92Y to Host Julie Taymor for FROM STAGE TO SCREEN AND BACK AGAIN with Harry Lennix, 11/17
By: Tyler Peterson Oct. 14, 2013
Julie Taymor, the Oscar and Tony Award-winning director of film, theatre and opera comes to 92Y on Sunday, November 17 to talk about her work in a conversation moderated by actor Harry Lennix, who received a Golden Satellite Award in Taymor's Titus. The event - From Stage to Screen and Back Again - will be illustrated with clips from her productions. Taymor is acclaimed for infusing her work with a uniquely theatrical vision - from the internationally acclaimed stage musical The Lion King, to the Beatles-inspired screen musical, Across the Universe, the timeless magic of Shakespeare on screen in Titus and The Tempest, to Shakespeare on stage, with her highly-anticipated upcoming production of A Midsummer Night's Dream for Theatre for a New Audience.
Julie Taymor is currently preparing for the stage a new adaptation of William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, starring David Harewood, Kathryn Hunter, Tina Benko and Max Casella, as the inaugural production at Theatre for a New Audience's permanent new home in downtown Brooklyn, New York. Previews are set to begin October 19 in advance of a November 2 opening.
In 1998, Julie Taymor became the first woman to win the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical, and won a Tony for Best Costumes, for her production of The Lion King. The musical has gone on to become Broadway's all-time highest grossing show and the fifth longest-running show in Broadway history.
Other Broadway theatre credits include Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, Juan Darien: A Carnival Mass, which earned five Tony nominations, and The Green Bird. Off-Broadway, she has directed Titus Andronicus, The Tempest, The Taming of the Shrew, The Transposed Heads and Liberty's Taken. Taymor's feature films include Titus, starring Anthony Hopkins, Jessica Lange and Alan Cumming; the biographical film Frida, starring Salma Hayek and Alfred Molina, which earned six Academy Award nominations, winning two; the Beatles-inspired Across the Universe, nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy; and her Helen Mirren-starring adaptation of William Shakespeare's The Tempest, which had its North American premiere at the New York Film Festival following a world premiere at the Venice International Film Festival.Harry Lennix is an accomplished film, television and stage actor who currently stars as Harold Cooper, Assistant Director of Counterterrorism for the FBI on the new NBC series "The Blacklist" with James Spader. Moviegoers saw him this summer in the Warner Brothers' blockbuster Man of Steel as General Swanwick.
Harry's most recent film is Mr. Sophistication, available on VOD. He is also near completion of what he calls his "labor of love," a new film version of Shakespeare's Henry IV, entitled H4. Harry stars in and executive produced both films.
His film credits include State of Play (2009), Across the Universe (2007), the Oscar-winning Ray, (2004), Barbershop 2 (2004,) The Matrix: Reloaded (2003), The Matrix: Revolutions (2003) and Love and Basketball (2000). Lennix received widespread critical acclaim and a Golden Satellite Award as Aaron in Julie Taymor's Titus (1999) with Anthony Hopkins and Jessica Lange. In 2006, Lennix starred in the Golden Globe nominated ABC series "Commander in Chief" as Jim Gardner, the Chief of Staff to POTUS. He also starred as political activist Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. in Showtime's Keep The Faith Baby (2002) for which he won a Black Reel Award, a Golden Satellite Award and a NAACP Image Award nomination.Lennix made his Broadway debut in Pulitzer Prize winning playwright August Wilson's Tony nominated Radio Golf. He has directed and appeared in stage productions across the country including the Northlight Theater Company's Permanent Collection staged at the Greenway Arts Alliance in Los Angeles. Under his directing consultation the play was remounted at Los Angeles' Kirk Douglas Theater. He has directed the stage version of Robert Townsend's The Five Heartbeats, which received three NAACP Theater Award nominations and The Glass Menagerie for Chicago's Steppenwolf Theater Company.
As a stage actor Lennix was the first distinguished recipient of an Ollie Award for his portrayal of Malcolm X at the Goodman Theater inChicago and two Joseph Jefferson Citations for roles in Ma Rainey's Black Bottom and Caught in the Act. He also starred in AugustWilson's King Hedley II at the Mark Taper Forum. In 2001, he was part of the first American company to be invited to the Royal Shakespeare Company in the production of Cymbeline. In 1989, along with renowned director Chuck Smith, he founded Legacy Productions, a company dedicated to promoting significant works about the African American experience. He is also on the staff of the Goodman Theater Co. and is an internationally recognized Shakespeare practitioner, writing for various theatrical and literary journals dedicated to the Bard.92Y is a world-class nonprofit community and cultural center that connects people at every stage of life to the worlds of education, the arts, health and wellness, and Jewish life. Through the breadth and depth of 92Y's extraordinary programs, 92Y enriches lives, creates community and elevates humanity. More than 300,000 people visit 92Y in New York City annually and many more connect through digital and social media, live webcasts of events, and an extensive archive of stage programs and original content produced for the web, all available on 92YOnDemand.org. A proudly Jewish organization since its founding in 1874, 92Y embraces its heritage and enthusiastically welcomes people of all backgrounds and perspectives. For more information, visit www.92Y.org.
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