A.R.T. Artistic Director Diane Paulus is a director of opera and theater. Her recent theater work includes The Public Theater’s revival of Hair at the Delacorte in Central Park, now transferred to Broadway (nominated for 8 Tony Awards including Best Director, as well as winner of a Drama Desk Award, Outer Critics Circle Award and Drama League Award for Best Revival of a Musical). She is the creator and director of The Donkey Show, a disco adaptation of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, which ran for six years Off-Broadway, and toured internationally to London, Edinburgh, Madrid, and Evian, France. Other recent work includes Kiss Me Kate at Glimmerglass Opera; Lost Highway, based on the David Lynch film, an ENO co-production with the Young Vic in London, which received The South Bank Show Award for outstanding achievement during 2008; Another Country by James Baldwin at Riverside Church; Turandot: Rumble for the Ring at the Bay Street Theatre; The Golden Mickeys for Disney Creative Entertainment; Best of Both Worlds, a gospel/R&B adaptation of A Winter’s Tale produced by Music-Theatre Group and The Women’s Project; and The Karaoke Show, an adaptation of Comedy of Errors set in a karaoke bar. She directed the Obie award-winning and Pulitzer Prize finalist Running Man by jazz composer Diedre Murray and poet Cornelius Eady for Music-Theatre Group, and Swimming with Watermelons, created in association with Project 400, the theater company she co-founded with her husband Randy Weiner. Other work Off-Broadway: Brutal Imagination, and the Obie-award winning Eli’s Comin, featuring the music and lyrics of Laura Nyro.
As an opera director, her productions include Don Giovanni, Le nozze di Figaro, Turn Of The Screw, Cosi fan tutte, and all three Monteverdi operas, Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria, L’incoronazione di Poppea, and Orfeo at the Chicago Opera Theater. She is a frequent collaborator with British conductor Jane Glover. In 2002, their critically acclaimed production of Orfeo was presented as part of The Monteverdi Cycle at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York City.
Ms. Paulus has taught at Barnard College/Columbia University, and the Yale School of Drama, and was recently appointed Professor of the Practice in Harvard University’s English Department. She is a 2009 recipient of the Harvard College Women’s Professional Achievement Award and Columbia University's I.A.L Diamond Award, presented each year to a Columbia University alumnus/a who has demonstrated continued commitment to and has found success in the arts. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Harvard University with a B.A. in social studies, and has a M.F.A. in directing from Columbia University's School of the Arts.
Read the announcement of Diane Paulus' appointment as Artistic Director.
IN THE NEWS:
Highlights from press coverage of Diane Paulus
WBUR - Here and Now - Interview with Director Diane Paulus
NECN - Artistic Director Breathes New Life into A.R.T.
Boston Globe - Disco, Sox, and Bard at A.R.T.
Variety - Paulus give A.R.T. a makeover
Hartford Courant - A Dramatically Different Kind of Theater Season is Announced
Talkin Broadway - Interview with Diane Paulus
American Theatre - Profile of Diane Paulus as one of 25 "forward-thinking artists" who will shape the next 25 years of theater
New York Times - Review of Hair on Broadway
Boston Globe - Profile
Boston Globe - Audio slideshow
New York Times - Profile of Diane Paulus
New York Times - Review of Hair in Central Park
American Theatre Wing - Working in the Theatre - Diane Paulus appears in episode titled "Arias to Showstoppers: The Worlds of Opera and Theatre"
XM Radio / American Theatre Wing - Downstage Center - Interview
American Theatre - Feature article about Ms. Paulus from 2002
