Mary Zimmerman | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1960-08-23)August 23, 1960 (age 65) Lincoln, Nebraska, U.S. |
| Education | Northwestern University(BS.MA,PhD) |
| Occupations | Professor, Northwestern University Jaharis Family Foundation Chair in Performance Studies |
| Organizations | |
| Known for | Theatre & opera director, playwright |
| Awards |
|
Mary Zimmerman (born August 23, 1960) is an American theatre and opera director and playwright fromNebraska. She is an ensemble member of theLookingglass Theatre Company, the Manilow Resident Director at theGoodman Theatre in Chicago, Illinois, and also serves as theJaharis Family Foundation Professor ofPerformance Studies atNorthwestern University.[1]
She has earned national and international recognition in the form of numerous awards, including the prestigious John D. and Catherine T.MacArthur Fellowship (1998). She has received more than 20 Joseph Jefferson Awards for her creative work in the Chicago Area and won a 2002Tony Award for Best Direction for her adaptation ofOvid'sMetamorphoses. Other notable productions includeEleven Rooms of Proust andThe Secret in the Wings.
Although Zimmerman was born inLincoln, Nebraska, she spent much of her childhood in Europe, splitting time between her parents' home outside London inHampstead Garden, England, and in Paris. Both of her parents were academics at theUniversity of Nebraska–Lincoln, her father a physics professor and her mother a professor of comparative literature who studied the authorGeorge Sand.[2]
Zimmerman studied theatre and performance studies atNorthwestern University, where she received a BS in Theatre (1982) in addition to an MA (1985) and PhD (1994) in Performance Studies.
Zimmerman's involvement in stage productions is difficult to categorize, since she may be billed as director, writer, or producer, but usually takes on several of these roles. She is well known for her revivals of old plays and re-adaptions of classical and pre-classical works, librettos for modern operas, and re-presenting modern film and novels as stage plays.
Zimmerman has directed several theatrical adaptations of literary works in addition toMetamorphoses (which she originally staged at Northwestern University asSix Myths in 1996)[3], includingJourney to the West, theOdyssey,Silk,Arabian Nights (1994), andThe Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci (2003).
In 2004, she directed a production ofPericles, Prince of Tyre at theShakespeare Theatre Company in Washington, D.C. Her production was re-staged in 2006 at theShakespeare Theatre Company Free For All. The following year, Zimmerman directed another Shakespeare play,Cymbeline, at Northwestern University.[4]
In 2006, she directed a version ofthe Greek story ofJason and theArgonauts' search for theGolden Fleece,Argonautika, at theLookingglass Theatre Company, and then toured it at theBerkeley Repertory Theatre in 2007, and at theShakespeare Theatre Company inWashington, D.C. in 2008.[5][6] Her monodrama,M. Proust, was given its world premiere by theSteppenwolf Theatre Company in 2006 in a production directed byEric Rosen and starringMary Beth Peil as Celeste Albaret.[7]
In 2017, Zimmerman directed her adaption ofHomer'sOdyssey at theOregon Shakespeare Festival.
In 2018, Zimmerman adapted and directedHans Christian Andersen'sThe Steadfast Tin Soldier atLookingglass Theatre Company.[8] The production was remounted the following year.
In July 2019,"Treasure Island: A Play"--Zimmerman's adaptation ofRobert Louis Stevenson's "Treasure Island"--was published byNorthwestern University Press.[9]
She has also worked inopera production. She is the director and co-librettist of the 2002 operaGalileo Galilei, music byPhilip Glass, commissioned by the Goodman Theatre. In 2007 Zimmerman directed the first of a series of new productions for theMetropolitan Opera: She was engaged to stage a new production ofDonizetti'sLucia di Lammermoor starringNatalie Dessay, which opened the company's 2007–2008 season. The production received mixed reviews, but was a success at the box office.[10] Zimmerman'sLucia was revived in 2008–2009 withDiana Damrau andAnna Netrebko as Lucia. It was broadcast worldwide in the Met'sLive in HD series withNetrebko and tenorPiotr Beczała.
In March 2009 the Met premiered Zimmerman's production ofVincenzo Bellini'sLa sonnambula (starringDessay andJuan Diego Flórez). The production, which moved the opera's setting to a contemporary rehearsal hall, received mixed-to-negative reviews in the press.[11] It was also presented in theLive in HD series. For the company's 2009–2010 season Zimmerman directed a new production ofGioachino Rossini's operaArmida starringRenée Fleming.[12] Her fourth production for the Met wasDvořák'sRusalka in 2017, to positive reviews.[13]
In February 2020 she directed the world premiere of the operaEurydice, composed byMatthew Aucoin with a libretto bySarah Ruhl, at theLos Angeles Opera.[14]
Zimmerman adapted the libretto of Mozart’sThe Magic Flute and directed a premiere of The Matchbox Magic Flute, which she described as “a hybrid, a playful variation, more a creature of the theatre [than of] opera," at theGoodman Theatre in February-March 2024.[15][16][17]
In 2013, Zimmerman adapted and directed a musical version ofDisney's version ofThe Jungle Book, premiering at theGoodman Theatre in Chicago and theHuntington Theatre in Boston. The production featuredKevin Carolan asBaloo the Bear,André De Shields asKing Louie, and Akash Chopra as Mowgli.
In 2015 Zimmerman directed the musicalGuys and Dolls at theOregon Shakespeare Festival.
