State of the Art: Directing Shakespeare in America
Join Ethan McSweeny (Artistic Director of American Shakespeare Center) moderating an intimate discussion with luminary directors Erica Schmidt and Davis McCallum on directing Shakespeare in the American theater.
Artist Bios
ERICA SCHMIDT: Directing credits include: MacBeth (currently for Red Bull at the Lortel, previously at Seattle Rep and Juilliard); Richard II with Robert Sean Leonard (The Old Globe); All The Fine Boys (The New Group, wrote the play – now published by Samuel French – and directed); Turgenev’s A Month In The Country with Peter Dinklage and Taylor Schilling (Classic Stage Company); Dennis Kelly’s Taking Care Of Baby (Manhattan Theatre Club); Jonas Hassen Khemiri’s I Call My Brothers and the Obie Award winning Invasion! (both for The Play Company); Humor Abuse (Manhattan Theatre Club; also co-creator/writer; Lucille Lortel Award); Rent (Tokyo); Moliere’s Imaginary Invalid, Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya, Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Sorcerer, and Copland’s The Tender Land (all at Bard Summer Scape); Carnival (The Paper Mill Playhouse); Quincy Long’s People Be Heard (Playwrights Horizons); Gary Mitchell’s Trust (The Play Company, Callaway Award nominee); As You Like It (The Public Theater/NYSF, chashama; New York International Fringe Festival Winner for Best Direction); Debbie Does Dallas (wrote the adaptation and directed Off-Broadway for The Araca Group); Spanish Girl (Second Stage Uptown). Princess Grace Award recipient 2001. Upcoming: CYRANO book adaptor and director in collaboration with new music and songs from Aaron Dessner and Bryce Dessner and Matt Berninger of The National (The New Group).
DAVIS MCCALLUM: Is in his fifth season as the Artistic Director of the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival, and has directed Richard II, The Winter’s Tale, Measure for Measure, and The Book of Will for the company. Notable productions in New York include Lewiston/Clarkston (Rattlestick), The Harvest (LCT3), Stupid Fucking Bird (Pearl), Fashions for Men and London Wall (Mint – Drama Desk and Lortel noms.), The Whale (Lortel and Calloway noms.) and Pocatello (Playwrights Horizons), Water by the Spoonful (Second Stage – Pulitzer Prize for Drama), and February House (The Public). Other NYC credits include Signature Theatre, 13P, Clubbed Thumb, Play Company, Page 73, and the New Victory. Regional credits include the Denver Center, Dallas Theater Center, Old Globe, Guthrie, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, the O’Neill, Williamstown, American Shakespeare Center, Chautauqua, Humana Festival, others.
ETHAN MCSWEENY: Recently named Artistic Director of American Shakespeare Center, Ethan McSweeny’s internationally acclaimed work on more than 80 productions over the past two decades has been distinguished both by its diversity and its breadth of achievement. In New York, his direction includes the Broadway revival of Gore Vidal’s The Best Man (Tony Award nomination, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle awards) and the premiere of John Grisham’s A Time to Kill; the off-Broadway premieres of John Logan’s Never the Sinner (Outer Critics and Drama Desk awards) and Ellen McLaughlin’s adaptation of Aeschylus’ The Persians; as well as world premieres by Kate Fodor, Jason Grote, and Thomas Bradshaw among others. His productions have been nominated from more than 75 awards, claiming 30 wins, including four for Best Director: Twelfth Night (Helen Hayes Award, 2017), A Streetcar Named Desire (Irish Times Award, 2013), A Body of Water (San Diego Critics Circle, 2006) and Six Degrees of Separation (Star-Tribune Award, 2003). Internationally, he has spent two seasons at the celebrated Stratford Festival in Canada, staged multiple productions for The Gate Theatre in Dublin, and recently toured his production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream to open the Macao Arts Festival in China. Nationally, his work on new plays, musicals, and revivals has been seen at most of the major institutional theatres in the country including the Guthrie, the Goodman, the Old Globe, the Denver Center, the Alley, Dallas Theater Center, South Coast Rep, Center Stage, the Wilma, the Pittsburgh Public, Westport Playhouse, the Arena Stage, and the Shakespeare Theater Company.