The Old Globe is pleased to host the 2020 Classical Directing Fellowships, a program of the Karen and Stuart Tanz Fellowships at The Old Globe, led by the Globe’s Erna Finci Viterbi Artistic Director Barry Edelstein, a leading Shakespearean scholar, author, and director. Four directing fellows—Meg DeBoard (assistant directed at The Old Globe and La Jolla Playhouse; local credits include Spring Awakening, Failure: A Love Story), Manoel Felciano (actor in the Globe’s The Tempest, Ken Ludwig’s Robin Hood! and Twelfth Night; Broadway’s To Kill a Mockingbird, Sweeney Todd, Amélie), Lavina Jadhwani (As You Like It at Guthrie Theater, Peter and the Starcatcher at Oregon Shakespeare Festival, The Cake at Asolo Repertory Theatre), and Edward Torres (the Globe’s Familiar, Native Gardens, Water by the Spoonful, 2017 and 2020 Powers New Voices Festivals; award-winning world premiere of The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity)—will participate in the second session of Shakespeare directing workshops. They will be in residence from Monday, March 16 to Saturday, March 21, 2020.

Thanks to the generosity of Karen and Stuart Tanz, who have made a significant 10-year pledge to the Annual Fund of The Old Globe, the program is part of the Karen and Stuart Tanz Fellowships at The Old Globe. Their gift supports theatre training programs such as Edelstein’s Classical Directing Fellowships, and will be recognized with production sponsorships of two shows each year and with a permanent paver stone on the Globe’s Copley Plaza.

Karen Tanz is a proud member of the Board of Directors at The Old Globe, as well as one of the 2019 Globe Gala Co-Chairs, and is active with many philanthropic organizations in San Diego. Originally from Toronto, she studied theatre management at the Banff School of Fine Arts, which inspired her work in live theatre and television in Canada. she served as a producer of the musical Allegiance, which premiered at the Globe in 2012. Stuart Tanz is President and CEO of ROIC, a position he has held since 2009. He also serves as Chairman of the University of Toronto Tanz Centre for Research in Neurodegenerative Diseases. They moved to Rancho Santa Fe in 1989 to raise two children, and they now have a granddaughter. They have previously sponsored October Sky, Picasso at the Lapin Agile, The Absolute Brightness of Leonard Pelkey, Life After, and this year’s What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank.

As one of the leading Shakespeare theatres in America, the Globe presents four full productions of the Bard’s plays annually, and Shakespeare is central to the theatre’s nationally renowned arts engagement programs. All of this work exemplifies the Globe’s values-driven commitment to making theatre matter to more people, a commitment that expresses the Globe’s view of theatre art as a public good. This commitment and this view require the Globe to think about the future of the American theatre and to train artists whose work will embody the values we champion. We can make a contribution not only to our own work but also to the field at large by expanding the ranks of exciting Shakespeareans ready to make theatre at the Globe’s level of excellence.

This Classical Directing Fellowships will continue to broaden our professional artist-training work, which initially centered on The Old Globe and University of San Diego Shiley Graduate Theatre Program, which focuses on actors. The 2019 Classical Directing Fellowship pilot-program cohort included four diverse young directors from San Diego and across the U.S., including Globe veterans Daniel Jáquez and Delicia Turner Sonnenberg, as well as Sam White and LA Williams, and we are excited to see it evolve into an ongoing part of the Globe’s artistic life.

The Classical Directing Fellowships focus on Shakespeare’s text, how it is put together, and how it works in the imaginations and voices of American actors. In master classes, Edelstein will present a series of techniques that the fellows will then employ in rehearsals with a company of professional actors. The work will culminate in a private presentation on Saturday. After that, all involved will debrief and broaden the conversation to some larger questions about Shakespeare, American culture, and the director’s art and life. Throughout the week, in addition to the artistic work, the fellows will meet with members of the Globe’s staff in many departments, and with representatives of the San Diego theatre community beyond the Globe. They will gain not only a set of specific tools to use in directing Shakespeare, but also a sense of the community in one of America’s most dynamic theatre towns. In exchange, the Globe will have the chance to begin a conversation with a group of gifted artists with so much to offer this theatre.