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From: James Lynes To: ' < Subject: Theatre for a New Audience announces its new home's inaugural production, directed by Julie Taymor Date: Thu, 31 Jan 2013 01:34:45 +0000 Inline-Images: image001.jpg; image002.jpg; image003.png; image004.jpg; image005.jpg; image006.jpg; image007.png; image008.jpg; image009.jpg; image010.jpg; image011.jpg; image012.jpg Dear Mr. Epstein: Jeffrey Horowitz and Theatre for a New Audience are proud to share with you the news that received national and international attention overnight about Julie Taymor directing a new production for the Theatre of A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM. Scroll down this email to review the articles from The New York Times, Variety, The Los Angeles Times, The Guardian, and other sources. This production will be the inaugural show in our first home currently under construction in the Downtown Brooklyn Cultural District (click the underlined text for more information about the Theatre's new facility). The production will begin performances on October 19, 2013 in the Theatre's new 299-seat Mainstage, which has been designed by architect Hugh Hardy. Opening night is set for November 2. In addition, the production will be seen by thousands of New York Public School students enrolled in the Theatre's 13- week, in-school residency program, The World Theatre Project promoting literacy, sparking creativity and building audiences for the future. Best wishes from James Lynes James J. Lynes fax EFTA00396525 www.tfana.org .D escription: January 23, 2013 Taymor To Direct `Midsummer' As Inaugural Show For Theater's New Home By Patrick Healy 2Description: a The Tony Award-winning director Julie Taymor will return to the New York stage in October with a production of Shakespeare's "Midsummer Night's Dream" to open the new Brooklyn home of Theater for a New Audience, an Off Broadway company where Ms. Taymor has regularly worked since its founding in 1979. "Midsummer" will be Ms. Taymor's first show since her high-profile firing from the Broadway musical "Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark" in 2011 by its producers, with whom she is still in a legal battle over back pay, royalty and copyright protection. In a telephone interview on Wednesday, Ms. Taymor said she chose "Midsummer" as the theater's inaugural production because of the play's celebratory nature: Characters fall in love, reunite after spats and wed, and others put on a play themselves. A celebrated downtown theater director and puppet-maker before finding fame and fortune directing the blockbuster musical "The Lion King," Ms. Taymor she was still thinking over concepts for staging "Midsummer" and did not know yet if she would be designing puppets or masks for the show. As for the "Midsummer" budget, she said she did not know how much the production would cost, but added that it would be "typical" for Off Broadway and noted that Theater for a New Audience "never does big budgets." "Spider-Man" attracted international headlines for, among other things, its $75 million budget, more than twice as much money as any Broadway show in history. EFTA00396526 Ms. Taymor said she was talking over ideas for "Midsummer" with Es Devlin, the British set and costume designer who is known for big-budget spectacles like the closing ceremony for the London Olympic Games last summer. "Midsummer" will not be set in any particular time or period, "but rather in its own world," Ms. Taymor said. She did say that she may include children and teenagers in the cast, after recently holding a workshop of the play with children "to play with their energy and physicality and to think about raw elemental energy." Ms. Taymor's long-time partner, Elliot Goldenthal, will compose original music for "Midsummer." "There is a visceral nature to the theater, and I want to have that in the production," said Ms. Taymor, who has never directed a "Midsummer" before. She was a designer on the play in 1984 when Theater for a New Audience did a children's version — her first collaboration with the company and its artistic director, Jeffrey Horowitz, who is now a close friend. The play will begin performances on Oct. 19 in the theater's new 299-seat main stage space, which has been designed by architect Hugh Hardy. Opening night is set for Nov. 2. Asked if her return to New York theater was any more special because of her experiences on "Spider-Man," Ms. Taymor simply said that she was looking forward to working on the play. "Spider-Man" became the most talked-about Broadway show in many years because of a nightmare's-worth of creative and technical delays, cast injuries, and offstage showdowns between Ms. Taymor and her composers — Bono and the Edge of U2 — and the show's producers. Bono, Edge, and the producers ultimately replaced Ms. Taymor as the show's director after more than three months of preview performances during the winter of 2011. The producers contended that she resisted their pleas to revamp "Spider- Man" into a more family-friendly musical (thereby possibly selling more tickets and recovering its high costs), while Ms.Taymor said the producers refused to support her requests and ideas for changes in the script and the score. "Spider-Man" opened in June 2011 to mostly negative reviews but has gone on to become a popular show with tourists, although ticket sales have cooled a bit in recent months. Ms. Taymor sued the producers in federal court in late 2011, saying they were profiting from her "Spider-Man" script and staging and owed her more than $1 million in back pay and royalties; they counter sued, arguing that she had been fired for breach of contract. The judge in the case announced last August that the two sides had reached a settlement agreement in principle, but since then the sides have not been able to come to terms. The specifics of their ongoing differences have never been disclosed; Ms. Taymor declined to comment on Wednesday about the issues holding up a settlement, but said that a negotiated resolution was "looking good." ". hoping that we're going have a good outcome very soon," she said. A version of this article appeared in print on 01/24/2013, on page C3 of the New York edition with the headline: Taymor to Direct `A Midsummer Night's Dream'. January 23, 2013 By David Ng January 23, 2013, 4:08 EFTA00396527 Julie Taymor, at the opening-night performance of the Broadway musical "Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark' in New York in 2011. (Charles Sykes (Associated Press! January 23, 2013) Since being fired in 2011 from the Broadway musical "spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark," director Julie Taymor has kept a relatively low public profile, her time presumably occupied by the ongoing lawsuit between her and the show's producers. Taymor might be considered damaged goods when it comes to Broadway, but her trademark innovative style still has its fans. In her first directing gig since the J pider-Man" debacle, Taymor will return to her roots by staging a new production of Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" at Theatre for a New Audience in Brooklyn. The production is scheduled to open Nov. 2 and will be the inaugural production of the company's new permanent home near Brooklyn's Fort Greene neighborhood. Taymor will once again team up with her longtime partner, the Oscar-winning composer Elliot Goldenthal, who will write the music for the comedy. Taymor previously worked with Theatre for a New Audience in 1986 on a production of Shakespeare's "The Tempest." She subsequently directed two more Shakespearean plays for the New York company -- "The Taming of the Shrew" and " Titus Andronicus." The director has also made film versions of "The Tempest" and 'Titus." "Midsummer" is set to begin preview performances on Oct. 19. Taymor reached a tentative settlement in her legal battle with the producers of "Spider-Man" in August. But it has been reported as recently as this month that no final deal has been reached yet. 20130123 0 5848768.story EFTA00396528 Julie Taymor stages directorial comeback with A Midsummer Night's Dream Tony award-winning director to open new off-Broadway theatre with 'visceral' version of Shakespeare's play Thursday 24 January 2013 10.52 EST -- ''-,,Description: Description: Description: Film and stage director Julie Taymor Julie Taymor: bringing the Bard to Brooklyn. Photograph: Ann Johansson/AP Julie Taymor is to direct her first production since abandoning Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark almost two years ago. Taymor left the notorious — but still ongoing — mega-musical in March 2011 after producers demanded a major overhaul following a difficult four-month preview period. She has not worked in theatre since and remains locked in a legal battle over royalties and copyright. However, this autumn she will reunite with her longtime collaborator, the composer Elliot Goldenthal, to mount an off- Broadway production of A Midsummer Night's Dream, entitled simply Midsummer, to open a new theatre in New York on 19 October. The production will be a full-length version of the hour-long staging Taymor and Goldenthal worked on in 1984 for Theatre for a New Audience which is moving into a new permanent home in Brooklyn this October. Taymor directed her first Shakespeare play, The Tempest, for the company in 1986 and has since returned three times. She went on to become the first woman to win the Tony award for best direction of a musical for her production of The Lion King. In 2010 she directed a film version of The Tempest starring Helen Mirren as Prospers a female incarnation of Shakespeare's mage Prospero. While details of the new production have not yet been announced, it's fair to expect a visual feast given Taymor's reputation for lavish design. Costumes for The Lion King which she designed herself, also won a Tony award. However, Midsummer's budget will be a fraction of those of the musicals for which she is best known. "There is a visceral nature to the theatre, and I want to have that in the production " she told the New York Times. Jeffrey Horowitz, founding artistic director of Theatre for a New Audience, described Taymor and Goldenthal as "bold, innovative, adventurous artists", adding that it was "thrilling" to have them return to make the company's inaugural production at the new base. The new theatre has been designed by architect Hugh Hardy and will contain two spaces: a flexible 299-seater inspired by the Cottesloe at the National Theatre as well as a 50-seat studio. In a statement, the company said: "It is a uniquely flexible space which combines an Elizabethan courtyard theatre with modern technology. The relationship between the stage and audience can be shaped for each production into different configurations." EFTA00396529 ®Description: a January 23, 2013 Julie Taymor to direct 'Midsummer' Off Broadway outing will christen TFANA venue By GORDON COX 2Description: Julie Taymor Taymor Julie Taymor has settled on "A Midsummer Night's Dream" as the play she'll helm to inaugurate the new Brooklyn home base of Theater for a New Audience this fall. The Off Broadway production "Midsummer" will be Taymoes first gig for the Gotham stage since her high-profile stint as helmer of Broadway's "Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark," followed by her subsequent messy divorce from that project. For several months Taymor has been on tap to launch the soon-to-be-completed TFANA building in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, but it hadn't yet been decided which Bard play choose to direct. Taymor ("The Lion King") has long been associated with TFANA, beginning with a 1986 staging of "The Tempest" and followed by "The Taming of the Shrew," 'Titus Andronicus" and "The Green Bird," a 1996 staging of a Carlo Gozzi play that moved to Broadway in 2000. TFANA's new building -- the first permanent home for the troupe, which was founded in 1979 — will include a 299-seat mainstage and a 50-seat second space. Casting and other details for "Midsummer" have yet to set, but previews begin Oct. 19 ahead of a Nov. 2 opening. EFTA00396530 R,Description: [] January 23, 2013 Julie Taymor and Elliot Goldenthal Will Conjure Midsummer Night's Dream in TFANA's New Brooklyn Home By Kenneth Jones 2Description: [] Tony Award winner Julie Taymor ( The Lion King) will direct and longtime collaborator Elliot Goldenthal ( The Green Bird) will compose original music for a new fall 2013 production of William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, to be the inaugural production in Theatre for a New Audience's new permanent home in the Downtown Brooklyn Cultural District. EFTA00396531 Performances at TFANA at 262 Ashland Place between Lafayette Avenue and Fulton Streets will begin Oct. 19. Opening night is Nov. 2. TFANA announced the news on Jan. 23. It had been known that Taymor would direct a classic for the not-for-profit's new home. Shakespeare's romantic comedy-fantasy is set in the woods outside of Athens, where sprites and fairies meddle with the affairs of men and women. If history teaches us anything, this Midsummer should be visually potent: In 1998, Taymor became the first woman to win the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical and also won a Tony for Best Costumes for her production of The Lion King, acknowledged as a masterstroke of design, direction, movement and mask work. For Broadway's Spider-Man• Tun Off the Dark Taymor served as director, co-book writer and mask-designer. TFANA founding artistic director Jeffrey Horowitz said in a statement, "Julie and Elliot are bold, innovative, adventurous artists. We first worked together in 1984 on a 60-minute version for Theatre for a New Audience's A Midsummer Night's Dream presented at the Public Theater. Twenty-nine years later, it's thrilling they are directing and composing the first full production of A Midsummer Night's Dream we are mounting as the inaugural presentation in our first permanent home." According to TFANA, in 1986, Horowitz invited Taymor to stage The Tempest for Theatre for a New Audience. It was the first play by Shakespeare she directed. Goldenthal composed the original music. Taymor and Goldenthal later directed and composed Theatre for a New Audience's productions of The Taming of the Shrets; Titus Andronicus and in 1996, Carlo Gozzi's The Green Bird, which transferred to Broadway in 2000. Composer Goldenthal creates works for orchestra, theater, opera, ballet and film (including Taymor's films "The Tempest," "Titus" and "Frida." In 2003, he was honored with the Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award for the score to "Frida." Theatre for a New Audience's first permanent home is designed by world-renowned architect Hugh Hardy and H3 Hardy Collaboration Architecture. It includes the Samuel H. Scripps Mainstage (299 seats) and the Theodore C. Rogers Studio (50 seats). The Samuel H. Scripps Mainstage, the first stage built for Shakespeare and classic drama in New York City since Lincoln Center's 1965 Vivian Beaumont, is inspired by the Royal National Theatre's Cottesloe. According to TFANA, "It is a uniquely flexible space which combines an Elizabethan courtyard theatre with modem technology. The relationship between the stage and audience can be shaped for each production into different configurations. " Since its founding in 1979, Theatre for a New Audience has played in more than 20 different venues across Manhattan and Brooklyn. Theatre for a New Audience is near the BAM Peter Jay Sharp Building, Harvey Theater and Fisher Building as well as the Mark Morris Dance Center and BRIC ARTS I Media House and UrbanGlass ReNEWal Project currently under construction in the former Strand Theatre. For more about TFANA's season leading up to its Brooklyn life, visitTFANA .org. Dream-in-TFANAs-New-Brooklyn-Home 2,Description: January 23, 2013 EFTA00396532 Tony Winner Julie Taymor to Direct A Midsummer Night's Dream for Theater for a New Audience By Ryan Gilbert 2,Description: a Two-time Tony-winning director Julie Taymor is set return to the New York stage in the fall with a production of William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night& Dream. Taymor's partner, Oscar winner Elliot Goldenthal, will compose original music for the production, which will open the new permanent Brooklyn residence of the off-Broadway company Theater for a New Audience. Previews will begin on October 19, with an opening night set for November 2. Taymor and Goldenthal have previously collaborated on Theatre for a New Audience's productions of The Tempest,The Taming of the Shrew, Titus Andronicus and The Green Bird, which transferred to Broadway in 2000. Goldenthal scored Taymor's film versions of The Tempest and Titus. He won the Academy Award for his score to Taymor's film Frida. His original two-act opera Grendel, directed by Taymor, premiered at the Los Angeles Opera. In 1998 Taymor became the first woman in history to win the award for Best Direction of a Musical for Lion King, and also earned the Tony for Best Costume Design for the musical. Her other Broadway credits include Juan Darien and Spider- Man, Turn Off The Dark. In addition to Thus, The Tempest and Frida, Taymor directed the movie musical Across the Universe. new-audience/ EFTA00396533