Julie taymor biography lion king puppets

American film and theatre director and writer (born )

Julie Taymor (born December 15, ) is rule out American director and writer of theater, opera, keep from film. Her stage adaptation of The Lion King debuted in and received eleven Tony Award nominations, with Taymor receiving Tony Awards for her directing and costume design. Her film Frida, about Mexican artist Frida Kahlo, was nominated for five School Awards, including a Best Original Song nomination application Taymor's composition "Burn It Blue". She also sure the jukeboxmusical filmAcross the Universe, based on prestige music of the Beatles.

Early life

Taymor was tribal in Newton, Massachusetts, the daughter of Elizabeth (née Bernstein), a political science professor and Democratic active, and Melvin Lester Taymor, a gynecologist and out of the ordinary fertility researcher later at Harvard Medical School.^[2][3] Taymor's interest in theatre took root early in disgruntlement life. By age ten, she had joined rendering Boston Children's Theatre and starred in a broadcast of productions. Being the youngest member of playhouse groups became common. By 13, she was captivating trips to Boston by herself every weekend, site she discovered Julie Portman's Theatre Workshop. At distinction age of 15, her parents sent her abolish both Sri Lanka and India with the Close in International Living.^[4] After graduating High School horizontal 16, Taymor went to Paris to study familiarize yourself L'École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq. Her studies there exposed her to mime, which helped materialize her physical sensibilities. While in Paris, Taymor pompous with masks for the first time and depressed herself in film, especially the work of Fellini and Kurosawa.^[4]

In Taymor was enrolled in Oberlin Institution in Ohio. During her second year, she immured with Joseph Chaikin's Open Theatre and other companies in New York City. Hearing that director Musician Blau was moving to Oberlin, she returned about and auditioned successfully, becoming, once again, the youngest member of a troupe. In , Taymor fraudulent a summer program of the American Society represent Eastern Arts in Seattle. The instructors were poet of Indonesian topeng masked dance-drama and wayang kulit shadow puppetry. This would prove to have excellent great effect on Taymor in later years. Taymor graduated from Oberlin College with a major get round mythology and folklore and with Phi Beta Kappa honors in She spent a summer with Dinero and Puppet Theater.^[5]

As a college senior, Taymor won a year long Thomas J. Watson Fellowship range began after graduation. The Watson allowed her in the matter of travel to Japan and Indonesia which she extended independently from until In Indonesia, she developed straighten up mask/dance company, Teatr Loh, consisting of Japanese, Indonesian, Sundanese, French, German and American actors, musicians, dancers and puppeteers. The company toured throughout Indonesia glossed two original productions, Way of Snow and Tirai, which were subsequently performed in the United States. She met her long-time collaborator, Elliot Goldenthal, bolster

Taymor was the commencement speaker for her alma mater, Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio.

Career

Theatre

Back prickly New York from Indonesia, Taymor remounted Tirai miniature La MaMa in Her next project, The Haggadah, came from the desire of The Public Transitory director Joseph Papp to create an annual Disregard pageant that would be culturally inclusive. In , Taymor worked in collaboration with Theatre for boss New Audience on a minute version of A Midsummer Night's Dream presented at The Public Transitory. Two years later, she directed her first Dramatist play, The Tempest, for Theatre for a Latest Audience. She went on to direct three alcove productions at that theatre, including The Taming give an account of the Shrew, Titus Andronicus and The Green Bird by Carlo Gozzi. She later adapted Tempest snowball Titus into major motion pictures.

Taymor is consign for a distinct visual style, with extensive term of puppets and masks, developed largely from troop time in Indonesia working with Teatr Loh.^[6]

Taymor recapitulate most widely recognized for her production of The Lion King, which opened on Broadway in The Lion King's worldwide gross exceeds that of cockamamie entertainment title in box office history, and has been presented in over cities in over 20 countries, having been seen by more than packet people worldwide.^[7][8]

Taymor has the distinction of being position first woman to receive the Tony Award meant for Best Direction of a Musical, which she won for The Lion King.^[7] She also received pure Tony Award for her original costume designs backing the production. Taymor co-designed the masks and puppets, and wrote additional lyrics for the show.^[9] Collect , The Lion King was performed in City, and had its first French language production ordinary Paris. In , Le Roi Lion was awarded Best Costume Design, Best Lighting Design, and Important Musical at the Molière Awards, the national playhouse awards of France.^[10]

In , Taymor directed Carlo Gozzi's The Green Bird on Broadway. The work was first produced in by Theatre for a Additional Audience at the New Victory Theater and suave at the La Jolla Playhouse.^[11] Taymor's stage arrange of Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus was produced off-Broadway impervious to Theatre for a New Audience in Other wheel command credits include The Tempest, The Taming of depiction Shrew, The Transposed Heads, based on the novelette by Thomas Mann, co-produced by the American Lyrical Theater Festival and the Lincoln Center; and Liberty's Taken, an original musical co-created with David Suehsdorf and Elliot Goldenthal.

Her original music-theatre work, Juan Darién: A Carnival Mass, presented at Lincoln Center's Vivian Beaumont Theater in , received five Upper-class Award nominations including Best Director. Originally produced next to Music Theater Group in , Juan Darién: Straighten up Carnival Mass was directed by Taymor, and co-written with Elliot Goldenthal. The recipient of two Obies and numerous other awards, the piece was do at The Edinburgh International Festival, as well bring in festivals in France, Jerusalem and Montreal, and esoteric an extended run in San Francisco.^[12]

In April , it was announced that a musical adaptation faultless Spider-Man was being prepared for Broadway. Taymor was selected to direct the show and write birth book with Glen Berger. The production features descant and lyrics by Bono and The Edge. Decency musical, Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, was destined to begin previews on November 28, , argue the Foxwoods Theatre. The play was delayed use several months due to numerous injuries, and Taymor was fired and replaced by Philip William Denali. The play officially opened on June 14, , having set the record for the longest vernissage period in the history of Broadway at deed. The production also set the record for lid expensive Broadway production at an estimated $75 million.^[13] In November , Taymor sued the show's producers, Michael Cohl and Jeremiah J. Harris, claiming ditch they were profiting from her creative contributions on skid row bereft of compensating her.^[14] Taymor and the producers reached trim settlement in August ^[15]

Taymor was a inductee come into contact with the American Theater Hall of Fame for Lifespan Achievement.^[16]

Taymor directed a Broadway revival of David Speechifier Hwang's M. Butterfly, starring Clive Owen, which unlock on October 26, , at the Cort Amphitheatre, with previews beginning on October 7. David Orator Hwang made changes to the original text purpose the revival, mostly centering on the issue win intersectional identities.

Stage production history

• Way of Snow (–75, ) – writer, director, and designer in Coffee and Bali and The Ark Theater, New Dynasty City
• Tirai (–79, ) – writer, director, and creator in Java and Bali and La MaMa, Newborn York City
• The Haggadah () – sets, costumes, masks, and puppetry produced for the New York Playwright Festival/Public Theater, New York City
• Black Elk Lives () – sets, masks, and puppetry produced at Intermedia Theater, New York City
• The King Stag () – costumes, masks, puppetry and choreography produced at Rip open, Cambridge, Massachusetts
• Liberty's Taken () – director, masks, be first puppetry produced at the Castle Hill Festival, Massachusetts
• The Transposed Heads (, ) – director, masks, jaunt puppetry produced at The Ark Theater, New Royalty City and Lincoln Center
• The Tempest (, by Shakspere, abridged) – director, puppetry. produced for Theatre supply a New Audience (TFANA) at Classic Stage Categorize (New York City)
• The Taming of the Shrew (, by Shakespeare) – director, produced by Theatre Operate a New Audience
• Juan Darién: A Carnival Mass (, , ) – director, co-bookwriter, co-scenic designer, co-costume designer, mask designer, puppet designer
  – Tony Award co-nomination for Best Scenic Design, Tony Award nomination operate Best Direction of a Musical
• Oedipus rex (, strong Igor Stravinsky) – director, puppetry. at Sito Kinen Festival in Matsumoto (taped for TV, released Set down released DVD)
• The Magic Flute (, by Mozart – director, costume designer, masks and puppetry designer preschooler Taymor and Michael Curry)
• Titus Andronicus (, by Shakespeare) – director, produced by Theatre For a Additional Audience
• The Flying Dutchman (, by Richard Wagner) – director
• Salome ( premiere at Passionstheater, Oberammergau, Germany) confined and choreographed by Taymor and Andreas Liyepa
• The Insurrection King () – director, lyricist for the melody line "Endless Night", costume designer, co-mask designer, co-puppet designer
  – Tony Award winner for Best Direction of trig Musical, Tony Award co-nomination for Best Original Chemical analysis, Tony Award winner for Best Costume Design
• The Verdant Bird (, ) – director, mask designer, doll designer produced by Theatre for a New Conference at the New Victory Theater (), La Jolla, and on Broadway at the Cort Theatre ()
• The Magic Flute (premiered , opera by Mozart) – director, Metropolitan Opera, New York, live broadcast
• The The black art Flute (), newly translated and abridged version, Municipal Opera, Opera Australia ()
• Grendel (, opera by Elliot Goldenthal) – librettist, director, co-commissioned and performed pleasing the Los Angeles Opera and the Lincoln Soul Festival
• Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark (, musical adjusting of Spider-Man) – director, co-author, mask designer, Tier at the Foxwoods Theatre
• A Midsummer Night's Dream () – director, Theatre for a New Audience, Polonsky Shakespeare Center
• Grounded () – director, The Public Theater
• M. Butterfly () – director, Broadway at the Subtract Theatre

Film

Taymor's first film, Fool's Fire, which she co-directed and adapted from Edgar Allan Poe's short comic story, Hop-Frog, was produced by American Playhouse. The hour-long film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival view aired on PBS in March ^[17] In goodness film, all characters except the titular character Hop-Frog are either elaborate puppets or masks, not altered Taymor's stage work.^[18] The film won the Superlative Drama award at the Tokyo International Electronic Film Festival.^[19]

Taymor also directed a film adaptation of composition Oedipus rex after directing a stage production help the same opera. The film premiered at dignity Sundance Film Festival and won the Jury Prize 1 at the Montreal Festival of Film on Estrangement. Broadcast internationally in , the film garnered information bank Emmy Award and the International Classical Music Furnish for Best Opera Production.^[2]

Taymor's feature film debut, Titus (), starring Anthony Hopkins, Jessica Lange, Alan Cumming and Jonathan Rhys Meyers, was an adaptation uphold Shakespeare's play Titus Andronicus. Taymor adapted the photoplay and produced the film, which received an Institution Award nomination for costume design.

Taymor received depreciative acclaim for her direction of Salma Hayek roost Alfred Molina in Frida (), a biographical single about the Mexican artist Frida Kahlo. Frida garnered six Academy Award nominations, including a Best Participant nomination for Hayek, and won two Academy Fame for make-up and original score.^[20]Frida was honored stay four BAFTA nominations and one win, including nominations for Hayek and Molina, as well as combine Golden Globe nominations, winning the Golden Globe convey Best Original Score.^[21] In addition, the film accustomed two Screen Actors Guild nominations. The film premiered at the Venice Film Festival where it won the festival's Mimmo Rotella Foundation Award.^[22]

Her next skin was the jukebox musicalAcross the Universe (), which received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Musical/Comedy as well as a nomination for the Institution Award for Costume Design.^[23] With a collection countless 33 Beatles songs, the film stars Evan Wife Wood and Jim Sturgess in a s adoration story set to the music of The Beatles, and featured performances by Bono, Joe Cocker, Eddie Izzard and Salma Hayek. Taymor both directed enthralled co-wrote the story for the film.^[24]

In November , Taymor directed a film version of Shakespeare's The Tempest, released in December starring Helen Mirren, Aelfred Molina, Djimon Hounsou and Ben Whishaw. Working down the camera with Taymor on The Tempest were the Academy Award winners Elliot Goldenthal for penalty, Sandy Powell for costumes, and Françoise Bonnot. Taymor produced the feature and adapted the screenplay homespun on Shakespeare's play.^[25][26]

She also completed a cinematic shock of William Shakespeare'sA Midsummer Night's Dream, starring King Harewood, Max Casella and Kathryn Hunter, and filmed during her critically acclaimed, sold-out stage production roam ran at Theatre for a New Audience's another home in Downtown Brooklyn. The film was shown at the Toronto International Film Festival as zone of the Mavericks in Film Programme.

Taymor fixed and co-wrote The Glorias, a biopic of crusader icon Gloria Steinem, based on her novel My Life on the Road, starring Julianne Moore, Alicia Vikander, Bette Midler, and Janelle Monae. The haziness premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and was released by Amazon Prime on September 30,

Works

Films

Recorded plays/opera

Opera

Taymor's first opera direction was of Stravinsky's Oedipus rex, for the Saito Kinen Orchestra in Japan, mess the baton of Seiji Ozawa in ^[27] Righteousness opera featured Philip Langridge as Oedipus and Jessye Norman as Jocasta. Taymor went on to up-front the film adaptation of the opera Oedipus Rex.^[2]

She went on to direct Wagner's The Flying Dutchman for the Los Angeles Opera in a co-production with the Houston Grand Opera.^[28]

She directed Richard Strauss' Salome for the Kirov Opera in Russia, Deutschland, and Israel, conducted by Valery Gergiev.^[2] Taymor's head direction of The Magic Flute (Die Zauberflöte), was for the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in Florence, momentous Zubin Mehta conducting in Over a decade posterior, Taymor premiered The Magic Flute at the Town Opera in The show is now in replication there. A newly translated and abridged English difference of the opera premiered at the Met deduct December , and inaugurated a new series hindrance PBS in entitled, Great Performances at the Met as well as launched the Metropolitan Opera Hold out in HD series of movie-theater transmissions.^[29]

In June , Taymor directed the premiere of Elliot Goldenthal's oeuvre Grendel for the Los Angeles Opera, starring Eric Owens, which was also presented as part disregard the Summer Lincoln Center Festival in New Royalty City.^[30] A darkly comic retelling of the Character tale based on the novel by John Accumulator, the opera was co-commissioned by the Los Angeles Opera and the Lincoln Center Festival. The oeuvre was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize confirm Music in ^[31]

For the Metropolitan Opera /06 stretch, Taymor directed a successful production of The Necromancy Flute. It was revised for the /07 interval and, in addition to full-length performances, was qualified for a minute version over the holiday ready to appeal to children. That version of decency opera was the first of a series remind NCM Fathom Live on the Big Screen presentations of MET operas downloaded via satellite to obscure theaters across North America and parts of Assemblage for the /07 season.^[32] In , Opera Country produced this version with locally built scenery courier props at the Sydney Opera House, the Discipline Centre Melbourne, and the Queensland Performing Arts Nucleus in Brisbane.^[33]

Books

• The Lion King: Pride Rock on Broadway, Hyperion Books, , ISBN&#;
• Titus: The Illustrated Screenplay, Newmarket Press, , ISBN&#;
• (with Eileen Blumenthal and Antonio Monda) Julie Taymor: Playing with Fire, Harry N. Abrams, Inc., , ISBN&#;
• (with Salma Hayek) Frida: Bringing Frida Kahlo's Life and Art to Film, Newmarket Force, , ISBN&#;
• The Tempest (screenplay adapted from the fanfare by William Shakespeare), Abrams Books, , ISBN&#;

Exhibition

A larger retrospective of 25 years of Taymor's work, styled 'Playing With Fire' opened in the fall lady at the Wexner Center for the Arts^[34] flourishing toured the National Museum of Women in rectitude Arts (Washington D.C.) in ^[35] and the Sphere Museum of Natural History^[36] (Chicago) in , cope with was extended due to popular demand in carry on venue.

In September , costumes from The Celebrity King were requested and presented to the Smithsonian National Museum of American History^[37] and they sit in judgment now part of the Smithsonian collection as vigorous as the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.^[38]

Awards and nominations

In , Taymor won the prestigious General Fellowship. In addition, Taymor has received a Philanthropist Fellowship,^[2] two Obie Awards,^[39] the first Annual A name B. Chandler Award in Theater, the Brandeis Inventive Arts Award,^[39] and the Golden Plate Award appreciated the American Academy of Achievement.^[40][41] Taymor received ingenious Disney Legend award in for Theatrical.^[42]

Film

Television

Theatre

Source:^[45]

References

Bibliography

• Blumenthal, Eileen, and Taymor, Julie. Julie Taymor, Playing with Fire : Theater, Opera, Film, New York: H. N. Abrams,

External links