The Old Globe Announces 2020 Classical Directing Fellowship

The Old Globe has announced the 2020 Classical Directing Fellowships, a program of the Karen and Stuart Tanz Fellowships at The Old Globe, led by the Globe's Erna Finci Viterbi Artistic Director Barry Edelstein, a leading Shakespearean scholar, author, and director.

Four directing fellows-Meg DeBoard (assistant directed at The Old Globe and La Jolla Playhouse; local credits include Spring Awakening, Failure: A Love Story), Manoel Felciano (actor in the Globe's The Tempest, Ken Ludwig's Robin Hood! and Twelfth Night; Broadway's To Kill a Mockingbird, Sweeney Todd, Amélie), Lavina Jadhwani (As You Like It at Guthrie Theater, Peter and the Starcatcher at Oregon Shakespeare Festival, The Cake at Asolo Repertory Theatre), and Edward Torres (the Globe's Familiar, Native Gardens, Water by the Spoonful, 2017 and 2020 Powers New Voices Festivals; award-winning world premiere of The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity)-will participate in the second session of Shakespeare directing workshops. They will be in residence from Monday, March 16 to Saturday, March 21, 2020.

Thanks to the generosity of Karen and Stuart Tanz, who have made a significant 10-year pledge to the Annual Fund of The Old Globe, the program is part of the Karen and Stuart Tanz Fellowships at The Old Globe. Their gift supports theatre training programs such as Edelstein's Classical Directing Fellowships, and will be recognized with production sponsorships of two shows each year and with a permanent paver stone on the Globe's Copley Plaza.

Karen Tanz is a proud member of the Board of Directors at The Old Globe, as well as one of the 2019 Globe Gala Co-Chairs, and is active with many philanthropic organizations in San Diego. Originally from Toronto, she studied theatre management at the Banff School of Fine Arts, which inspired her work in live theatre and television in Canada. she served as a producer of the musical Allegiance, which premiered at the Globe in 2012. Stuart Tanz is President and CEO of ROIC, a position he has held since 2009. He also serves as Chairman of the University of Toronto Tanz Centre for Research in Neurodegenerative Diseases. They moved to Rancho Santa Fe in 1989 to raise two children, and they now have a granddaughter. They have previously sponsored October Sky, Picasso at the Lapin Agile, The Absolute Brightness of Leonard Pelkey, Life After, and this year's What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank.

As one of the leading Shakespeare theatres in America, the Globe presents four full productions of the Bard's plays annually, and Shakespeare is central to the theatre's nationally renowned arts engagement programs. All of this work exemplifies the Globe's values-driven commitment to making theatre matter to more people, a commitment that expresses the Globe's view of theatre art as a public good. This commitment and this view require the Globe to think about the future of the American theatre and to train artists whose work will embody the values we champion. We can make a contribution not only to our own work but also to the field at large by expanding the ranks of exciting Shakespeareans ready to make theatre at the Globe's level of excellence.

This Classical Directing Fellowships will continue to broaden our professional artist-training work, which initially centered on The Old Globe and University of San Diego Shiley Graduate Theatre Program, which focuses on actors. The 2019 Classical Directing Fellowship pilot-program cohort included four diverse young directors from San Diego and across the U.S., including Globe veterans Daniel Jáquez and Delicia Turner Sonnenberg, as well as Sam White and La Williams, and we are excited to see it evolve into an ongoing part of the Globe's artistic life.

The Classical Directing Fellowships focus on Shakespeare's text, how it is put together, and how it works in the imaginations and voices of American actors. In master classes, Edelstein will present a series of techniques that the fellows will then employ in rehearsals with a company of professional actors. The work will culminate in a private presentation on Saturday. After that, all involved will debrief and broaden the conversation to some larger questions about Shakespeare, American culture, and the director's art and life. Throughout the week, in addition to the artistic work, the fellows will meet with members of the Globe's staff in many departments, and with representatives of the San Diego theatre community beyond the Globe. They will gain not only a set of specific tools to use in directing Shakespeare, but also a sense of the community in one of America's most dynamic theatre towns. In exchange, the Globe will have the chance to begin a conversation with a group of gifted artists with so much to offer this theatre.

"Last year the Globe launched a new initiative aimed at enriching American Shakespeare, and the results were so exciting that we decided to make it a permanent program," said Edelstein. "The Globe is one of the country's leading producers of Shakespeare, and we embrace our role in training the artists who will carry this great writer's canon forward and stage it with new imagination and innovative interpretation. Our first cohort of fellows-Daniel Jàquez, Delicia Turner Sonnenberg, Sam White, and La Williams-have already, in the course of only a year, made major contributions to American Shakespeare, and our second cohort is poised to do the same. Meg, Lavina, Eddie, and Mano are artists of great skill and accomplishment, and the Globe is delighted to be part of their trajectory in this way. I'm particularly grateful to Karen and Stuart Tanz, whose philanthropy is central to this theatre and whose commitment to the future of our art form is as impactful as it is commendable. I look forward to another wonderful year of this fellowship as it grows in excellence and depth."

Barry Edelstein (Erna Finci Viterbi Artistic Director) is a stage director, producer, author, and educator. He has directed nearly half of the Bard's plays. His Globe directing credits include The Winter's Tale, Othello, The Twenty-seventh Man, the world premiere of Rain, Picasso at the Lapin Agile, Hamlet, the world premiere of The Wanderers, and the American premiere of Life After. He also directed All's Well That Ends Well as the inaugural production of the Globe for All community tour. In January 2019 he oversaw the Globe's inaugural Classical Directing Fellowships program, and in November 2018 he directed The Tempest with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at Walt Disney Concert Hall. As Director of the Shakespeare Initiative at The Public Theater (2008-2012), Edelstein oversaw all of the company's Shakespearean productions as well as its educational, community outreach, and artist-training programs. At The Public, he staged the world premiere of The Twenty-seventh Man, Julius Caesar, The Merchant of Venice, Timon of Athens, and Steve Martin's WASP and Other Plays. He was also Associate Producer of The Public's Broadway production of The Merchant of Venice starring Al Pacino. From 1998 to 2003 he was Artistic Director of Classic Stage Company. His book Thinking Shakespeare, which was rereleased in a second edition in June, is the standard text on American Shakespearean acting. He is also the author of Bardisms: Shakespeare for All Occasions. He is a graduate of Tufts University and the University of Oxford, where he studied as a Rhodes Scholar.

Meg DeBoard is a San Diego-based theatre director who embodies a strong personal commitment to the arts and community. She lived in London for two years, working towards her M.F.A. in Theatre Directing and studying with acclaimed directors Phelim McDermott, Matthew Lloyd, and Melly Still. Since moving to San Diego in 2015, she has assistant directed Tony Award winners Walter Bobbie at The Old Globe and Christopher Ashley at La Jolla Playhouse, while directing at smaller theatres in town. She specializes in physical theatre practices and ensemble-driven pieces. Recent productions include Spring Awakening, Failure: A Love Story, Into the Woods, Dancing Lessons, and A Wrinkle in Time. DeBoard is Director of Theatre at Point Loma Nazarene University and is on the board for the Big Bridge Theatre Consortium, which commissions new plays that promote peace.

Manoel Felciano was previously seen at The Old Globe in Much Ado About Nothing, The Tempest, Ken Ludwig's Robin Hood!, Twelfth Night, and I Just Stopped By to See the Man. His Broadway credits include To Kill a Mockingbird, Sweeney Todd (Tony Award nomination), Amélie, Disaster!, Brooklyn, Jesus Christ Superstar, and Cabaret. He has appeared Off Broadway in By the Way, Meet Vera Stark (Signature Theatre), The Secret Life of Bees and Trumpery (Atlantic Theater Company), The Changeling (Red Bull Theater), and Shockheaded Peter and Much Ado About Nothing (New York Shakespeare Festival). Regionally Mr. Felciano's credits include the world premiere of Terrence McNally's Mothers and Sons with Tyne Daly (Bucks County Playhouse), The Outsider (Paper Mill Playhouse), The Exorcist with Brooke Shields (Geffen Playhouse), Clybourne Park, Round and Round the Garden, The Caucasian Chalk Circle, November, and Jerry in At Home at the Zoo (American Conservatory Theater), Elektra with Olympia Dukakis (Getty Villa), Ragtime (The Kennedy Center), Three Sisters (Williamstown Theatre Festival), and George in Sunday in the Park with George directed by Jason Alexander. His film and television credits include Uncertainty with Joseph Gordon-Levitt, "The Blacklist," "Elementary," "NCIS," "Trauma," "Life on Mars," and "The Unusuals." Felciano received a B.A. from Yale University and an M.F.A. from New York University, and he is a Columbia University faculty member. @manofelciano.

Lavina Jadhwani is a theatre director, adaptor, and activist. Her recent directing credits include As You Like It (Guthrie Theater), Peter and the Starcatcher (Oregon Shakespeare Festival), Roe and The Cake (Asolo Repertory Theatre), and Three Sisters (American Conservatory Theater's M.F.A. Program). Her previous directing fellowships include the Phil Killian Directing Fellowship (Oregon Shakespeare Festival), the Drama League's Classical Directing Fellowship (Shakespeare & Company), and the National Directors Fellowship (Eugene O'Neill Theater Center/National New Play Network/Stage Directors and Choreographers Society/The Kennedy Center). Jadhwani lives in Chicago, where she was recently named one of the Fifty People Who Really Perform for Chicago by Newcity; in 2013 she was TimeOut Chicago's Best Next-Generation Stage Director. She received a B.F.A. and an M.A. from Carnegie Mellon University and an M.F.A. from The Theatre School at DePaul University. lavinajadhwani.com.

Edward Torres has directed The Old Globe's Familiar, Native Gardens, Water by the Spoonful, and two readings for the Powers New Voices Festival: What You Are (2017) and El Borracho (2020). He directed the world premiere of Kristoffer Diaz's The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity (Victory Gardens Theater/Teatro Vista), which was named Best Play of 2009 by the Chicago Tribune and garnered Joseph Jefferson Awards for Best Production - Play and Best Director - Play. He has also directed at several regional theatres Including Geffen Playhouse, Second Stage Theatre, Goodman Theatre, The Public Theater, Repertorio Español, and more. His other awards included Latin ACE Award for Best Musical and the Artistas de Teatro Independiente Award for Best Director. He serves as an Assistant Professor of Practice in Theater at Wesleyan University, and is Artistic Director Emeritus at Teatro Vista. As a performer, he was recently seen in the critically acclaimed production of Bruce Norris's Downstate, at both Steppenwolf Theatre Company and The National Theatre in London.

To post a comment, you must register and login.