Des McAnuff
Director
Des McAnuff is a two-time Tony Award-winning director. He is currently represented on Broadway by the 2006 Tony Award-winning production for Best Musical, Jersey Boys. A dual citizen of Canada and the United States, he has written, composed and directed for theatre and film companies around the world.
He began his career as a composer/lyricist before turning to playwriting in the early 1970s. His musicals and plays, Urbania (Poor Alex Theatre, 1971); Silent Edward (Young People's Theatre, 1972), both of which he wrote and composed; A Lime in the Morning (Toronto Center for the Arts, 1973), Troll (Toronto Free Theatre, 1974); Leave it to Beaver is Dead (Factor Theatre Lab Workshop, 1974, Theatre Second Floor, 1975); The Pits (scripted with John Palmer, Toronto Free Theatre, 1975) and his adaptation of Marlowe's Doctor Faustus (which he composed and directed, Theatre Passe Muraille, 1976) all received productions in the burgeoning Toronto theatre scene.
He was the composer for Michael Ondaatje's The Collected Works of Billy the Kid (Toronto Free Theatre, 1974, the Manitoba Theatre Center, 1975 and the Folger Shakespeare Theatre, Washington D.C., 1975).
In the summer of 1975 his band, "The Choke Sisters," performed Trash – a compilation of rock and roll songs that he wrote and composed with Larry Davis – at Harborfront Theatre and in various venues around Toronto, and, in 1976, he directed The Bacchae for Green Theatre which toured Toronto schools.
His New York directorial debut was the Obie Award-winning production of The Crazy Locomotive at the Chelsea Theatre Center in 1977.
In the fall of 1978, as co-founder of Dodger Theatre, he directed the company's first production, Gimme Shelter. In the spring of 1979 he directed his play Leave it to Beaver is Dead at Joseph Papp's Public Theater. That season, for those two productions, he won the Soho Arts Award for Best Off Broadway Direction and Best Off Broadway Play.
"Having a chance to enter the world of Doctor Zhivago for a second time with my esteemed collaborators to bring a great love story and a turbulent period in Russian history to life is a rare opportunity. With everything we learned from our Page To Stage workshop production this past summer, we can now go full-out and make Pasternak's sweeping romances - that of Lara and Zhivago and their beloved country - musically and theatrically soar."
Des McAnuff, Director
In 1979 and 1980 he was a director and playwright in residence at the Banff Centre's Playwrighting Colony in Alberta, Canada. In 1980, he directed Barrie Keeffe's A Mad World, My Masters at the Toronto Arts Productions at the St. Lawrence Center. In 1980, he also directed Holeville and Sleak for the Dodgers in New York. In 1981 he directed Mary Stuart with Roberta Maxwell and How It All Began with Val Kilmer for the Dodgers at the Public Theater and Henry IV, Part One for Joseph Papp at the Delacorte in Central Park. In 1981, the SoHo News said, "At 28, Des McAnuff is well on his way to becoming one of the most important theatre artists of his generation."
As artist-in-residence at Joseph Papp's Public Theater in 1982 he wrote, composed, and directed The Death of Von Richthofen as Witnessed from Earth.
McAnuff's production of Macbeth opened the 1983 season at the Stratford Festival of Canada, and in that same year, La Jolla Playhouse in California was reborn under his leadership.
Founded in 1947 by Gregory Peck, Dorothy McGuire and Mel Ferrer, La Jolla Playhouse provided a theatrical home for many of Hollywood's brightest stars until 1964, after which it remained dormant for almost two decades. In 1982, the Board of Trustees named Des McAnuff, 30 at the time, Artistic Director.
Under his stewardship, from 1983 to 1994 and 2001 to the present, the Playhouse has won over 300 awards for excellence and fully a third of its productions have gone on to other theatres across the country and around the world including 14 productions to Broadway. Since 2001, more than half of the plays and musicals produced at the Playhouse have been original works.
In 1985, McAnuff's production of Big River garnered seven Tony Awards including Best Musical and Best Direction of a Musical. Big River was just the beginning. Playhouse productions have earned 28 Tony Awards during McAnuff's tenure: seven for Big River, five for The Who's Tommy, including Best Direction of a Musical, one for How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, both of which he directed, six for Thoroughly Modern Millie, three for I Am My Own Wife, one for Billy Crystal's 700 Sundays, which he directed, and the 1993 Tony for Outstanding Regional Theatre. Most recently, the McAnuff-helmed Jersey Boys won four Tony Awards including the 2006 award for Best Musical.
In 1987, McAnuff directed Lee Blessing's A Walk in the Woods, which went on to Broadway and to theatres in Moscow, St. Petersburg and Leningrad. It was the first production ever performed at the Library of Congress for the Senate and is credited for changing Senate votes to support the Intermediate Nuclear Forces Treaty with the former Soviet Union.
In addition to creating Broadway fare, McAnuff has transformed the Playhouse's summer operation into a full time resident theatre powerhouse for progressive work with three stages, design studios, rehearsal halls, state-of-the-art scene and costume shops and administrative offices. A restaurant is also soon to open on site. The Playhouse has expanded into a thriving theatre village under his direction. He created a new play program, "Page To Stage," that has nurtured such plays as the Pulitzer Prize award-winning I Am My Own Wife, and Billy Crystal's 700 Sundays. During his tenure as Artistic Director, McAnuff has directed 34 plays and musicals, and produced 124 shows.
Robert Blacker, McAnuff's first associate artistic director who went on to run the acclaimed Sundance Theatre Lab, remarks, "Some artistic directors are managers. Des is art-driven. He understands that the best way to get great work from artists is to let artists take themselves where their passions lie. An artistic director must be able to put together seasons and raise money. A great artistic director has the ability to work with artists to shape great work."
McAnuff's production of Lucy Simon's World Premiere musical Zhivago opened the 2006 season, and he recently completed a new version of The Wiz at the Playhouse. He will finish out the season directing a Page to Stage Workshop Production of Aaron Sorkin's new play, The Farnsworth Invention.
McAnuff's first feature film was 1998's Cousin Bette, starring Jessica Lange. In 1999, he produced the critically acclaimed Warner Brothers film Iron Giant, which won nine 1999 Annie Awards from the International Animation Society and a 1999 BAFTA Award from the British Academy. In 2000, McAnuff directed The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle, starring Robert DeNiro, Jason Alexander and Rene Russo. He served as executive producer for Quills, in 2001, which was named Best Picture by the National Board of Review.
McAnuff has taught at Juilliard and has directed at Harvard's American Repertory Theatre and the Yale Repertory Theatre. He is a former Board member of the Wexner Center in Columbus, Ohio and Theatre Communications Group in New York, and currently serves on the Advisory Board of the Carnegie Mellon School of Drama. In addition, McAnuff is a member of the Eastern European Theatre Initiative, which fosters cultural exchange between American and European theatres. For his acclaimed work he has received grants from the Ontario Arts Council, The Canada Council, and the Rockefeller Foundation.
In addition to the 18 Tony Awards his Broadway shows have garnered, including two for Outstanding Direction of a Musical, McAnuff has earned a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Direction, two Outer Critics Circle Awards for Best Musical and Best Direction, two Olivier Awards for Best Direction and Outstanding Musical, two Dora Awards for Outstanding Direction and Outstanding Production of a Musical, and the SoHo Villager Award as well as awards from Critics Circles in Boston, Chicago, the Bay Area, Los Angeles and San Diego.
In May 2006, McAnuff was presented by the Drama League with the prestigious Drama League Julia Hansen Award for Excellence in Directing in recognition for the work he has done throughout his career.
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Amy Powers
Lyricist
Critically acclaimed, best-selling lyricist AMY POWERS creates songs for film, television, theater, pop and country artists, animation and children's brands.
Powers is a Harvard-trained lawyer and Columbia M.B.A who practiced at White and Case before embarking on a writing career. Her work has since been featured in Oscar® and Tony® winning productions and recorded by #1 - selling and multi-platinum artists worldwide. Corporate clients include Mattel, Hasbro, Disney, Lion's Gate, The Jim Henson Company, Activision, and Genius Products.
CREDIT HIGHLIGHTS:
"As If We Never Said As If Goodbye" and "With One Look" from Andrew Lloyd Webber's
SUNSET BOULEVARD.
Songs recorded by BARBRA STREISAND, BRIAN MCKNIGHT, PATTI LUPONE, DIANA KING, ELAINE PAIGE, TY HERNDON, TINA ARENA, GARY BARLOW, DAVID BROZA, MCALYSTER , MARIE FRANK, PLUS ONE , KAYA, BROOKE ALLISON, KACI, SARA NIEMIETZ, CHARLOTTE MARTIN, KARI KIMMEL, OV7, ALABAMA, DIAMOND RIO and numerous others.
Current cuts include "I Survive" for Dove Award winning Christian group AVALON, "Tenerte & Quererte" by EMI sensation RBD (Stars of the hit telenovela, REBELDE); "and "Ready For A Change", the theme song for LIFETIME's new reality show SEVEN YEAR SWITCH.
Opening and/or closing credit songs for films such as ELLA ENCHANTED, HAPPY HOUR and SWEET HOME ALABAMA, AQUAMARINE and WHEN WE WERE KINGS.
Theatrical Productions include SUNSET BLVD. (Broadway, multiple touring companies), LIZZIE BORDEN (Goodspeed Opera House, Stoneham Theatre, THE GAME ([Les Liaisons Dangereuses] (Barrington Stage Co.). and ZHIVAGO.
Animated musicals: BARBIE AS THE PRINCESS AND THE PAUPER, featuring Martin Short, was the #1 selling children's video in America. Her song "To Be A Princess" was nominated for Best Original Song in the 2004 DVDX Awards. BARBIE AS THE ISLAND PRINCESS will be released in 2007, as will Disney's PRINCESS series, featuring 15 of Powers' songs.
Other Current Family Entertainment projects include LITTLE PEOPLE (Mattel), MY LITTLE PONY (Hasbro/Genius), LITTLE TYKES (Genius), ME, ELOISE (Starz/IDT) and music supervision and writing for GStudios' upcoming animated Christian girls' rock band CHOSEN GIRLS.
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