Peter DuBois Named Huntington's New Artistic Director
Young, Versatile Director taking over The Huntington Theatre Company
By: Mark Favermann - Dec 12, 2007
After the Huntington's Board ratified the results of an 11-month national search, DuBois succeeds Nicholas Martin, who has been artistic director since 2000. Martin announced last year he would leave the company in June 2008 to take over the Williamstown Theatre Festival. The artistic director position at the Huntington was endowed in 2002 by the late Stanford Calderwood in honor of his wife, Huntington trustee Norma Jean Calderwood.
"I'm thrilled to inherit one of this country's most artistically vital and important theatre companies," DuBois says. "Michael (Maso, the Huntington's long-term managing director) and Nicholas have done a marvelous job building the institution to its next level. The fantastic theatre spaces, a strong partnership with Boston University, and the incredible staff and board form a remarkable foundation to build a future upon. I look forward to unifying all elements of the Huntington into a vision that embraces the best of the American theatre, for the benefit of the artists who work here, our subscribers, and the Boston audiences."
"Making the Huntington part of the next chapter in my life as a director is truly thrilling. I grew up in New England, and Boston feels like home to me; I can't wait to be there," Peter DuBois says.
In over four years at the Public Theatre, DuBois had extensive experience in major production directing. These included the 2006 OBIE Award-winning production of David Grimm's "Measure for Pleasure" (for which he also won the Joe A. Callaway Award for excellence in directing from the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers), the acclaimed 2004 staging of "Richard III" with Peter Dinklage for the New York Shakespeare Festival, and 2007's "Jack Goes Boating," in collaboration with the LAByrinth Theatre Company and starring his good friend Philip Seymour Hoffman.
Peter DuBois' wide-ranging responsibilities at the Public also have included work on the theatre company's Broadway transfers and co-productions with high-profile New York companies as well as oversight of international artistic collaborations. These include most notably with Dublin's Abbey Theatre and The Royal Court Theatre in London. He is also a champion of young talent,
Before being recruited to the Public, DuBois was artistic director of Perseverance Theatre in Juneau, Alaska. A mid-sized regional company, Perseverance is hailed for distinctive artistic boldness and innovation. There, Peter DuBois directed revivals of Beckett, Shakespeare, and Chekhov, and introduced modern-day works by Paula Vogel, Suzan-Lori Parks, and others. He also helped the company's financial situation by cutting debt while raising more than $2.5 million in various campaigns.
DuBois' years at the Public saw him producing and directing productions involving hundreds of quality actors, including well-known stars Meryl Streep, Rosie Perez, and others—and many of the country's top playwrights such as Tony Kushner and Christopher Durang. Several productions that he directed have been nominated for Drama League Awards. In 1999, he was named by American Theatre Magazine as one of the 15 artists who would "transform America's stages for decades to come."
Two theatre projects that DuBois developed—a musical called "The Long Season" by Chay Yew and Fabian Obispo, and "The Doll Plays" by Alva Rogers—received Rockefeller Multi-Arts Production (MAP) Fellowships that support innovative new works in the live performing arts. DuBois is currently working with playwright/actor Sam Shepard on a new version of Shepard's "The Curse of the Starving Class," which he will direct at San Francisco's American Conservatory Theatre in the spring of 2008.
DuBois received his bachelor's degree from Villanova Universit and holds a master's degree in theatre from Brown University. Peter has studied at St. Catherine's College (Oxford University) and at University College in Galway, which is affiliated with Ireland's Druid Lane Theatre Company.
For those unfamiliar with the Huntington, this institution was founded in 1982. The Huntington Theatre Company is Boston's largest professional theatre organization. Under the leadership of Artistic Director Nicholas Martin (2000-2008) and Managing Director Michael Maso (since 1982), the Huntington has expanded operations beyond its 900-seat main stage, the Boston University Theatre, to include the Stanford Calderwood Pavilion at the Boston Center for the Arts, with the 370-seat Virginia Wimberly Theatre and the 200-seat Nancy and Edward Roberts Studio Theatre. Thus, the Huntington is making an even greater impact on the City of Boston and regional theatre in New England.