Julie Taymor Set for Monday Nights at La MaMa Series Tonight, 6/4

La MaMa's popular series MONDAY NIGHTS AT LA MAMA -- featuring La MaMa artists in discussions about their careers and their work at La MaMa -- will conclude tonight, Monday, June 4 at 7:30 p.m. with the Tony-winning and Academy Award-nominated director Julie Taymor at La MaMa's Ellen Stewart Theatre (66 E. 4 St.)

The discussion with Ms. Taymor will be moderated by Diane Wondisford, Producing Director of Music-Theatre Group. The evening will include video clips from Ms. Taymor's productions through the years, as well as a discussion of her illustrious career and her work with La MaMa, where her large-scale, Balinese-inspired work TIRAI -- which starred Bill Irwin and featured Indonesian musicians and employed shadow puppets -- was presented in 1980.

With its MONDAY NIGHTS AT LA MAMA series -- one of the highlights of the theater's 50th anniversary season, "Homecoming" -- La MaMa welcomes home alumni who have been instrumental in shaping the legacy of La MaMa. On select Mondays throughout the year, La MaMa has hosted performances and intimate conversations by some of art's greatest innovators, whose commitment and dedication are helping ensure that La MaMa remains an artistic home for future artists as it has been for them. Previous Monday Night events featured Elizabeth Swados, Meredith Monk, F. Murray Abraham and Andrei Serban.

In 1998, Julie Taymor became the first woman to win the Tony® Award for Best Direction of a Musical, and also won a Tony® for Best Costumes, for her landmark production of THE LION KING. The musical has won three Molière Awards including Best Musical and Best Costumes, garnered Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle and Drama League awards for Taymor’s direction, and myriad awards for her original costume, mask and puppet designs. For her latest Broadway production, SPIDER-MAN: TURN OFF THE DARK, Taymor served as director and co-book writer. Taymor made her Broadway debut in 1996 with JUAN DARIEN: A CARNIVAL MASS, nominated for five Tony® Awards. Other theatre work includes THE GREEN BIRD, TITUS ANDRONICUS, THE TEMPEST, THE TAMING OF THE SHREW, THE TRANSPOSED HEADS and LIBERTY'S TAKEN. Taymor’s feature film directorial debut, TITUS, starred Anthony Hopkins, Jessica Lange and Alan Cumming. In 2002, her biographical film FRIDA starring Salma Hayek and Alfred Molina, earned six Academy Award® nominations, winning two. She took on the music of the Beatles, and earned a Golden Globe® nomination for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy, in ACROSS THE UNIVERSE. Julie’s most recent film THE TEMPEST had its North American premiere at the 48th New York Film Festival in October 2010, following a world premiere at the 67th Venice International Film Festival. Taymor’s adaptation of the William Shakespeare play features an all-star cast including Helen Mirren, Russell Brand, Djimon Hounsou and Alfred Molina. Beyond the theatre and screen, Taymor has directed five operas internationally including OEDIPUS REX with Jessye Norman, for which she earned the International Classical Music Award for Best Opera Production. A subsequent film version premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and won her an Emmy® award. Taymor also directed SALOME, THE FLYING DUTCHMAN, DIE ZAUBERFLOTE (which has been in repertory at The Met for six years), THE MAGIC FLUTE (the abridgEd English version of DIE ZAUBERFLOTE which inaugurated a new PBS series entitled “Great Performances at The Met”) and Elliot Goldenthal’s GRENDEL. Taymor is a 1991 recipient of the MacArthur “genius” Fellowship.

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