American stage director and dramatist
Emily Betsy Mann (born April 12, 1952) is an
American director,
playwright and
screenwriter .
[1] She served as the artistic director and resident playwright of the
McCarter Theatre Center from 1990 to 2020.
[2]
Career
As the McCarter Theatre Center's Artistic Director and Resident Playwright from 1990 to 2020, Mann oversaw more than 160 productions, including more than 40 world premieres. During her tenure, the theater won the
Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre and Mann herself was twice nominated for Tony Awards as a playwright and director. She was inducted into The American Theater Hall of Fame.
Her other personal awards include the
Peabody Award , the
Hull-Warriner Award from the
Dramatists Guild , awards from the
NAACP , eight
Obie awards, a
Guggenheim Fellowship , the 2011 Person of the Year Award from the National Theater Conference, as well as the
Margo Jones Award, given to a "citizen-of-the-theatre who has demonstrated a lifetime commitment to the encouragement of the living theatre everywhere" and the 2021 Gordon Davidson Award from the foundation of the
Stage Directors and Choreographers Society . Mann also received an honorary Doctorate of Arts from
Princeton University .[
citation needed ]
In January 2019, McCarter Theatre announced that Mann would retire from the position following the 2019–2020 season.
[3]
Mann's nearly 50 McCarter directing credits include productions by
William Shakespeare ,
Anton Chekhov ,
Henrik Ibsen , and
Tennessee Williams and the world premieres of
Christopher Durang 's Turning Off the Morning News ;
Ken Ludwig 's adaptation of
Agatha Christie 's
Murder on the Orient Express ;
Danai Gurira 's The Convert ; ; Rachel Bonds' Five Mile Lake;
Sarah Treem 's
The How and the Why ;
Christopher Durang 's
Miss Witherspoon ; and
Edward Albee 's
Me, Myself and I . She has also directed Broadway shows
A Streetcar Named Desire ,
Anna in the Tropics ,
Execution of Justice , and
Having Our Say .[
citation needed ]
Her plays include:
Having Our Say , adapted from the book by
Sarah Louise Delany and
Annie Elizabeth Delany with
Amy Hill Hearth ;
Execution of Justice ; Still Life ; Annulla, An Autobiography ; Greensboro (A Requiem) ; Meshugah ; Mrs. Packard , and Hoodwinked (a Primer on Radical Islamism) .
Her new play, Gloria: A Life , about the legacy of
Gloria Steinem played off-Broadway at the Daryl Roth Theatre from October 2018 through March 2019.
[4]
She directed adaptations of
Baby Doll ,
Scenes from a Marriage ,
Uncle Vanya ,
The Cherry Orchard , A Seagull in the Hamptons ,
The House of Bernarda Alba ,
Antigone . She is currently[
when? ] developing a new adaptation of
The Pianist .
Mann grew up in
Chicago , where her father taught history. She completed her
BA in
English literature at
Harvard University (
Radcliffe College ) in 1974 and her
MFA in Directing from the
University of Minnesota in 1976.
Mann was married to the actor
Gerry Bamman , with whom she shares a son, Nicholas.
[5] She is now married to Gary Mailman, an attorney. Mann and Mailman live in Princeton, New Jersey. She was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1994.
[6]
A biography of Mann, "Emily Mann:Rebel Artist of the American Theater," by Alexis Greene was published in November 2021 by Applause Theatre & Cinema Books of Rowman & Littlefield.
[7]
Works
Directing
Some of her McCarter directing credits include:
The world premiere of
Miss Witherspoon by
Christopher Durang (also Off-Broadway at
Playwrights Horizons )
The world premiere of The Bells by
Theresa Rebeck
The world premiere of Last of the Boys by
Steven Dietz
Nilo Cruz 's
Anna in the Tropics at McCarter and on Broadway with
Jimmy Smits (2003
Pulitzer Prize , two
Tony nominations)
Anton Chekhov 's
Uncle Vanya (also adapted) with
Amanda Plummer
Edward Albee 's All Over with
Rosemary Harris and
Michael Learned and at
Roundabout Theater Company (
Obie Awards for her direction and for Rosemary Harris's performance)
The Tempest with
Blair Brown ,
Romeo and Juliet with
Sarah Drew and
Jeffrey Carlson
The Cherry Orchard (also adapted) with
Jane Alexander and
Avery Brooks
I.B. Singer's Meshugah (adaptor and director) with Elizabeth Marvel
The American
premiere of
The Mai by
Marina Carr
The world premiere of
Anna Deavere Smith 's
Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992 (also at the
Mark Taper Forum )
Federico García Lorca 's
The House of Bernarda Alba (also adapted) with Helen Carey
The world premiere of
Joyce Carol Oates '
The Perfectionist
August Strindberg 's
Miss Julie (also adapted) with
Kim Cattrall ,
Donna Murphy and
Peter Francis James
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof with
Pat Hingle and
JoBeth Williams
Chekhov's
Three Sisters with
Frances McDormand ,
Linda Hunt , and
Mary Stuart Masterson
Betsey Brown (co-author with
Baikida Carroll and
Ntozake Shange )
The Glass Menagerie with
Shirley Knight ,
Dylan McDermott and
Judy Kuhn
The world premiere of
Edward Albee 's Me, Myself, and I (also at
Playwrights Horizons ) with
Tyne Daly and
Brian Murray
The world premiere of Sarah Treem's
The How and the Why with
Mercedes Ruehl
The world premiere of Phaedra Backwards by
Marina Carr
The world premiere of The Convert by Danai Gurira (also at the
Goodman Theatre in Chicago and
Center Theatre Group in Los Angeles; six
Ovation Awards , including Best Director of a Play and nominated for thirteen; also nominated for three
Joseph Jefferson Awards including Best Production.)
Edward Albee ’s
A Delicate Balance (play) featuring
John Glover (actor) ,
Kathleen Chalfant , and
Mary Beth Hurt
David Auburn ’s Proof
Antony and Cleopatra featuring
Nicole Ari Parker and
Esau Pritchett
Rachel Bond 's Five Mile Lake
The Broadway revival of
Tennessee Williams '
A Streetcar Named Desire with
Blair Underwood ,
Wood Harris ,
Nicole Ari Parker , and
Daphne Rubin-Vega
Tennessee Williams' Baby Doll Mann co-adapted for the stage with Pierre Laville
Nilo Cruz's Bathing in Moonlight
The world premiere of
Turning Off the Morning News by
Christopher Durang
Upcoming -
David Hare (playwright) 's "
Skylight (play) "
Writing
Author of Greensboro (A Requiem)
Author and director of
Execution of Justice at the
Guthrie Theater ,
Arena Stage , and on
Broadway (winner of the HBO New Plays USA award, the
Helen Hayes Award , the
Joseph Jefferson Award , the
Bay Area Critics Circle Award , and nominated for a
Drama Desk and
Outer Critics Circle Award )
Still Life (6 Obie Awards including playwriting, direction and production of the season) most recently produced by Retro Productions
[8] in
New York City at the 78th Street Lab, directed by
Ric Sechrest during February 2007, for which star
Heather E. Cunningham , as Cheryl, was chosen as Marc Miller's "Performance to Remember, 2007" for
Backstage East
Annulla, An Autobiography
Wrote and directed
Having Our Say , adapted from the book by
Sarah Louise Delany and
A. Elizabeth Delany with Amy Hill Hearth at
McCarter and on Broadway (3 Tony Award nominations including Best Play and Best Direction, and a Drama Desk nomination; a
Joseph Jefferson Award and for the screenplay
Peabody , a
Christopher Award and an
NAACP award nomination).
Mrs. Packard had its world premiere at McCarter Theatre in May 2007 before transferring to
The Kennedy Center in June. Acting edition published by
Broadway Play Publishing Inc.
Wrote and directed A Seagull in the Hamptons , adapted and modernized from
Anton Chekhov 's The
Seagull . The play premiered at the
McCarter Theatre May 2008.
[9] Published by
Broadway Play Publishing Inc.
Author of "Gloria: A Life" about the legacy of Gloria Steinem
Currently in development: the stage adaptation of "The Pianist"
Mann has also adapted versions of
Uncle Vanya ,
The Cherry Orchard , and
House of Bernarda Alba (recently staged in London)
A collection of her plays, Testimonies: Four Plays , has been published by
Theatre Communications Group
References
^
"Emily Mann Biography (1952-)" . Film Reference . Retrieved August 24, 2019 .
^ Collins-Hughes, Laura (May 3, 2020).
"A Thousand Goodbyes for McCarter Theater's Emily Mann" . The New York Times . Retrieved 12 January 2022 .
^
Press Release McCarter Theatre. Accessed April 23, 2022.
^ Clement, Olivia (November 8, 2018).
"Gloria: A Life Extends Off-Broadway Through March 2019 and has since performed regionally at several theaters" . Playbill. Retrieved January 12, 2022 .
^ Greene, Alexis (2021).
Emily Mann: Rebel Artist of the American Theater . Rowman & Littlefield.
ISBN
978-1-4930-6033-7 .
^
"Princeton's McCarter Theatre Center Expects To Surprise Its Audiences With Bold New Selections" . New Jersey Monthly . February 13, 2012. Retrieved Jul 2, 2020 .
^ Greene, Alexis (November 2021).
Emily Mann: Rebel Artist of the American Theater . Applause Theatre & Cinema Books of Rowman & Littlefield. p. 408.
ISBN
9781493060320 . Retrieved 12 January 2022 .
^
http://retroproductions.org/retroproductions.htm Retroproductions.org
Archived February 19, 2007, at the
Wayback Machine
^
"404 - McCarter Theatre" . www.mccarter.org . Archived from
the original on 2011-05-04. Retrieved 2010-04-16 .
International National Other
Further reading
Alexis Greene: Emily Mann : rebel artist of the American theater , Guilford, Connecticut : Applause, [2021],
ISBN
978-1-4930-6032-0