DIRECTING PHILOSOPHY
My directing style boldly fuses text-based dramaturgy with a dynamic visual aesthetic in order to explore the full dimensions of design and composition, and to evoke the complexities of the human experience onstage. Theatre is a transformative art – visually, physically, emotionally, spiritually – and as a director I attempt to embrace all of those aspects from conceptualization to closing night curtain. I believe that my role as director is to provide a focused unifying vision for the total production that guides active collaboration, encourages expansive thinking, fosters a safe environment for artistic risk, and ultimately facilitates the practical implementation of these factors in rehearsal and performance.
I believe the primary functions of theatre are to entertain and to honestly reflect the culture of the world around it. My extensive training and background have given me the tools to preserve well-established performance traditions while at the same time providing a bold, dynamic forum for provocative new voices and diverse points of view. I will always attempt to provide my audiences with intelligent, daring theatrical productions that seek to empower, educate, and cultivate the best of humanity by exploring plays that are structurally innovative, philosophically challenging, provide strong roles for actors, and address significant historical and social issues. I always try to promote a distinctive, vibrant visual performance aesthetic by partnering myself with performers and designers who are imaginative, resourceful, willing to take risks, and embrace the innately theatrical conventions of the art form.
While I have built my reputation as a director and producer on the development and production of contemporary plays that explore alternative points of view, I possess the versatility to take on a wide variety of texts and styles. My classical training and professional experience as an actor and dramaturg provide me with a solid foundation of skills that would transfer to the production of Shakespeare, musical theatre, and modern American or European realism, in both mainstream and non-traditional contexts.
As you can see from the representative production photos contained in my portfolio, I believe in making bold visual statements onstage, even in the most intimate, limited budget environments. But I never sacrifice the core emotional truth of a play or its characters, in favor of a stylized, intentionally theatrical production aesthetic.
Theatre is magic and has captured me in its spell from my childhood. My goal as a director is to cast that spell on audiences and artists alike, to evoke memories or provoke emotions in the service of creating new, imaginative worlds that have to power to elicit tears, laughter, anger, revolution, and wonder, and to change lives.
I want to challenge audiences to experience both the familiar and the new in a setting where the artistry of the productions is always top-notch. Regardless of whether audience members like a play or not, they know it is produced well. I want people to react strongly to my work on a visceral level - they love it or they hate it. I think the worst insult a production can receive is that it is “mediocre.” I want to commit fully to a project or not do it at all.
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