an alumnus of the Minnesota Conservatory of Performing Arts, the National Shakespeare Conservatory, the Lehman Engel/BMI Workshop, and the 78th Street Theatre Lab, and he is a member of BMI, the Playwrights' Center, and the Dramatists Guild.