Des McAnuff

Des McAnuff
Desmond McAnuff
Born June 19, 1952 (1952-06-19) (age 59)
Princeton, Illinois, USA
Spouse Susan Berman (1984-2009)

Desmond McAnuff (born 19 June 1952) is the Canadian-American artistic director of the Stratford Shakespeare Festival and director of musical theatre of such Broadway productions as Big River, The Who's Tommy and Jersey Boys.

Contents

Biography

Born in Princeton, Illinois to John Nelson and Ellen Boyd, McAnuff is a citizen of United States and Canada.[1] He lived briefly in Guelph, Ontario attending grade 4 at St. George's Public School. His family then moved to Scarborough, Ontario, at the time a suburb of Toronto, and attended high school at Woburn Collegiate Institute where he made his first theatrical appearance in the school's production of The Sound of Music, playing the role of Kurt. Later, with the help of two friends, he wrote the music and lyrics to a rock musical called Urbania, which was performed by the high school drama club. He attended Ryerson University although never completed his degree. In June 2011, McAnuff was awarded an honourary degree by the Ryerson Theatre School.

McAnuff received training from Toronto's foremost drama coach Basya Hunter, to whom he has announced his indebtedness.[citation needed] He worked with the Toronto Free Theatre as a director, and after several plays that had limited success, he left the Canadian scene for New York City.

There, McAnuff co-founded the Dodger Theatre Company in 1978, where he also directed the first production, entitled Gimme Shelter. He has directed for the American Repertory Theater at Harvard, also Yale Rep, and is a former faculty member of the Juilliard School.

McAnuff was Artistic Director of the La Jolla Playhouse, which he revived in 1983, during which time the theatre won more than 200 awards.[citation needed] For the Playhouse, he directed Romeo and Juliet, A Mad World, My Masters, Big River, As You Like It, The Sea Gull, The Matchmaker, A Walk in the Woods, Two Rooms, 80 Days, Macbeth, A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum, Twelfth Night, Three Sisters, Elmer Gantry, Much Ado About Nothing, The Who's Tommy and How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. McAnuff turned over his leadership of the playhouse in April 2007 to Christopher Ashley in order to take a position of leadership at Canada's Stratford Shakespeare Festival.[2][3] In 2008, after a year sharing power with Don Shipley and Marti Maraden, McAnuff became the sole artistic director at Stratford.

McAnuff has directed two motion pictures, The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle (2000) and Cousin Bette (1998), both of which failed critically and at the box-office. However, the animated version of The Iron Giant, which he served as producer, earned several awards.

McAnuff married actress Susan Berman in 1984 and the ceremony took place on the La Jolla Playhouse stage. The couple's divorce was finalized in 2009. They are the parents of Julia Violet McAnuff, born in 1990.

In 2010 McAnuff was the subject of a documentary special entitled Des McAnuff: A Life In Stages which was a part of the broadcast schedule on Bravo! in Canada for February 7, 2010.[4]

During the 2011-2012 Season at the Metropolitan Opera he will direct a new production of Charles Gounod's Faust starring soprano Marina Poplavskaya and tenor Jonas Kaufmann. This is a production originally premiered in 2010 at the English National Opera.

On Sunday, October 23rd, a tribute for McAnuff was given by staff and students from Ryerson's Theatre School.

Stage productions

  • Big River (1985)
  • A Walk in the Woods (1988)
  • Dangerous Games (1989)
  • The Who's Tommy (1993)
  • How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (1995)
  • Dracula, the Musical (2004)
  • 700 Sundays (2004)
  • Jersey Boys (2005)
  • Guys & Dolls (2009)

Awards and nominations

McAnuff won Broadway's Tony Award as Best Director (Musical) in 1985 for Big River and in 1993 for The Who's Tommy. He was nominated twice during the 1990s: in 1993 for Best Book (Musical), with Pete Townshend on The Who's Tommy and in 1995 as Best Director (Musical) for How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.

He was nominated again in 2006 for Best Direction of a Musical, for Jersey Boys, based on the story of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. Though he did not win, the production went on to win Best Musical that year.[5]

Additionally, McAnuff was awarded the Laurence Olivier Theatre Award for Best Director of 1996 for The Who's Tommy at the Shaftesbury Theatre.

References

Further reading

External links


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем сделать НИР

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Mcanuff — Winston McAnuff Winston McAnuff en concert lors du 5ème festival Aux Zarbs d Auxerre en juillet 2007. Winston McAnuff (aussi connu sous le nom d Electric Dread) est un chanteur et compositeur de reggae jamaïcain né en 1957 d une famille de… …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Jobi McAnuff — Jobi McAnuff …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Winston McAnuff — en concert lors du 5ème festival Aux Zarbs d Auxerre en juillet 2007. Winston McAnuff (aussi connu sous le nom d Electric Dread) est un chanteur et compositeur de reggae jamaïcain né en 1957 d une famille de pasteurs. Comme beaucoup de chanteurs… …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Winston mcAnuff — en concert lors du 5ème festival Aux Zarbs d Auxerre en juillet 2007. Winston McAnuff (aussi connu sous le nom d Electric Dread) est un chanteur et compositeur de reggae jamaïcain né en 1957 d une famille de pasteurs. Comme beaucoup de chanteurs… …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Winston mcanuff — en concert lors du 5ème festival Aux Zarbs d Auxerre en juillet 2007. Winston McAnuff (aussi connu sous le nom d Electric Dread) est un chanteur et compositeur de reggae jamaïcain né en 1957 d une famille de pasteurs. Comme beaucoup de chanteurs… …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Festival Des Vieilles Charrues — Vue panoramique de l édition 2006 du festival des Vieilles Charrues Le festival des Vieilles Charrues (en breton : gouel an Erer Kozh) est un festival de musique accueillant des artistes de divers horizons. Ce festival annuel dure 4 jours et …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Festival des Vieilles Charrues — Logo du festival Lieu Carhaix, France Coordonnées géographiques …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Festival des vieilles charrues — Vue panoramique de l édition 2006 du festival des Vieilles Charrues Le festival des Vieilles Charrues (en breton : gouel an Erer Kozh) est un festival de musique accueillant des artistes de divers horizons. Ce festival annuel dure 4 jours et …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Liste des groupes ayant été programmés lors des Rencontres Trans Musicales — Article principal : Rencontres Trans Musicales. Groupes ayant été programmés lors des Rencontres Trans Musicales de Rennes depuis leur création. Sommaire 1 Édition 2010 2 Édition 2009 3 Édition 2008 …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Liste des chanteurs de reggae — Liste de chanteurs de reggae Liste de chanteurs de reggae. Pour les groupes, se référer à Liste de groupes de reggae. Sommaire 1 Afrique du Sud 2 Allemand(e) 3 Américain(e) 4 Anglais(e) …   Wikipédia en Français

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”