Michael Mayer (director)

Michael Mayer (born June 27, 1960) is a Tony Award-winning American stage and film director.

Biography

Mayer was born in Bethesda, Maryland to Jerry and Louise Mayer. After graduating from Charles W. Woodward High School, he studied acting at New York University, where he earned an MFA in Theater in 1983. He began performing onstage in New York City but by 1990 had turned his efforts to directing, working as a freelancer while also teaching at NYU, the Lincoln Center Theatre Institute, and Juilliard.

Career

Broadway

In 2007, Mayer won his first Tony Award for his direction of the musical adaptation of Spring Awakening (2006), which also took the award for Best Musical. He was nominated for the 2002 Tony for his direction of Thoroughly Modern Millie, which he then directed on London's West End. Mayer also won the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Director of a Musical for both Spring Awakening and Thoroughly Modern Millie.

Other Broadway credits include The Lion in Winter (1999), the 1999 revival of You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown, Side Man (1998; Drama Desk Award), and the 1998 Tony Award-winning revival of Arthur Miller's A View from the Bridge starring Anthony LaPaglia and Brittany Murphy, for which he was nominated for a Tony and won the Drama Desk Award.

Off-Broadway

Mayer's off-Broadway directing credits include The Credeaux Canvas, John C. Russell's Stupid Kids, Peter Hedges' Baby Anger, Theresa Rebeck's View of the Dome, and the New York premiere of Janusz Glowacki's Antigone in New York.

Film

After directing on- and off-Broadway for more than 15 years, Mayer made his feature film directorial debut with A Home at the End of the World (2004), starring Colin Farrell and Robin Wright Penn. He went on to make the family film Flicka (2006), an adaptation of the story My Friend Flicka. Flicka went on becoming a surprise hit in DVD market.

Stage productions

Broadway

• 'night, Mother (2004)
• After the Fall (2004)
• An Almost Holy Picture (2002)
• Uncle Vanya (2000)
• Triumph of Love (1997)Off-Broadway
• 10 Million Miles
• Spring Awakening
• Missing Persons
• America Dreaming
• Hundreds of HatsNational tour
• Angels in America (1994)

References

External links

• Steven Drukman. "A Two-Career Man: Theater Director And Jewish Mother," The New York Times, January 3, 1999. Retrieved July 2, 2007.
• announcement for 10 Million Miles
• Mayer milestones
• Interview with Mayer about Spring Awakening