Les is an Obie-award winning director who has served as associate artistic director of Berkeley Repertory Theatre since 2003. In the last eight years, his shows have ranked among the year’s best in The New Yorker, New York Times, Time Out New York, Time Magazine and USA Today. Les has a history of collaborating with prominent playwrights like Caryl Churchill, Charles Mee and Wallace Shawn, and of championing important new voices such as Will Eno, Jordan Harrison, Sarah Ruhl and Anne Washburn. In 2009, he made his Broadway debut with In the Next Room (or the vibrator play), which began in Berkeley, where his productions also include the world premieres of Concerning Strange Devices from the Distant West, Fêtes de la Nuit, Finn in the Underworld, Girlfriend, and To the Lighthouse; the American premiere of TRAGEDY: a tragedy; the West Coast premieres of Ruhl’s Eurydice and Three Sisters; and extended runs of The Glass Menagerie, The Lieutenant of Inishmore, The Pillowman, and Yellowman. Les has numerous credits in New York, his native England, and at theatres across America. He led the MFA directing program at UC San Diego, where he still teaches, and is an associate artist of The Civilians.
We are excited to have Les as part of the Actors Theatre family. His excitement for re-envisioning classic work and his deep experience in new play development will complement the programming of Actors Theatre both during the regular season and the Humana Festival of New American Plays. He has visited our city before while directing during the Humana Festival and is eager to get to know the Louisville community.
This has been an amazing process and we are thrilled with the results. We would like to thank our search committee for their dedication to this important endeavor on behalf of Actors Theatre. They are Todd Lowe, Ted Nixon, Jennifer Bielstein, Beth Davis, Laura Douglas, Phil Eschels, Bruce Merrick, Marsha Roth and Ted Rosky.
Les will officially begin at Actors Theatre on January 9th and will be present full-time as of the end of March. We will be sure to find opportunities for you to meet with him and get to know him over the course of the coming months and next season.