Anne Bogart

Anne Bogart (born September 25, 1951) is a prolific and award-winning 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 three books of essays on theater making: A Director Prepares; And Then, You Act; and What's the Story. 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.

Bogart’s influence is felt throughout the contemporary theatre: through the widespread adoption of SITI’s training methods of Viewpoints and Suzuki, her oeuvre of groundbreaking productions, and her guidance at SITI as well as Columbia University of such diverse talents as Pavol Liska, Diane Paulus, James Dacre, Kim Weild, Jay Scheib, Sophie Hunter, Darko Tresnjak and many others.[1][2][3][4]

Life and career

Bogart earned her Bachelor of Arts degree from Bard College in 1974, followed by a Master of Arts degree from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts in 1977. She served as Artistic Director of the Trinity Repertory Company for its 1989-90 season. From 1990-92 she was president of TCG (Theater Communications Group). In 1992 together with Tadashi Suzuki she founded SITI Company with a mission to create new work, to train young theatre artists and to encourage international collaboration. She has served as SITI Company’s Artistic Director since 1992 and since 2011 she shares the leadership with Company members Ellen Lauren and Leon Ingulsrud.

From 1987 - 1992 Bogart served as the Artistic Director of Via Theater. Founded by Bogart and Brian Jucha, Via Theater created a number of highly regarded productions in New York City including Assimil, No Plays, No Poetry, and Cinderella/Cendrillon. The company led workshops and residencies around the United States.

Between 1980 and 1992, Bogart taught at the Max Reinhart Academy, The Bern Conservatory, The University of Alaska, Bennington College, The American Center (Paris, France), Williams College, New York University, University of California at San Diego, and Playwrights Horizons Theater School. Since 1993 she has served as a Professor at Columbia University where she heads the Graduate Directing Program.

Since 1992 Bogart has taught in residencies around the world and given workshops and master classes at institutions as diverse as La Mama, Umbria, the Abbey Theatre in Dublin, Ireland, many US universities and colleges, as well as theaters and conservatories on many continents. Her skills as a speaker and public intellectual have garnered her over 50 speaking engagements since 1988.

Bogart has written A Director Prepares, And Then, You Act and co-authored The Viewpoints Book with Tina Landau, in which she outlines her theories of and approaches to making theatre. Shorter works have appeared in The Humana Festival – The Complete Plays (1996 and 1999), American Theatre magazine and The Drama Review.

In "Anne Bogart: Viewpoints", drama critic Mel Gussow refers to Bogart as “a director of the present moment and, one might add, the prescient moment. Relentlessly she searches for imaginative ways to renew the theatrical experience, to make it more relevant for herself and those who are receiving it.”

Bogart is the granddaughter of Admiral Raymond Ames Spruance, Commander of Task Force 16 and later the overall commander of US Naval Forces at the pivotal Battle of Midway.

Anne Bogart is married to Rena Chelouche Fogel.

Viewpoints and Suzuki

After working together with Mary Overlie at NYU in 1979, Bogart developed a version of an improvisational, ensemble-building technique called Viewpoints, based on Overlie's Six View Points of dance. Coupled with Suzuki, the intense physical acting training developed by Tadashi Suzuki and his Company, SCOT, SITI Company’s training methods have become widespread tools of theatre instruction with classes of various levels taught in Universities and colleges across the United States and in seasonal intensives led by SITI Company members in New York City, Saratoga Springs, New York and in cities around the world.

Awards and recognition

Bogart has won two Best Director Obie Awards, one for No Plays No Poetry But Philosophical Reflections Practical Instructions Provocative Opinions and Pointers From a Noted Critic and Playwright (1988) based on the theories of Bertolt Brecht and the other for Paula Vogel's The Baltimore Waltz (1990). In 1984 she was also honored with the Bessie Award for Choreographer/Creator for her work with South Pacific. In 1995 Bogart received an ATHE Career achievement award and in 2005 was honored with and American Theatre Wing award. In 1998 Bogart received a grant from the Pew Charitable Trusts. In 2000 she received a Guggenheim Fellowship and in 2006 she was awarded a US Artists Fellowship. She has received University awards from institutions around the world the country including Trinity College, Emory University, Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, Bard College, City University of New York, and the Yale Dramatic Association. Bogart has received three Honorary Doctorates, in 2011 from Skidmore College, in 2013 from Bard College and in 2015 from Cornish College. In 2012 she was one of the recipients of the inaugural round of Doris Duke Performing Artist Awards. Bogart is the 2012 recipient of the Richard B. Fisher Award presented at BAM.

Productions

Publications

References

  1. ↑ "Kim Weild Biography". Kim Weild.
  2. ↑ "Diane Paulus Biography". Diane Paulus.
  3. ↑ "Sophie Hunter Biography". Sophie Hunter.
  4. ↑ "Jay Scheib Biography" (PDF). Jay Scheib.
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 3/17/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.