COLLABORATORS
(scroll down for full list)
Artistic Director, Lear deBessonet
Lear deBessonet, Director
lear.debessonet@gmail.com
917.561.8704
Lear deBessonet (Director) has been developing new works for theatre in New York since 2003 with a focus on interdisciplinary and site-specific music-theatre projects. On the Levee, her music-theatre collaboration with Marcus Gardley, Todd Almond, and visual artist Kara Walker premiered at Lincoln Center Theater's LCT3 in June 2010 (Time Out Best of 2010). In May 2009, her site-specific Don Quixote, a community-based collaboration with homeless shelter Broad Street Ministry and the punk-gypsy ensemble The Psalters, premiered in Philadelphia (Philadelphia Weekly Best of 2009). Other recent work includes a new adaptation of The Scarlet Letter by Naomi Iizuka created with violinist Todd Reynolds at the Intiman Theatre, a country-blues adaptation of Brecht's Saint Joan of the Stockyards at PS122, transfigures, produced Off-Broadway by Women's Project, and Death Might Be Your Santa Claus, a site-specific work performed at an abandoned bank next to the NY Stock Exchange. For Ten Thousand Things, she created a My Fair Lady that toured to prisons, community centers, and homeless shelters in Minneapolis (Pioneer Press's "10 Plays that Made a Difference" in 2010). International: In the Dark Ages (National Opera Theatre of Kazakhstan). She has assisted Martha Clarke, Marianne Weems, Anne Bogart, Bartlett Sher, and Theatre du Soleil, and was named one of Time Out New York's "25 People to Watch." Upcoming: THE ODYSSEY, premiering at the Old Globe Theatre in 2011.
Ms. deBessonet created and ran the TICKETS FOR THE PEOPLE program in New York, an initiative designed to distribute 20,000 tickets to non-traditional theatre-goers including low-income individuals, immigrants, students, and seniors. In 2008, she was honored with the first annual Presidential Award for Artistic Excellence by the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council alongside Mayor Bloomberg and Edward Albee. She is an alumnus of the Drama League Director's Project, the Women's Project Directors Lab, the Soho Rep Writer/Director Lab, and a Jefferson Scholar. A recipient of an NEA/TCG Career Development Program for Directors, she has also acted as a visiting professor at NYU-Tisch School of the Arts.
COLLABORATORS
ST. JOAN OF THE STOCKYARDS
- Directed by Lear deBessonet
- Songs composed and performed by Kelley McRae [kelleymcrae.com]
- Featuring Kate Benson, Michael Crane, Jonathan Co Green, Jessica Green, Peter McCain, Nate Schenkkan, Kristen Sieh, and Richard Toth
- Set Design: Justin Townsend
- Lighting Design: Peter Ksander
- Costume Design: Clint Ramos
- Sound Design: Mark Huang
- Choreography: Tracy Bersley
- Dramaturg: Helen Shaw
- Assistant Director: Lily Whitsitt
- Stage Manager: Rebecca Spinac
- Produced by Karina Mangu Ward and Anne Erbe
BONE PORTRAITS
- Direction: Lear deBessonet
- Writer: Deborah Stein
- Co-Created and Performed by Michael Crane, Gian-Murray Gianino, Adam Green, Miriam Silverman, Jessica Wortham
- Set Design: Justin Townsend
- Lighting Design: Justin Townsend
- Film & Video Design: Greg King
- Costume Design: Kirche Leigh Zeile
- Sound Design: Mark "Muttt" Huang
- Stage Manager: Dave Polato*
- Production Manger: Ben Sterling
- Assistant Director: Michael Perlman
- Producer: Anne Erbe
- Graphic Design: Greg King & Sari Mizrahi
- Web Design: Claire Iltis
DEATH MIGHT BE YOUR SANTA CLAUS
- Direction: Lear deBessonet
- Created and Performed by Sara Barker, Gillian Chadsey, Jonny Green, Nicholas Job, Jamie King, Dave Laufgraben, Anne Robinson, Robert Satietta, Lucy Smith
- Scenic Design: Michael Casselli
- Lighting Design: Beth Turomsha
- Costume Design: Sarah Maiorino
- Sound Design: Raul Enriquez
- Additional Workshop Collaborators: Trevor Davis, Tara Schoch-Fredrickson, Meghan Hart, Julia Holleman, Alana Jackler, Sauda Jackson, Kathryn Merry, Matt West
BITE YOUR TONGUE
- Direction: Lear deBessonet
- Performer: Aran Cravey
- Sound Design: Jamie McElhinney
THE ELIOTS
- Concept and Direction: Lear deBessonet
- Collaborating Writer: Caridad Svich
- Created and Performed by: Christopher Logan Healy, Julie Kline, Lethia Nall, Nate Schenkkan, Ryan West
- Set Design: Donyale Werle
- Lighting Design: Beth Turomsha
- Costume Design: Kirche Leigh Zeile
- Sound design: Mark Huang
- Projection Design: Gregory King
- Choreography: Nate Schenkkan
- Props Design: Donyale Werle
- Ballroom Dances: Kate Enright
- Production Stage Manager: Jen Stamey
THE FEMALE TERRORIST PROJECT
- Writer: Ken Urban
- Direction: Lear deBessonet
- Performers: Ani Bluhm, Gillian Chadsey, Maha Chehlaoui, Carrie Keranen, Nicholas Mongiardo-Cooper, and Nate Schenkkan
- Developed in workshop by: Kate Benson, Gillian Chadsey, Maha Chehlaoui, Danyon Davis, Kristen Gass, and Nate Schenkkan
- Lighting Design: Beth Turomsha
- Sound Design: Mark Huang
- Stage Manager: Jenny Lazar
L'HISTOIRE DU CANARD: A Surrealist History of Truth in 20th Century America
- Direction: Lear deBessonet
- Created and Performed by: Mike Crane, Manoel Felciano, Adam Green, and Emily Swallow
- Lighting design: Stacey Boggs
- Sound design: Manoel Felciano
TRANSFIGURES
- Concept and Direction: Lear deBessonet
- Created and Performed by Kate Enright, Gian-Murray Gianino, Erik A. Johnson, Julie Kline, Ilia Dodd Loomis, Megan Riordan and Nate Schenkkan
- Writer: Bathsheba Doran
- Set Design: Jenny Sawyers
- Lighting Design: Beth Turomsha
- Costume Design: Janine Marie McCabe
- Sound Design: Mark Huang
- Stage Manager: Jen Stamey
- Postcard Design by Greg King
- Produced by Ebs Burnough and Lear deBessonet
