Marshall W. Mason

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Marshall W. Mason was the founding artistic director of New York’s legendary Circle Repertory Company, acclaimed by the New York Times during the 1970’s and 80’s as “the chief provider of new American plays.” He has directed numerous plays across the world, to critical acclaim.

[edit] Plays

He directed twelve productions on Broadway, beginning with Jules Feiffer's Knock Knock in 1976, for which he received the first of his five Tony Award nominations for Best Director. Mason is best known for his historic collaboration of over 40 years with playwright Lanford Wilson, having directed more than sixty productions of Wilson's plays.

Notable off-Broadway work includes the original productions of Edward J. Moore's The Sea Horse, William Mastrosimone's Sunshine, Larry Kramer's The Destiny of Me, William Hoffman's As Is, and Robert Patrick's The Haunted Host.

Mason has directed internationally from London to Tokyo and throughout the United States at theaters such as the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles, the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, the Steppenwolf Theater in Chicago, the Arena Stage and Ford’s Theater in Washington, D.C. He has also worked at the Hartford Stage Company, the Pittsburgh Public Theater, the Repertory Theater of St. Louis, the Cincinnati Playhouse, the Milwaukee Rep, South Coast Repertory in California and the Arizona Theatre Company.

  • Little Eyolf (1964)
  • The Haunted Host (1964)
  • Balm in Gilead (1965)
  • Home Free!' (1965)
  • The Madness of Lady Bright (1968)
  • The Gingham Dog (1968)
  • Three Sisters (Traditional and Experimental in Rep) (1970)
  • Hot L Baltimore (1973)
  • The Sea Horse (1974)
  • Battle of Angels (1974)
  • The Mound Builders (1975)
  • Knock Knock) (1976)
  • Serenading Louie (1976)
  • Fifth of July (1978)
  • Talley's Folly (1979)
  • Talley & Son (1981)
  • Angels Fall (1983)
  • Passion (1983)
  • As Is (1985)
  • Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1985)
  • Burn This (1987)
  • Sunshine (1989)
  • The Destiny of Me (1992)
  • The Seagull (1992)
  • Redwood Curtain (1993)
  • A Poster of the Cosmos (1994)
  • The Moonshot Tape (1994)
  • Cakewalk (1996)
  • Robbers (1997)
  • Sympathetic Magic (1997)
  • Book of Days (2002)

[edit] Biography

Mason was born in Amarillo, Texas on February 24, 1940. He is a graduate of Northwestern University (1961), where he directed his first production Cat on a Hot Tin Roof at the age of 19. He is Professor Emeritus of Theater at Arizona State University, where he taught for eleven years, and was honored with ASU’s 2001 Creative Activity Award. In 1999, Mason received a special millennium “Mr. Abbott Award” as one of the most innovative and influential directors of the 20th Century. He is the author of Creating Life On Stage: A Director's Approach to Working with Actors (Heinemann Press). He divides his time between his homes in Mazatlán, México and New York City.

[edit] Awards

Mason is the recipient of the Margo Jones Award, the Theater World Award, the Shubert Foundation Award, the Last Frontier Award, the Inge Festival Award and the Piscator Award, all in recognition of his lifetime achievements.

His regional theater work earned him four AriZoni Awards and three DramaLogue Awards as Best Director. While he was the chief drama critic for the weekly newspaper New Times, he won an Arizona Press Club Award for distinguished writing. His four television films (The Mound Builders, Kennedy's Children, The Fifth of July, and Picnic) for Showtime and PBS received two Ace Cable Award nominations for Best Film. He is past president of the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers, a national labor union.

Mason's productions have received 4 Tony Awards and a total of 24 Tony Award nominations.

Five nominations for Best Director:

  • Knock Knock
  • Talley’s Folly
  • Fifth of July
  • Angels Fall
  • As Is

Four plays directed by Mason also won Tony Awards:

  • Best Set Design - Talley’s Folly
  • Best Supporting Actress - Fifth of July and Redwood Curtain
  • Best Actress - Burn This

For his off-Broadway work, Mason has earned six Obie Awards, one for Sustained Achievement and five for Best Director:

  • The Hot L Baltimore
  • Battle of Angels
  • The Mound Builders
  • Serenading Louie
  • Knock Knock