Ron Daniels

Director

Ron Daniels was born and brought up in Brazil, where he was a founder member of the renowned Teatro Oficina, in São Paulo. He is a former Artistic Director of The Other Place Theatre, the RSC’s experimental theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon, England and after 15 years with the company he was named an Honorary Associate Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company.

His work with the RSC includes many productions of Shakespeare plays such as THE TEMPEST, A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM, two productions of HAMLET (the first with Roger Rees and the second with Mark Rylance, the “pajama Hamlet”), RICHARD II, JULIUS CAESAR, ROMEO AND JULIET, HENRY V, MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING, PERICLES and TIMON OF ATHENS as well as major new works by contemporary British playwrights including David Edgar (DESTINY, David Rudkin (AFORE NIGHT COME, HIPPOLYTUS, HANSEL AND GRETEL, THE SONS OF LIGHT), Pam Gems (THE DANTON AFFAIR, CAMILLE) , Naomi Wallace (SLAUGHER CITY), Paul Thompson (THE LORENZACCIO STORY), Stephen Poliakoff (BREAKING THE SILENCE, PLAYING WITH TRAINS), Trevor Griffiths (REAL DREAMS) and Anthony Burgess, with whom he collaborated on an adaptation of A CLOCKWORK ORANGE, which had music specially written for the production by Bono and The Edge of U2.

At the National Theatre of Great Britain he directed Stephen Poliakoff’s BLINDED BY THE SUN and REMEMBER THIS and in the West End he directed Poliakoff’s BREAKING THE SILENCE, as well as ACROSS FROM THE GARDEN OF ALLAH by Charles Wood, CAMILLE by Pam Gems, J.P.Donleavy’s THE BEASTLY BEATITUDES OF BALTHAZAR B. and Olaf Olafsson’s THE FEAST OF SNAILS.

In 1991 he moved to the US and became the Associate Artistic Director of the American Repertory Theatre, in Cambridge, MA. His productions for the A.R.T include HENRY IV, parts 1 and 2, HENRY V, THE TEMPEST, HAMLET, LONG DAY’S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT, THE SEAGULL, THE CHERRY ORCHARD, THE THREEPENNY OPERA as well as new plays by Naomi Wallace, Ronald Ribman and Stuart Greenman.

Ron now lives in New York and works as a freelance director. He has directed at the Long Wharf Theatre, the Yale Repertory Theatre, and The Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis. Other productions in the US include ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA (The Shakespeare Theatre of Washington D.C.), Naomi Wallace’s ONE FLEA SPARE for The Public Theatre of New York, HAVANA IS WAITING by Eduardo Machado at the Cincinnati Playhouse, HEDDA GABLER at the Dallas Theatre Centre and RICHARD II, RICHARD III and MACBETH for The Theatre for a New Audience in New York City. He recently directed POINTS OF DEPARTURE, a new play by Michael John Garcés, for INTAR, the Latino theatre company in New York and a workshop of THE SUITCASE TRILOGY by Han Ong, for the Ma-yi Theatre company. He directed a production of the classic comedy THE FRONT PAGE at the Williamstown Festival Theatre as well as the hip hop musical KINGDOM, about Latino street gangs and THE TAMING OF THE SHREW, both at the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego. He is now preparing a new production of MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING for the 2011 summer Festival at the Old Globe and the musical SWEENEY TODD, THE DEMON BARBER OF FLEET STREET for the Opera Theatre of St Louis, opening in May 2012.

In Japan he directed TITUS ANDRONICUS and HAMLET, both with Mikijiro Hiro and in Brazil he directed his own translation into Portuguese of KING LEAR with Raul Cortez in the title role.

Ron’s work in opera includes new productions of Mozart’s IL RE PASTORE (Boston Lyric Opera), Bizet’s CARMEN (Houston Grand Opera, Opera Pacific, Michigan Opera Theatre), Puccini’s MADAMA BUTTERFLY (San Francisco Opera, Opera Pacific, Austin Lyric Opera, Colorado Opera and Florida Grand Opera – and soon to be seen at the Washington National Opera in DC, conducted by Plácido Domingo), Britten’s THE TURN OF THE SCREW (Berkshire Opera), Puccini’s TOSCA (Theatro Municipal of Rio de Janeiro), Mozart’s COSI FAN TUTTE (Arizona Opera and Pittsburgh Opera), Verdi’s LA FORZA DEL DESTINO (San Francisco Opera), TOSCA (Colorado Opera) and IL POSTINO, composed by Daniel Catán, which had its world premiere in September 2010 at the LA Opera starring by Plácido Domingo. IL POSTINO then performed at the Theater an der Wien in Vienna and the Châtelet in Paris.

He is the Executive Producer of LAWN DOGS, produced by Duncan Kenworthy for Rank Films and his first feature film entitled THE WAR BOYS had its premiere at the HBO Latino Film Festival in New York at the end of July 2009. It is being distributed by Maya Entertainment: http://thewarboys.com/ He has recently completed the screenplay THEY SHALL NOT GROW OLD about the British Army, written in collaboration with his writing partner Tom Barker.