HAIR Director Diane Paulus Receives I.A.L Diamond Award 5/2 At Varsity Show

Diane Paulus, director of the hit Broadway revival Hair has been named the recipient of the 2009 I.A.L Diamond Award for Achievement in the Arts at Columbia University. She will receive the award this Saturday evening (May 2nd) at the annual the annual Varsity Show. The I.A.L. Diamond Award is presented each year to a Columbia or Barnard alumnus/a who has demonstrated continued commitment to and has found success in the arts.

The award, named in honor of I.A.L. Diamond, a Varsity Show and Hollywood legend, is the highest honor bestowed by the organization to Columbia alumni and is presented at an exclusive gala reception before a performance of that year's Varsity Show.

Diane Paulus, the recently appointed Artistic Director of American Repertory Theatre in Cambridge, MA, received critical acclaim for her direction of Hair, currently running at the Al Hirchfeld Theater. She was the creator and director of The Donkey Show, which ran for six years Off-Broadway and toured internationally. Her theatre credits include Kiss Me, Kate (Glimmerglass); Lost Highway (ENO and Young Vic, London); Another Country (Riverside Church); Turandot: Rumble for the Ring (Bay Street Theatre); The Golden Mickeys (Disney Creative Entertainment); Best of Both Worlds (Music-Theatre Group and The Women's Project); the Obie-winning Eli's Comin' and Brutal Imagination
(Vineyard Theatre); the Pulitzer Prize finalist Running Man and Swimming with Watermelons (MTG and Project 400.) Opera credits: Monteverdi's Orfeo (BAM), Don Giovanni, Le nozze di Figaro, Così fan tutte, The Turn of the Screw, L'incoronazione di Poppea and Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria (Chicago Opera Theater). Education: Phi Beta Kappa from Harvard University with a B.A. in Social Studies, M.F.A. in Directing from Columbia University. She is the recipient of the Peter Ivers Visiting Artist Fellowship (Harvard), and the Directing Fellowship (The Drama League), and was recently appointed the Artistic Director of The American Repertory Theatre in Cambridge, MA.

Past honorees of the I.A.L. Diamond Award include playwright Terrence McNally (Columbia Class of 1960), the first recipient of the award in 2004, composer Jeanine Tesori (Barnard College Class of 1983) was named in 2005, and singer/songwriter Art Garfunkel received the award in 2006. In 2007, the award was presented to Tony Award nominee Brandon V. Dixon, a member of the Columbia College community, who received a Tony Award nomination for his performance of Harpo in the Broadway musical, The Color Purple, and in 2008, the award was presented to composers Tom Kitt (Columbia College Class of 1996), and Brian Yorkey (Columbia College Class of 1993).

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