Who Really Directed This?
Your Intellectual Property in the Age of Live Capture
Technology has made the ability to capture and distribute live performances via high quality video a reality the theatre field is embracing with increasing regularity. New players are entering the field every day, including Broadway HD, Amazon, and Netflix, among others. When it comes to the crafts of stage directing and choreography, what is your relationship the video director? What is the role of the editor in this new iteration of your work? How can you insure the integrity of the live experience? What should you be concerned about when work created for the stage, now opens the possibility for audiences to access live performances on the large screen, small screen, and portable devices? SDC Executive Director Laura Penn sits down with celebrated directors – and “veterans” of the burgeoning industry of live capture – Lonny Price and James Lapine to explore these questions and more.
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ARTISTS BIOS
JAMES LAPINE has written and directed the plays Twelve Dreams; Table Settings; Luck, Pluck and Virtue; The Moment When; Fran’s Bed and his adaptation of Moss Hart’s autobiography Act One. He has written the book for and directed Stephen Sondheim’s Sunday in the Park with George, Into the Woods, Passion and the multi-media revue Sondheim on Sondheim. He also directed Merrily We Roll Along at La Jolla Playhouse and New York City Center. He recently directed the acclaimed Broadway revival of his collaboration with William Finn, Falsettos. Also with Finn: A New Brain, Muscle and Little Miss Sunshine, and The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. On Broadway he has directed David Henry Hwang’s Golden Child, The Diary of Anne Frank, Amour, and a revival of Annie. Lapine has also directed many productions off-Broadway as well as four films and wrote the screenplay for the film version of Into the Woods. His HBO documentary Six By Sondheim won a Peabody Award and an Emmy nomination for direction. He has been nominated for twelve Tony Awards® winning three times. He also has received five Drama Desk Awards and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. He has been inducted into the Theater Hall of Fame and received the 2015 Sondheim Award from the Signature.
LONNY PRICE. Lonny directed Glenn Close in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Sunset Boulevard on Broadway and at the English National Opera, Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd starring Emma Thompson and Bryn Terfel at the ENO and Lincoln Center, and Carousel starring Alfie Boe and Katherine Jenkins at the ENO. His Broadway credits include Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill starring Audra McDonald (also on the West End and for HBO), 110 in the Shade, ‘Master Harold’ … and the Boys, Sally Marr and Her Escorts (co-written with Joan Rivers and Erin Sanders), Urban Cowboy, A Class Act (Tony nomination, Best Book, with Linda Kline). His work with the NY Philharmonic includes Company, Sondheim: The Birthday Concert (Emmy Award), and Passion. He directed television captures of his Sweeney Todd (Emmy Award), Company, Camelot, and Candide. His documentary, Best Worst Thing That Ever Could Have Happened, premiered at the New York Film Festival, and was named one of New York Times’ Top 10 Films of 2016. He is a proud member of SDC and DGA.