Tina Landau

Last updated

Tina Landau
Tina Landau, May 2018.jpg
Landau in 2018
Born (1962-05-21) May 21, 1962 (age 62)
New York City, New York, U.S.
Education Yale University (BA)
Harvard University (MFA)
Occupations
  • Playwright
  • theatre director
Years active2001–present
Parents

Tina Landau (born May 21, 1962) is an American playwright and theatre director. Known for her large-scale, musical, and ensemble-driven work, Landau's productions have appeared on Broadway, Off-Broadway, and regionally, most extensively at the Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago where she is an ensemble member.

Contents

Early life

Born in New York City to film and television producers Edie and Ely Landau, Landau moved with her family to Beverly Hills, California, where she graduated from Beverly Hills High School before attending Yale University, where she directed numerous productions as an undergraduate. She later attended the American Repertory Theater Institute for Advanced Theater Training at Harvard University. Her family is of Jewish background. [1] [2]

Career

Landau's early work included site specific productions with New York City's En Garde Arts, including Orestes and The Trojan Women: A Love Story, both by Charles L. Mee, as well as her original play "Stonewall: Night Variations." Floyd Collins , with a book by Landau and a score by Adam Guettel, opened off-Broadway at Playwrights Horizons in 1996. Landau was nominated for the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Book of a Musical and the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Director of a Musical, and the production won the Lucille Lortel Award for Best Musical. A later version of the show played at San Diego's Old Globe Theater, The Goodman Theater in Chicago, and The Prince Music Theater in Philadelphia (where it was originally commissioned and produced.)

In 1997, she became a member of the Steppenwolf Theatre Company, where she has directed numerous productions including The Wheel, The Hot L Baltimore, Tarell Alvin McCraney's The Brother/Sister Plays and Head of Passes, The Tempest , The Time of Your Life (which later moved to Seattle Rep and A.C.T.), The Diary of Anne Frank , The Cherry Orchard , Theatrical Essays, Time to Burn, Berlin Circle, and The Ballad of Little Jo.

She made her Broadway debut directing the 2001 revival of Bells Are Ringing with Faith Prince, and in 2009 she returned to Broadway with the Steppenwolf production of Tracy Letts' Superior Donuts . In February 2015 Nickelodeon announced that she had been tapped to co-adapt and direct SpongeBob SquarePants, The Broadway Musical , a stage adaptation of SpongeBob SquarePants . [3] The show opened on Broadway on December 4, 2017. [4] For SpongeBob SquarePants, Landau was nominated for the 2018 Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical at the 72nd Tony Awards. She won Best Director of a Musical at both the 2018 Drama Desk Awards and Outer Critics Circle Awards, and the production won for Best Musical in both awards as well. [5] [6]

Landau's other New York City directing credits include Old Hats (with Bill Irwin and David Shiner) at the Signature Theater, Paula Vogel's A Civil War Christmas at New York Theatre Workshop, Charles L. Mee’s Iphigenia 2.0 at the Signature, Dream True, Mary Rose, Miracle Brothers and Wig Out!, all at the Vineyard Theater, as well as In the Red and Brown Water, Space, and Saturn Returns all at The Public Theater.

Landau's many other regional credits include Antony and Cleopatra at Hartford Stage, A Midsummer Night's Dream at the McCarter Theater and Paper Mill Playhouse, Of Thee I Sing at Papermill, The Cure at Troy at Seattle Rep, Zack Zadek's Deathless at Goodspeed Musicals, [7] [8] and the musical Dave at Arena Stage.

In addition to Floyd Collins, Landau's writing includes book and lyrics for Dream True and States of Independence, both with scores by Ricky Ian Gordon, the plays Beauty at La Jolla Playhouse (San Diego Critics Best Play), Space at Steppenwolf, the Public, and the Mark Taper Forum (TIME magazine Top Ten), Stonewall: Night Variations, and 1969 (or Howie Takes a Trip). With Anne Bogart, Landau has co-authored The Viewpoints Book: A Practical Guide to Viewpoints and Composition. [9]

Landau has taught at Yale University and the Yale School of Drama, Tisch School of the Arts at New York University, [10] University of Chicago, Northwestern University, and Columbia University.

In 2024, Landau directed on Broadway Mother Play by Paula Vogel. In 2025, she will return to direct a revised Broadway production of Floyd Collins at the Vivian Beaumont Stage at Lincoln Center, as part of their 2024-2025 season. She will also direct Redwood on Broadway, a new musical starring Idina Menzel. [11] [12]

Awards and recognition

Landau was named one of the "Out 100 of 2009" by OUT Magazine. Landau was named a 2007 USA Ford Fellow and granted $50,000 by United States Artists, an arts advocacy foundation dedicated to the support and promotion of America's top living artists. [13] In 2018 she won for Best Director at the 28th NAACP Theatre Awards. [14] Landau received a 2018 Tony Award nomination for Best Direction of a Musical for SpongeBob SquarePants at the 72nd Tony Awards. [15] She won awards for Best Direction of a Musical at the 2018 Drama Desk Awards and Outer Critics Circle Awards as well. [16] [17]

In 2022, Landau was featured in the book 50 Key Figures in Queer US Theatre, with a profile written by theatre scholar David Román. [18]

Notes

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paula Vogel</span> American playwright

Paula Vogel is an American playwright. She is known for her provocative explorations of complex social and political issues. Much of her work delves into themes of psychological trauma, abuse, and the complexities of human relationships. She has received the Pulitzer Prize as well as nominations for two Tony Awards. In 2013 she was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame.

<i>Floyd Collins</i> (musical) 1994 musical

Floyd Collins is a musical with music and lyrics by Adam Guettel, and book by Tina Landau. The story is based on the death of Floyd Collins near Cave City, Kentucky in the winter of 1925.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anne Bogart</span> American theatre and opera director

Anne Bogart is an American theatre and opera director. She is currently one of the artistic directors of SITI Company, which she founded with Japanese director Tadashi Suzuki in 1992. She is a professor at Columbia University where she runs the Graduate Directing Concentration and is the author of four books of essays on theatre making: A Director Prepares; And Then, You Act; What's the Story; and The Art of Resonance. She is a co-author, with Tina Landau of The Viewpoints Book, a "practical guide" to Viewpoints training and devising techniques. Conversations with Anne, a collection of interviews she has conducted with various notable artists was published in March 2012.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Austin Pendleton</span> American actor (born 1940)

Austin Campbell Pendleton is an American actor, playwright, theatre director, and instructor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lynn Nottage</span> American playwright (born 1964)

Lynn Nottage is an American playwright whose work often focuses on the experience of working-class people, particularly working-class people who are Black. She has received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama twice: in 2009 for her play Ruined, and in 2017 for her play Sweat. She was the first woman to have won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama two times.

Anna Davida Shapiro is an American theater director, was the artistic director of the Steppenwolf Theater Company, and a professor at Northwestern University. Throughout her career, she has directed both the Steppenwolf Theater Company production of August: Osage County (2007) along with its Broadway debut (2008-2009), the Broadway debuts of The Motherfucker with the Hat (2011) and Fish in the Dark (2014), and Broadway revivals of This Is Our Youth and Of Mice and Men, both in 2014. She won the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play for her direction of August: Osage County.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peggy Eisenhauer</span> American lighting designer

Peggy Eisenhauer is an American lighting designer for both theatre and films. She has designed or co-designed some 41 Broadway productions and frequently collaborates with Jules Fisher.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tom Kitt (musician)</span> American composer and musician

Thomas Robert Kitt is an American composer, conductor, orchestrator, and musician. For his score for the musical Next to Normal, he shared the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Drama with Brian Yorkey. He has also won two Tony Awards and an Outer Critics Circle Award for Next to Normal, as well as Tony and Outer Critics Circle nominations for If/Then and SpongeBob SquarePants. He has been nominated for eight Drama Desk Awards, winning one, and a Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album for Jagged Little Pill in 2021.

JenniferDamiano is an American actress and singer. She made her Broadway debut in 2006 as an ensemble member in the original production of Spring Awakening, and went on to originate the role of Natalie Goodman in the musical Next to Normal, for which she was nominated for the 2009 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Featured Role in a Musical, becoming one of the youngest nominees for the award at age 17. Her other Broadway roles include Mary Jane Watson in Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark in 2011 and Jean in the 2016 musical American Psycho, in addition to a number of roles off-Broadway.

Lesli Margherita is an American stage and screen actress. She is best known for originating the roles of Inez in the musical Zorro, for which she won a Laurence Olivier Award, and Mrs. Wormwood in the Broadway cast of Matilda the Musical.

John Richard Tiffany is an English theatre director. He directed the internationally successful productions Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Black Watch and Once. He has won 2 Tony Awards, an Olivier Award, a Drama Desk Award and an Obie Award.

Pam MacKinnon is an American theatre director. She has directed for the stage Off-Broadway, on Broadway and in regional theatre. She won the Obie Award for Directing and received a Tony Award nomination, Best Director, for her work on Clybourne Park. In 2013 she received the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play for a revival of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? She was named artistic director of American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco, California on January 23, 2018.

<i>SpongeBob SquarePants</i> (musical) Stage musical, co-conceived and directed by Tina Landau

SpongeBob SquarePants: The Broadway Musical is a stage musical, co-conceived and directed by Tina Landau with songs by various artists and a book by Kyle Jarrow. It is based on the Nickelodeon animated television series SpongeBob SquarePants and made its world premiere in June 2016 at the Oriental Theatre in Chicago. Following a month of previews, the musical opened on Broadway at the Palace Theatre in December 2017.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Nigrini</span> American projection designer

Peter Nigrini is an American projection designer of live theater. His best-known designs include Dear Evan Hansen, Fela!, and Here Lies Love. He also works occasionally as a scenic and lighting designer, most notably his long standing collaboration with Nature Theater of Oklahoma, of which he is a founding member. He is also a lecturer at New York University

G. W. "Skip" Mercier was an American costume, puppet, and set designer. He has designed for over 370 productions of theater, musical theater, opera, dance, film, and television. He is best known for his set and costume designs for Juan Darien: A Carnival Mass in which he received a Tony Award Nomination for Scenery and two Drama Desk Nominations for Scenic Design and Costume Design in 1997. He was a member of the faculty at the University of Washington School of Drama, where he taught scenic design and costume design to both graduate students and undergraduates.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jay Armstrong Johnson</span> American actor, singer, and dancer

Jay Armstrong Johnson is an American actor, singer, and dancer, known for starring roles on Broadway in musicals like Parade, On the Town, and The Phantom of the Opera and for his portrayal of Will Olsen in the ABC television series Quantico.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ethan Slater</span> American actor and singer (born 1992)

Ethan Samuel Slater is an American actor, singer, writer, and composer known for his role as SpongeBob SquarePants in the musical of the same name, for which he received a Tony Award nomination and won a Drama Desk Award in 2018. During his career he has also acted in musicals directed by Kathleen Marshall, Barry Levinson, John Tartaglia, Bartlett Sher, and John Doyle.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bruce Coughlin</span> American orchestrator and musical arranger

Bruce Coughlin is an American orchestrator and musical arranger. He has won a Tony Award, a Drama Desk Award, and an Obie Award.

The Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Wig and Hair Design is an annual award presented by Drama Desk in recognition of achievements in theatre across collective Broadway, off-Broadway and off-off-Broadway productions in New York City. Unlike some Drama Desk Awards, the award for Outstanding Wig and Hair Design combines plays and musicals into a single category.

The Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Puppetry is an annual award presented by Drama Desk in recognition of achievements in theatre across collective Broadway, off-Broadway and off-off-Broadway productions in New York City. The award was first presented at the 1998 ceremony, as the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Puppet Design, then suspended from use until the 2017 ceremony. The current name was introduced as of the 2023 ceremony.

References

  1. Postal, Bernard; Silver, Jesse; Silver, Roy (1965). "Harry Rudolph". Encyclopedia of Jews in Sports. New York: Bloch Publishing Co.
  2. Pat Sierchio (March 1, 2010). "Producer Landau: Interpreter of Dreams". JewishJournal.com . Retrieved June 8, 2013.
  3. "SpongeBob musical has eye on Broadway". Entertainment Weekly . February 25, 2015. Retrieved March 20, 2015.
  4. SpongeBob Squarepants The New York Times, November 22, 2017
  5. "68th Annual Awards Outer Critics Circle Announce 2017-18 Award Winners! Harry Potter and the Cursed Child" Tops Win List with 6 Awards!". outercritics.org. Archived from the original on April 27, 2019. Retrieved April 27, 2019.
  6. Staff, Playbill (June 3, 2018). "SpongeBob SquarePants Leads 2018 Drama Desk Awards". Playbill. Retrieved April 27, 2019.
  7. Hetrick, Adam. "Jennifer Damiano and Jessica Phillips to Lead Goodspeed's Deathless | Playbill". Playbill. Retrieved May 11, 2017.
  8. Rickwald, Bethany. "Tina Landau Dives Into a 'Deathless' Future in Zack Zadek's New Musical" theatermania.com, June 2, 2017
  9. Anne Bogart; Tina Landau (1 August 2004). The Viewpoints Book: A Practical Guide to Viewpoints and Composition. Theatre Communications Group. ISBN   978-1-55936-677-9.
  10. "Tina Landau information Archived 2009-02-11 at the Wayback Machine artscapemedia.com, accessed February 20, 2009
  11. https://playbill.com/article/floyd-collins-is-getting-a-broadway-debut-via-lincoln-center-theater [ bare URL ]
  12. https://www.redwoodmusical.com/ [ bare URL ]
  13. Listings for USA Ford Fellow Archived 2008-03-28 at the Wayback Machine unitedstatesartists.org
  14. "28th Annual NAACP Theatre Awards Winners June 17, 2019 | NAACP Theatre Awards". NAACP Theatre Awards. June 25, 2019. Retrieved March 28, 2024.
  15. Fierberg, Ruthie. "25 Days Of Tonys How Does Director Tina Landau Describe 'Spongebobsquarepants'" Playbill, May 23, 2018
  16. Maga, Carly (December 11, 2019). "Taking a deep dive into 'SpongeBob'". Toronto Star . New York City. p. 24. Retrieved June 6, 2024 via Newspapers.com.
  17. McPhee, Ryan (May 7, 2018). "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, My Fair Lady Win Big at 2018 Outer Critics Circle Awards". Playbill . Retrieved June 6, 2024.
  18. Román, David (2022). "Tina Landau". In Noriega and Schildcrout (ed.). 50 Key Figures in Queer US Theatre. Routledge. pp. 123–126. ISBN   978-1032067964.