Hal Brooks to Mentor New School Acting and Directing Students in STAGE DOOR

New School Drama is partnering with the Drama League to have talented directors in its prestigious fellow program participate in its fall series of workshop productions of classic and contemporary works. It has been announced that famed director Hal Brooks is currently working with acting and directing students to prepare for a production of Stage Door (November 5-8).

Hal Brooks recently directed the regional tour of Nilaja Sun’s Obie Award-winning No Child…, having directed the show’s critically-lauded run at both the Barrow Street Theatre and Epic Theatre.  Other recent productions include Widows, Life in a Marital Institution (59E59), Lonesome Hollow, Lady and Master Harold…and the Boys. He also directed the acclaimed Off-Broadway hit and Pulitzer Finalist Thom Pain (based on nothing). He was the Artistic Director of the Rude Mechanicals Theater Company of New York where he directed the Off-Broadway premieres of Don DeLillo's Valparaiso and Will Eno's The Flu Season (Oppy winner). He has worked at NYTW, New Dramatists, Naked Angels, INTAR, Magic Theater, McCarter Theater, Berkeley Rep, American Conservatory Theater, Syracuse Stage and the Virginia Stage Company.  Hal was a Drama League Fall Directing Fellow in 2003 and is a proud member of the Lincoln Center Theater Directors Lab and SSDC, and is a recipient of the 2007-2009 NEA/TCG Career Development Program for Directors.

The New School for Drama's FIRST LOOK, is a performance series featuring workshop presentations of classical and contemporary works. This year’s FIRST LOOK performances will be directed by 3 Drama League Directing Fellows and include The Pillars of Society (October 15-18), written by Henrik Ibsen, Stage Door (November 5-8), written by Edna Ferber and George S. Kaufman and All’s Well that End’s Well (December 10-13) written by William Shakespeare. All are free and open to the public. Each performance takes place at The New School for Drama Theater, 151 Bank Street, 3rd Floor.

“Workshop performances enable our students to get to the heart of real theatre work,” said New School Drama Director Robert LuPone of the productions, which are staged in a final rehearsal atmosphere with minimal sets, lights, costumes, and props. “This year for the first time we are partnering with the Drama League, and each of the productions will be directed by one of their fellows. These rising talents will be great mentors to our students, especially those in our directing program who will work closely with the fellows.”

The MFA Directing program at The New School for Drama offers a comprehensive hands-on education in the art of directing. The three-year curriculum commences with the history of theater and directing. The second year is devoted to study of classic works and directing techniques and the third year is focused entirely on planning and production and culminates in a full-scale production that serves as a master’s thesis. Directing is one of the three MFA programs at The New School for Drama, alongside Playwriting and Acting, which enables students to work collaboratively to develop their skills as professional artists.

Drama League fellows Johanna McKeon, Hal Brooks and Stephen Fried will direct this fall’s performances. McKeon’s directing credits include I Have Loved Strangers by Anne Washburn (both world and New York premieres) and Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing and Cymbeline, both at Vineyard Playhouse. She also served as associate director of the 2006 Broadway production of Grey Gardens. Fellow Hal Brooks directed the tour of Nilaja Sun’s Obie Award Winning No Child…,. as well as the acclaimed Off-Broadway hit and Pulitzer Finalist Thom Pain (based on nothing). Other recent productions include Lady by Craig Wright, Lonesome Hollow and “MASTER HAROLD”…and the boys. Fried, a Yale School of Drama graduate, has a multitude of experience directing Shakespeare. Some of his recent work includes Henry V at Milwaukee Shakespeare, The Comedy of Errors at Shakespeare Theatre of NJ and Love’s Labour’s Lost at Illinois Shakespeare.

Photo Credit Peter James Zielinski