Diane Paulus
Diane Paulus
Diane Marie Paulusis an American director of theater and opera who became Artistic Director of the American Repertory Theaterat Harvard University in 2009. Paulus was nominated for the Best Director Tony Award for her revival of Hair, and won the award in 2013 for her revival of Pippin. She has received the 2009 Harvard College Women’s Leadership Award and the Columbia University IAL Diamond Award...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionDirector
CountryUnited States of America
animate engage enriching history interested lives
I'm always interested in looking - historically - at how theater can animate history and how all of that can make us engage with our lives in an enriching way.
I want an audience that will come sitting forward in their seats.
people work
I give so much of myself to my work; I want to be with people who are going to be there with me.
matter subject
I am always looking for what piece, what artists, what playwrights, what directors, what subject matter is going to catalyze an audience.
politics
Politics, to a degree, is about legislation, administration. You can't be there in the trenches.
intensity keeps manageable time
I think actually what keeps the intensity manageable - it's a little counterintuitive - is that it's changing all the time. Every week is different for me.
ask audience days fully heroine hours invest requires rounded
I'm sorry, but to ask an audience these days to invest three hours in a show requires your heroine be an understandable and fully rounded character.
ballet believe blocks four george lincoln taking
Look at where I lived! Four blocks from Lincoln Center. I used to play in the fountain. And then I started taking dance lessons. I was in 'The Nutcracker' for the N.Y. City Ballet when I was 8 and dancing in 'The Firebird' for George Balanchine when I was 9. Believe me, that's something you don't ever forget.
liberating listen music understand unlock
I listen to music, I read scripts, and I know pretty intuitively if I can unlock it in a way. It's actually very liberating when you understand that not everything is for you.
freeing
It's freeing to not be caught up in your own personal baggage.
auditions present rehearsal time whether
Being a director, whether you're in rehearsal or you're in auditions or you're in a creative meeting, is so much to me about being present in the moment. There's a sense of time stopping.
asking audience bringing building community dialogue eat experience good people shot vegetables
You have to think about why you're asking an audience to come to the theater. It's not that they should come because it's good for them, because it's the vegetables that they should eat and the culture shot that they should get... It's about experience and building community and catalyzing dialogue and bringing people together.
change music shakespeare tempo verse whether
Music is rhythm, and all theater is rhythm. It's about tempo and change and pulse, whether you're doing a verse play by Shakespeare or a musical.
center civic classical england politics religion society theater
In Elizabethan England or classical Athens... theater was at the center of, not culture, but society and politics and religion and civic engagement. Those things have a different audience.