Amanda Dehnert

Last updated

Amanda Dehnert is an American regional theater director and professor at Northwestern University.

Contents

Career

Dehnert grew up in Illinois and graduated from Illinois Wesleyan University with a degree in musical theater. [1] She received training as a concert pianist as child and also learned to play the French horn, flute, trumpet and harpsichord, but in college she discovered musical theater. In 1994, at the age of 21, Dehnert entered Trinity Repertory Company's conservatory program in Providence, Rhode Island as a student. [1] She performed there as a musician before becoming a musical director, and later was put in charge of a production. [1]

Some of the shows she staged for Trinity Rep were West Side Story , A Moon for the Misbegotten , The Skin of Our Teeth , Peter Pan , Noises Off , Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? , My Fair Lady , Othello and Saint Joan . [2] Iris Fanger wrote that "Audiences have applauded [Dehnert's] ingenuity in setting George Bernard Shaw's "St. Joan" in a neighborhood garage and the entire West Side Story in the high school gym, mixing up the Jets and the Sharks to emphasize their commonalities." [1] In 1999, Dehnert became associate artistic director of the company. [1]

In 2003, working for Trinity Rep, Dehnert directed a production of Annie . Early in its run, the production included a reworked ending in which Annie wakes to find that the positive events that happened to her throughout the show, including being adopted by billionaire Oliver Warbucks, were all part of a dream. [3] Charles Strouse, who wrote the music for Annie, also saw the production and was impressed, which prompted him to approach Dehnert to produce his new musical, You Never Know. [2] The play had its world premiere at Trinity Rep in April 2005. [4]

In 2005, Dehnert became acting artistic director after Oskar Eustis moved on to become artistic director of The Public Theater in New York City. [1]

Recognition

In 2001, Denhert won the Elliot Norton Award for Outstanding Director, Large Company for her 2000 productions of My Fair Lady and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? at Trinity Rep. [5] [6]

Terry Teachout, drama critic for The Wall Street Journal , has praised several of Dehnert's productions. He called Dehnert's 2011 production of William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival "the best Julius Caesar I've ever seen, a stark parable of good intentions run amok that has the attention-grabbing power of a hand grenade lobbed into a crowded room." [7] Teachout later named the production the best Shakespeare production of 2011. [8] Teachout praised Dehnert's 2013 Oregon Shakespeare Festival production of My Fair Lady, which was a minimalist reimagining of the musical in the style of Bertolt Brecht. Teachout was initially skeptical of the reimagining but wrote that Dehnert had "successfully wrought a radical transformation on the familiar parable". [9] Teachout also lauded Dehnert's direction of Kate Hamill's adaptation of "Pride and Prejudice" at Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival in 2017 saying, "Such a show demands worthy staging, and Amanda Dehnert ... delivers the goods with gusto." [10]

Related Research Articles

<i>Julius Caesar</i> (play) Play by William Shakespeare

The Tragedy of Julius Caesar (First Folio title: The Tragedie of Ivlivs Cæsar), often abbreviated as Julius Caesar, is a history play and tragedy by William Shakespeare first performed in 1599.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles Strouse</span> American composer and lyricist

Charles Strouse is an American composer and lyricist best known for writing the music to such Broadway musicals as Bye Bye Birdie, Applause, and Annie.

Martin Charnin was an American lyricist, writer, and theatre director. Charnin's best-known work is as conceiver, director, and lyricist of the musical Annie.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Terry Teachout</span> American writer (1956–2022)

Terrance Alan Teachout was an American author, critic, biographer, playwright, stage director, and librettist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Trinity Repertory Company</span> Theater company and theater in Providence, Rhode Island

Trinity Repertory Company is a non-profit regional theater located at 201 Washington Street in Providence, Rhode Island. The theater is a member of the League of Resident Theatres. Founded in 1963, the theater is "one of the most respected regional theatres in the country". Featuring the last longstanding Resident Acting Company in the U.S., Trinity Rep presents a balance of world premiere, contemporary, and classic works, including an annual production of A Christmas Carol, for an estimated annual audience of 110,000. In its 52-year history, the theater has produced nearly 67 world premieres, mounted national and international tours and, through its MFA program, trained hundreds of new actors and directors. Project Discovery, Trinity Rep's pioneering educational outreach program launched in 1966, annually introduces over 15,000 Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Connecticut high school students to live theater through matinees as well as in-school residencies and workshops. As of 2016, Trinity Rep's educational programs serve students in around 60% of Rhode Island schools, and it has a 9 million USD annual budget.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shakespeare in the Park (New York City)</span> Theatrical program

Shakespeare in the Park is a theatrical program that stages productions of Shakespearean plays at the Delacorte Theater, an open-air theater in New York City's Central Park. The theater and the productions are managed by The Public Theater and tickets are distributed free of charge on the day of the performance. Originally branded as the New York Shakespeare Festival (NYSF) under the direction of Joseph Papp, the institution was renamed in 2002 as part of a larger reorganization by the Public Theater.

American Players Theatre is a classical American theatrical troupe and theater complex located near Spring Green, Wisconsin. It has been called the best classical theater company in the United States by the late Wall Street Journal drama critic, Terry Teachout. The Theatre was founded by Randall Duk Kim, Anne Occhiogrosso, and Charles J. Bright, and held its first performance in 1980. Performances are held at a 110-acre complex with two theaters, a 1,089-seat outdoor amphitheater and the 200-seat indoor Touchstone Theatre. It is led by artistic director Brenda DeVita.

Rinne Groff is an American playwright and performer.

Oskar Eustis has been the Artistic Director at the Public Theater in New York City since 2005. He has worked as a director, dramaturg, and artistic director for theaters around the United States.

Founded in 1988, Strawdog Theater Company is located in North Center at 1802 W Berenice Avenue.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Phyllida Lloyd</span> English film director and producer

Phyllida Christian Lloyd, is an English film and theatre director and producer.

Sleep No More is an immersive theatre production created by British theatre company Punchdrunk. Based on Punchdrunk's original 2003 London production, the company reinvented Sleep No More in a co-production with the American Repertory Theater (A.R.T.), which opened at the Old Lincoln School in Brookline, Massachusetts on October 8, 2009. It won Punchdrunk the Elliot Norton Award for Best Theatrical Experience 2010.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ako (actress)</span> Japanese actress

Ako, or Ako Dachs, is a Japanese actress and founding Artistic Director of Amaterasu Za theatre company.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sandra Feinstein-Gamm Theatre</span>

The Gamm Theatre is a non-profit theater in Warwick, Rhode Island.

The Comedy Theatre was a Broadway theatre located at 110 West 41st Street in Manhattan that opened in 1909. It presented the first Broadway appearances of Katharine Cornell and Ruth Draper, as well as Eugene O'Neill's first Broadway play. Shuttered in the wake of the Depression, it reopened in 1937 as the Mercury Theatre — the venue for Orson Welles's groundbreaking adaptation of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar and other productions for the Mercury Theatre repertory company. In 1939 it began presenting classic Yiddish theatre. The building was demolished in 1942.

<i>Caesar</i> (Mercury Theatre) 1937 stage play by Orson Welles

Caesar is the title of Orson Welles's innovative 1937 adaptation of William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, a modern-dress bare-stage production that evoked comparison to contemporary Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany. Considered Welles's highest achievement in the theatre, it premiered November 11, 1937, as the first production of the Mercury Theatre, an independent repertory theatre company that presented an acclaimed series of productions on Broadway through 1941.

Writers Theatre is a non-profit theatre company founded in 1992 and located in Glencoe, Illinois. Michael W. Halberstam, the founder of the company, was artistic director from its inception until 2021. Kathryn M. Lipuma has been executive director since 2007.

Kate Hamill is an American actress and playwright.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maria Manuela Goyanes</span>

Maria Manuela Goyanes is a first-generation Latina theatre maker, chiefly known for her work at The Public Theatre in New York City, as well as her September 2018 appointment as the artistic director of Woolly Mammoth Theatre in Washington D.C.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shona Tucker</span> American actress and director

Shona Tucker is an American actress and director. Beginning in the 1990s, she had roles in several television shows including Law & Order and New York Undercover. She has appeared in regional theater, including at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Off-Broadway at The Public Theater and elsewhere, in films such as 2016's King Cobra, and on Broadway in original cast of 2018's To Kill a Mockingbird with Jeff Daniels, and Death of a Salesman with Wendell Pierce. She is the Mary Riepma Ross professor in Drama at Vassar College, and has been teaching there since 2008.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Fanger, Iris. "A director thanks Providence for her rising career". Christian Science Monitor. Retrieved 18 May 2015.
  2. 1 2 Hernandez, Ernio (17 November 2004). "Director Amanda Dehnert Fills in for New Public Theatre Head Oskar Eustis at Trinity Rep". Playbill. Retrieved 19 May 2015.
  3. ↑ Rodriguez, Bill (9 May 2003). "Dreams fulfilled". The Providence Phoenix . Archived from the original on 2015-05-21. Retrieved 18 May 2015.
  4. ↑ Hernandez, Ernio. "Tomorrow: New Strouse Musical You Never Know Starts World Premiere at Trinity Rep". Playbill. Retrieved 18 May 2015.
  5. ↑ "The 19th Elliot Norton Awards". Elliot Norton Awards. Boston Theater Critics Association . Retrieved 18 May 2015.
  6. ↑ "Amanda Dehnert". Northwestern University School of Communication. Retrieved 18 May 2015.
  7. ↑ Teachout, Terry. "The Glorious Tragedy of Julius Caesar". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 18 May 2015.
  8. ↑ Teachout, Terry (23 December 2011). "Revival of the Fittset: Great Shows Roar Back". The Wall Street Journal .
  9. ↑ Teachout, Terry (18 July 2013). "A Smart Little 'Lady'". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 18 May 2015.
  10. ↑ Teachout, Terry (7 July 2017). "A Shakespeare Festival for the 21st Century". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 7 July 2017.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.