The primary Stages Off-Broadway Oral history Project

Celebrating the visionaries who created New York's vibrant Off- and Off-Off-Broadway theater.

Anne Bogart

Anne Bogart

Co-Founder of SITI Company, Director
Born on Tuesday, September 25, 1951

Interviewed on: Tuesday, September 27, 2016
Location: Primary Stages Offices
Interviewed by: Casey Childs
Interview #80
Photo Credit: Craig Schwartz
"Sometimes I think to this day that nothing’s changed; I’m still directing like I did when I was 15… I think there are certain plays that playwrights write that transcend human experience."
Anne Bogart Highlights
Video Length: 5 Minutes, 8 Seconds
Anne Bogart Interview Part One
Video Length: 1 Hour, 42 Minutes
Anne Bogart Interview Part Two
Video Length: 1 Hour

Anne Bogart is a prolific director and a co-founder of SITI Company with Tadashi Suzuki. Prior to the formation of SITI Company in 1992, Bogart served as the Artistic Director of the Trinity Repertory Company (1989-90) and Via Theater (1987-1992), which she co-founded with Brian Jucha. Her numerous Off-Broadway directing credits include: CINDERELLA-CENDRILLON (1988), IN THE JUNGLE OF CITIES (1991), THE BALTIMORE WALTZ (1992), ESCAPE FROM PARADISE (1994), GERTRUDE AND ALICE (1999), ROOM (2002 and 2011), DEATH AND THE PLOUGHMAN (2004), DEAD MAN’S CELL PHONE (2008), FRESHWATER (2009), TROJAN WOMEN (2012), and THE EXALTED (2015). Bogart has also written for the stage; one of her most notable works, which she also directed, is BOB (1998), a one-man show about renowned theatre director Robert Wilson. She has received two Best Director OBIE Awards, a Bessie Award, an American Theatre Wing Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship, a U.S. Artists Fellowship, and a Richard B. Fisher Award, among many other honors. 

Bogart received her undergraduate degree from Bard College and completed her graduate studies at NYU Tisch School of the Arts. She is perhaps best known for her version of Mary Overlie’s Six Viewpoints, an improvisational movement technique for actors. She is the co-author, with Tina Landau, of “The Viewpoints Book,” and has written three other texts: “A Director Prepares,” “And Then, You Act,” and “What’s the Story.” Bogart has taught at universities and institutions around the world and currently heads the Graduate Directing Program at Columbia University, a position she has held since 1993.

Mentioned in Interview

Bill Driver, Lyn Austin, Deirdre O’Connell, Roberta Sklar, Mary Overlie, Paula Vogel, Tadashi Suzuki, Robert Wilson, Laurie Anderson, Ellen Lauren, Sarah Ruhl, John Cage, Richard Schechner, Jerzy Grotowski, New York Theater Workshop, Playwrights Horizons, Classic Stage Company, NYSF/The Public, Via Theater, Trinity Repertory, Circle Repertory Theatre, SITI Company, MACBETH, INHABITATE, BAAL, BALTIMORE WALTZ, HOT AND THROBBING, GOING, GOING, GONE, BOB, DEATH AND THE PLOUGHMAN, IN THE JUNGLE OF CITIES, CULTURE OF DESIRE, THE MEDIUM, ROOM, ESCAPE FROM PARADISE, DEAD MAN’S CELL PHONE

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