fiction.wikisort.org - Writer

Search / Calendar

Stephen Sachs (born August 14, 1959) is an American stage director and playwright. He is the Co-Artistic Director of The Fountain Theatre in Los Angeles, which he co-founded in 1990.[1]


Biography


Sachs was born in San Francisco and grew up in Los Angeles. He graduated from Los Angeles City College Theatre Academy in 1980 and worked as an actor in film, TV, and on stage at theaters in Los Angeles. He made his debut as a professional stage director in 1987 with his adaptation of The Baron in the Trees at the Ensemble Studio Theatre in Los Angeles, to positive reviews.[2] Sachs co-founded the Fountain Theatre in 1990 with Deborah Lawlor. Sachs has guided the Fountain Theatre as Artistic Director since its founding and has directed and written many productions. He is married to actress Jacqueline Schultz. They have two children.


Fountain Theatre


Founded in 1990 by artistic director Stephen Sachs and Deborah Culver, the Fountain Theatre has won hundreds of awards for all areas of production, performance and design. In recognition of providing outstanding productions of meaningful new plays and first-class performances spanning three decades, the Fountain Theatre was honored with the 2020 Margaret Harford Award for sustained excellence in theater, presented by the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle. In a 2021 end-of-year retrospective, Los Angeles Times theater critic Charles McNulty called the Fountain “L.A.’s most enterprising intimate theater [that] continues to punch far above its weight… No L.A. theater has done a better job of asking us to reexamine our lives through the lens of acute contemporary drama this year than the Fountain.”[3]


Sachs and Athol Fugard


Sachs was chosen by playwright Athol Fugard as one of the few directors in the United States to premiere his new plays. The collaboration between Fugard and Sachs goes back to when Sachs directed the Los Angeles premiere of Fugard’s The Road to Mecca in 2000.

In 2004, Mr. Sachs was the first person, apart from the playwright, selected to direct the world premiere of a new play by Athol Fugard.[4] Sachs directed the world premiere of Fugard’s Exits and Entrances in Los Angeles (3 LA Ovation Awards including Best World Premiere of a New Play and Best Director, 5 LA Drama Critics Circle Awards including Best Production and Best Director).[5] He directed acclaimed regional productions of the play around the country. And he directed the Off-Broadway production at Primary Stages in New York in 2007(New York Outer Critics’ Circle Award nomination for Outstanding New Off-Broadway Play, selected as "Ten Best" Productions of 2006/2007 by New York Theatre Writers).[6] He also directed the UK premiere at the 2007 International Edinburgh Festival in Scotland.

In 2008, Fugard gave Sachs the exclusive United States rights to his play, Victory.[7] Sachs directed the United States premiere in Los Angeles and the production was named “Critic’s Choice” and “Best of 2008” in the Los Angeles Times.[8]

Fugard chose Sachs to direct the West Coast premiere of his new play, Coming Home (“Critic’s Choice” Los Angeles Times) in 2009. The production has been nominated for a 2009 Ovation Award for "Best Production of a Play".


ASL Theatre & Film


Sachs was instrumental in launching and supporting the Deaf West Theatre Company at the Fountain Theatre in 1991. The company won the Tony Award for its acclaimed ASL-version of Big River on Broadway in 2003. His play about deafness and cochlear implants, Sweet Nothing in My Ear, was made into a television movie starring Jeff Daniels and Marlee Matlin, and presented on the Hallmark Hall of Fame on April 20, 2008. The teleplay was written by Sachs, and the film was directed by Joseph Sargent.[9]

Sachs' play about deafness and language, Open Window, had its world premiere at the Pasadena Playhouse in 2005, winning the California Governor’s Media Access Award for Theatre Excellence.[10]

His deaf spin on Cyrano debuted at the Fountain Theatre in 2012 starring Troy Kotsur.[11] His 2018 deaf-themed play "Arrival & Departure" starred Kotsur and his wife, actress Deanne Bray.[12]


Director



Playwright



Awards


As playwright and director, Sachs has won every theatre award in Los Angeles. Sachs has been nominated for the SDC Zelda Fichandler Award three times, recognizing an outstanding director who is making a unique and exceptional contribution to theatre in their region. He was honored by the Los Angeles City Council for “his visionary contributions to the cultural life of Los Angeles.”

as Director

as Playwright


References


  1. Fountain Theatre
  2. Los Angeles Times July 15, 1987
  3. "Ten reasons to be grateful in another sputtering theatrical year". Los Angeles Times. 18 December 2021.
  4. "Sachs and Fugard:Peeking Through the Stage Door" LA Weekly May 20, 2004
  5. "A New Athol Fugard Play Strides On Hollywood's Meaner Streets" New York Times May 25, 2004
  6. "Stephen Sachs" Lortel Archives - Internet Off-Broadway Database
  7. LA Weekly Jan 28, 2008
  8. "Best of Theatre 2008" Los Angeles Times
  9. "Sweet Nothing in my Ear" Internet Movie Database
  10. "Open Window"Pasadena Playhouse
  11. "Review: A refreshing take on 'Cyrano' at Fountain Theatre". Los Angeles Times. 3 May 2012.
  12. "Review: Love makes a dizzying 'Arrival & Departure' in a play inspired by the film 'Brief Encounter'". Los Angeles Times. 20 July 2018.


Wikimedia Commons has media related to Stephen Sachs.


Текст в блоке "Читать" взят с сайта "Википедия" и доступен по лицензии Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike; в отдельных случаях могут действовать дополнительные условия.

Другой контент может иметь иную лицензию. Перед использованием материалов сайта WikiSort.org внимательно изучите правила лицензирования конкретных элементов наполнения сайта.

2019-2025
WikiSort.org - проект по пересортировке и дополнению контента Википедии