A director of theatre, opera and film, Julie Taymor is the first woman to win the TONY Award for directing a musical (The Lion King), for which she also won Best Costume Design.
Elliot Goldenthal is a renowned composer who creates works for the concert stage, theatre, opera and film, including several Oscar-nominated films and the Oscar-winning score for Frida (which also received a best song Oscar nomination).
Each in their own sphere has produced works of lasting achievement, garnering critical notice and numerous awards. However, from their earliest successes to their most recent work, the projects that they created together have also been celebrated.
In 1986, Theatre for a New Audience’s Artistic Director Jeffrey Horowitz invited Ms. Taymor to direct her first Shakespeare play. That production, The Tempest, would later inform her film adaptation of the play, which stars Helen Mirren and will be released in 2010 with a score by Mr. Goldenthal. Their other stage work for Theatre for a New Audience includes Titus Andronicus, The Taming of the Shrew, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Home Street Home and The Green Bird. In 1988, Mr. Goldenthal composed the music and with Ms. Taymor co-authored the libretto for Juan Darien: A Carnival Mass, which received five Tony nominations when it was restaged at Lincoln Center in 1996. Together, she has also directed and he has scored the films Titus, Across the Universe and Frida, as well as Goldenthal’s original two act opera, Grendel, which premiered at the Los Angeles Opera and was named one of the two finalists for the 2006 Pulitzer Prize in music.
Ms. Taymor has also directed opera productions of The Magic Flute (now in repertory at the Met) and Oedipus Rex, Salomé and The Flying Dutchman. She is currently preparing for a Broadway production of Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark. Mr. Goldenthal’s concert work includes Fire Water Paper: A Vietnam Oratorio, which debuted at the Pacific Symphony with Seiji Ozawa conducting. In 1997, he composed Othello, for the American Ballet Theatre. Ms. Taymor and Mr. Goldenthal have been deeply connected to Theatre for a New Audience for many years, and together currently serve as Honorary Co-Chairs of the Theatre’s Capital Campaign.