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| This biographical article needs more biographical information on the subject.(November 2010) |
Richard Kimmel | |
|---|---|
| Occupation | Theatrical producer |
| Organization | The Box |
Notable work | Schwarzwald |
Richard Kimmel is a New York City-based theatre director, writer, and theatrical producer. He is executive director of The Box, a venue for theater, music, and nightlife in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, and artistic director of Cannon Company, a performing ensemble.
Kimmel is a graduate of Columbia University's Master of Fine Arts program in Directing.
He has created and directed live performances and special events such as Pandora (The Box), a light and video show for Jennifer Hudson's New York concert debut One Night Only: Dreamgirls (Hammerstein Ballroom), [1] and Schwarzwald (Roseland). In 2007, Schwarzwald was made into a feature film, Schwarzwald: The Movie You Can Dance To, written and directed by Kimmel. The film, which has no spoken words, is based on music and footage filmed at the 2006 Black Party in the Roseland Ballroom, noted for its sexually charged shows. [2] Following premieres in New York (NewFest) and Los Angeles (OutFest Platinum Selection), the film screened in Paris, Amsterdam, and Montreal.
Kimmel's other New York directing and producing credits include Puss (the Performing Garage), Pleasuredome I and II (Combustive Arts), Witches' MacBeth (HERE, Angel Orensanz Center, WAH Center), [3] and Three Sisters (28th Street Theater), The Secret Agent (Dactyl). He also produced and directed the Pleasure Blister cabaret series at downtown New York City nightclub Filter 14, and the New Lost City 2004 New Year's Eve extravaganza at the Lunatarium in Dumbo, Brooklyn.
His international and regional credits include The Tooth of Crime (New Grove Theatre, London), Endgame (Actor's Workshop, Boston), American Buffalo (14th Street Playhouse, Atlanta), Twelfth Night (Alliance Theater, Atlanta), and The Comedy of Errors (Theatre Emory, Atlanta).
For many years, Kimmel has been an associate with The Wooster Group, [4] working in a variety of roles ranging from producing the Performing Garage's "Visiting Artist Series" and "Emerging Artist Series" to helping secure funding for special projects. He was assistant director of the Group's 2002 repertory production To You, The Birdie! (Phèdre), [5] and has toured to more than 20 cities internationally with the show, including London, Paris, Berlin, Amsterdam, Barcelona, and Istanbul.
Kimmel co-founded the New York City performance-art theater The Box on Valentine's Day in 2007 with partners Simon Hammerstein (the grandson of famed lyricist and playwright Oscar Hammerstein II) and Randy Weiner. [6] [7] The club, which The New York Times said "was labeled the savior of hip Manhattan nightlife" when it opened, was the subject of controversies in 2008. Two performers alleged inappropriate behavior by Kimmel and Hammerstein (which they both denied, and their other employees discounted), the extreme nature of some of the club's acts was criticized, and noise complaints lead to the local community board recommending that the club's liquor license renewal be denied. [7] [8] (The license was ultimately renewed. [4] ) In 2011, Kimmel and his partners opened The Box Soho in London.
Kimmel is a member of the Lincoln Center Director's Lab, and recipient of awards from the NEH, the Princess Grace Foundation, and the New York State Council on the Arts.
Oscar Greeley Clendenning Hammerstein II was an American lyricist, librettist, theatrical producer, and director in the musical theater for almost 40 years. He won eight Tony Awards and two Academy Awards for Best Original Song. Many of his songs are standard repertoire for vocalists and jazz musicians. He co-wrote 850 songs.
Oklahoma! is the first musical written by the duo of Rodgers and Hammerstein. The musical is based on Lynn Riggs' 1931 play, Green Grow the Lilacs. Set in farm country outside the town of Claremore, Indian Territory, in 1906, it tells the story of farm girl Laurey Williams and her courtship by two rival suitors, cowboy Curly McLain and the sinister and frightening farmhand Jud Fry. A secondary romance concerns cowboy Will Parker and his flirtatious fiancée, Ado Annie.
Susan P. Stroman is an American theatre director, choreographer, film director and performer. Her notable theater productions include The Producers, Crazy for You, Contact, and The Scottsboro Boys. She is a five-time Tony Award winner, four for Best Choreography and one as Best Director of a Musical for The Producers. In addition, she is a recipient of two Laurence Olivier Awards, five Drama Desk Awards, eight Outer Critics Circle Awards, two Lucille Lortel Awards, and the George Abbott Award for Lifetime Achievement in the American Theater. She is a 2014 inductee in the American Theater Hall of Fame in New York City.
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The Gotham Independent Film Awards are American film awards, presented annually to the makers of independent films at a ceremony in New York City, the city first nicknamed "Gotham" by native son Washington Irving, in an issue of Salmagundi, published on November 11, 1807. Part of the Independent Filmmaker Project (IFP), "the largest membership organization in the United States dedicated to independent film", the awards were inaugurated in 1991 as a means of showcasing and honoring films made primarily in the northeastern region of the United States.
The Hammerstein Ballroom is a 12,000-square-foot (1,100 m2) ballroom located within the Manhattan Center at 311 West 34th Street in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. The capacity of the ballroom is dependent on the configuration of the room; it seats 2,500 people for theatrical productions and musical performances, and several thousand for events held within a central ring. The floor of the ballroom is flat. The two main balconies – which are unusually close to the ground and gently sloped – seat a total of 1,200. The third balcony has been stripped of seats and is not used.
Walter Bobbie is an American theatre director, choreographer, and occasional actor and dancer. Bobbie has directed both musicals and plays on Broadway and Off-Broadway, and was the Artistic Director of the New York City Center Encores! concert series. He directed the long-running revival of the musical Chicago.
The Roseland Ballroom was a multipurpose hall, in a converted ice skating rink, with a colorful ballroom dancing pedigree, in New York City's theater district, on West 52nd Street in Manhattan.
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Randy Weiner is an American playwright, producer and theater and nightclub owner. Weiner co-wrote the Off-Broadway musical The Donkey Show and, as one-third of EMURSIVE, produced the Drama Desk Award winning New York premiere of Punchdrunk's Sleep No More. He is co-owner of NYC "theater of varieties" The Box and The Box Soho.
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