Podcasts about Les Waters

A new show at the Public Theater features five new monologues written by five acclaimed Asian American playwrights. It's titled "Out Of Time." These monologues are written for, and will be performed by, Asian American actors over the age of 60. The performances both celebrate the diversity of the Asian American experience, while also shedding light on the struggles and challenges that elders in that community have faced in the past few years. The show was commissioned by the National Asian American Theater Company, and its founder, Mia Katigbak, will join us to discuss, as well as perform a selection from her monologue. The show's director Les Waters will join the conversation as well. "Out Of Time" runs through March 13.

SDCF announced the honorees of this year’s Joe A. Callaway Awards, Gordon Davidson Award, and The Zelda Fichandler Award. The Awards were presented virtually on Monday, February 8, 2021 at 8pm ET. The Joe A. Callaway Awards was presented to Danya Taymor for her outstanding direction in Heroes of the Fourth Turning (Playwrights Horizons), and to Travis Wall for his outstanding choreography in The Wrong Man (MCC Theater). The finalists for this award are Knud Adams and Les Waters. The Joe A. Callaway Awards recognize excellence in directing and choreography in New York City and are the only awards given by peer directors and choreographers for work on a single production. The Gordon Davidson Award was presented to Seret Scott. The Gordon Davidson Award is bestowed annually by SDCF to recognize a director or choreographer for lifetime achievement and distinguished service in the regional theatre nationally. The Zelda Fichandler Award was presented to Kamilah Forbes. The finalists for this award are Carol Dunne, Seema Sueko, and Pirronne Yousefzadeh. The Zelda Fichandler Award is SDCF’s first award devoted to the regional theatre. With this award, SDCF acknowledges the profound impact the founders of regional theatre have had on the field, honoring their legacy through the recognition of the extraordinary directors and choreographers who are transforming the national arts landscape with their unique, creative work and deep investment in a community. The Breakout Award was presented to Jenn Rose.  The Breakout Award is given to a director or choreographer for a production or selection of work that signals a shift in a career and the beginning of critical recognition — a “rising star” moment. For 2020, the winner and finalists were chosen on the above criteria and directed or choregraphed digital work during the pandemic that made an impact.

Act I: Joey and Charlie talk Parasite, Us, and the fact that this is a supersized SEASON ONE FINALE BABY! Act II: Joey and Charlie discuss The Thin Place, a new play by Lucas Hnath directed by Les Waters at Playwrights Horizons. Then, they're joined by friend of the pod Eric Ways to take another stroll around the kitchen sink. P.S. We already took our season hiatus! Surprise, we're back with season two next week!

Maria invites me to her apartment & tells me about her legendary high school performance as the Emcee in CABARET, her love of Sondheim and desire to work on a musical, tools and techniques for breaking down a script, and her time at UCSD which led to meeting Les Waters & other important future collaborators.

Yi Zhao is a Beijing-born, Paris-raised and U.S.-educated lighting designer currently based in Berlin and working internationally, whose designs for theater, opera, live music and dance are informed by a rigorous background in fine art photography and a passion for music. His lighting designs have been seen at Lincoln Center Theater, New York Theatre Workshop, Signature Theatre, Soho Rep., Ars Nova, the Guthrie Theater, Mark Taper Forum, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, American Conservatory Theatre, Dallas Theater Center, The Wilma Theater, Yale Repertory Theatre, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Huntington Theatre Company, Shakespeare Theatre Company, Opera Omaha, Hong Kong Arts Festival, Curtis Institute of Music, ArtsEmerson, Philadelphia FringeArts, Fisher Center for the Performing Arts, Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, and Ballet de Lorraine in France, among others. He has collaborated with directors & choreographers Lileana Blain-Cruz, Sarah Benson, Blanka Zizka, Les Waters, Liz Diamond, Joel Ferrell, James Bundy, Miguel Guttierrez, Michael Counts, Desdemona Chiang, Ralph Peña, Chris Bayes, Alec Duffy, Charlotte Brathwaite, and Nicole Canuso, among others. He holds degrees from the Yale School of Drama and the University of Chicago, and is a recipient of the 2016 Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Theatre.

Center Theatre Group’s Artistic Director Michael Ritchie hosts “30 to Curtain,” a podcast featuring 30-minute interviews with some of the theatre artists creating work across the stages of the Ahmanson Theatre, Mark Taper Forum, and Kirk Douglas Theatre in Los Angeles.  Our guests on this episode are playwright Lucas Hnath and director Les Waters, who join us for the World premiere of “Dana H.” Lucas returns to us, having last brought his play The Christians to the Mark Taper Forum in 2015, also directed by Les. Lucas is now fresh off two huge Broadway triumphs: “A Doll’s House, Part 2” and “Hillary & Clinton.” Les was Artistic Director of Actors Theatre of Louisville from 2012 to 2018 and has collaborated with Lucas on a number of projects over the years. Our Director of Communications James Sims caught up with Lucas and Les in the lobby of the Douglas as the two took a break from rehearsals to discuss their creative process and what little can be said about this play, which is full of surprises. “Dana H.” is onstage at the Douglas May 26 – June 23, 2019.  For more on Center Theatre Group and its upcoming productions, visit CenterTheatreGroup.org

Welcome to the first Repisode of our "In Conversation" series for Berkeley Rep's 50th Anniversary Season. In this part of the series, we talk to members of the creative team to learn more about their process and the world of the play. An abridged version of the conversation is included in print as part of the show's written program. Here, we talked to playwright Lucas Hnath and director Les Waters about their collaborative relationship and the work behind Berkeley Rep's production of A Doll's House, Part 2. A Doll's House, Part 2, by Lucas Hnath is running now through October 21. Tickets are available at berkeleyrep.org! Follow Berkeley Rep on SoundCloud to keep up with the whole series. You can also listen on Apple Podcasts and Stitcher. Music credit to James Dinneen.

Theatre director Les Waters’ interest in contemporary art and new plays drives him in his career. Born to a working class family in rural England, Waters is an award-winning, British theatre director. He has numerous theatre credits in New York and around the U.S., including winning an Obie for the premier of “Big Love” at the Humana Festival. Waters headed the M.F.A. directing program at UC San Diego from 1995 to 2003. He also served as the associate artistic director with the Berkeley Repertory Theatre from 2003 to 2011. In 2000, and again in 2004, Waters came to Louisville to direct shows for the Humana Festival. In 2012, he was hired as artistic director of the Actors Theatre of Louisville (ATL) and took charge of the Humana Festival, succeeding Mark Masterson. In its previous 50 years, ATL only had three artistic directors. ATL is considered one of the most prestigious professional theatre companies in the United States. It has introduced over 400 plays and earned many awards, including a Tony award. Waters is married to set designer, Annie Smart; They have two daughters and one son.

To mark last year's centennial of the birth of the writer and theologian Thomas Merton, the Actors Theater of Louisville has produced a play about him called "The Glory of the World." Merton spent much of his life in a Trappist monastery near Louisville. The play, written by Charles Mee and directed by Les Waters, has now blown its way into the Harvey Theater at BAM. The play is by no means a straightforward biographical drama and, in fact, it's unusual enough that we’ll just let New York Times theater critic Charles Isherwood explain. "The Glory of the World" can be seen at the Harvey Theater through Feb. 6.

Playwrights Horizons kicks off its fall season with "The Christians," a play by Lucas Hnath about a schism in an evangelical church. In the production, directed by Les Waters, Andrew Garman portrays a pastor who causes an uproar among his flock when he decides that church policy will no longer recognize the existence of a literal hell. New York Times theater critic Charles Isherwood offers his review.  “The Christians” can be seen through Oct. 11 at Playwrights Horizons.

At its 2003 Directing Symposium, SDCF hosted a panel moderated by Mary Catherine Burke and featuring directors Christopher Ashley, Jo Bonney, Susan Einhorn, Leah Gardiner, David Warren and Les Waters and playwrights Jorge Cortiñas and David Henry Hwang to discuss expanding diversity among writers, directors and subject matter of new plays. The discussion encompasses the artist's responsibility to creating diversity in theater, the producer's responsibility to take on diverse projects, and the difficulty of taking pieces out of development and into production in commercial or not-for-profit venues. The panelists aim to answer the question of how we are working to change the demographics of theater, and what still needs to be done. The conversation provides an assortment of important perspectives on one of today's hot-button topics and is a reminder of the need for social, cultural and political diversity in the theatrical craft.