Charles Otte (born May 22, 1956) is an American
theatre director
A theatre director or stage director is a professional in the theatre field who oversees and orchestrates the mounting of a theatre production such as a play, opera, dance, drama, musical theatre performance, etc. by unifying various endeavors a ...
,
producer
Producer or producers may refer to:
Occupations
*Producer (agriculture), a farm operator
*A stakeholder of economic production
*Film producer, supervises the making of films
**Executive producer, contributes to a film's budget and usually does not ...
,
designer
A designer is a person who plans the form or structure of something before it is made, by preparing drawings or plans.
In practice, anyone who creates tangible or intangible objects, products, processes, laws, games, graphics, services, or exp ...
and
educator
A teacher, also called a schoolteacher or formally an educator, is a person who helps students to acquire knowledge, competence, or virtue, via the practice of teaching.
''Informally'' the role of teacher may be taken on by anyone (e.g. whe ...
. He is best known as a theatre and multi-media director working in New York and Los Angeles.
Otte was born in Cleveland Ohio. He received a B.A. from the
University of Virginia
The University of Virginia (UVA) is a Public university#United States, public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. Founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson, the university is ranked among the top academic institutions in the United S ...
, and an M.F.A. from the
University of Southern California
The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in C ...
.
Otte’s theatrical career includes work at the
Guthrie Theatre
The Guthrie Theater, founded in 1963, is a center for theater performance, production, education, and professional training in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The concept of the theater was born in 1959 in a series of discussions between Sir Tyrone Gut ...
,
Lincoln Center
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (also simply known as Lincoln Center) is a complex of buildings in the Lincoln Square neighborhood on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. It has thirty indoor and outdoor facilities and is host to 5 millio ...
, the
Alliance Theatre
The Alliance Theatre is a theater company in Atlanta, Georgia, based at the Alliance Theatre, part of the Robert W. Woodruff Arts Center, and is the winner of the 2007 Regional Theatre Tony Award. The company, originally the Atlanta Municipal T ...
,
Ensemble Studio Theatre
The Ensemble Studio Theatre (EST) is a non-profit membership-based developmental theatre located in Hell's Kitchen, New York City. It has a dual mission of nurturing individual theatre artists and developing new American plays.
Overview
The En ...
,
La Mama ETC
La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club (La MaMa E.T.C.) is an Off-Off-Broadway theatre founded in 1961 by Ellen Stewart, African Americans, African-American theatre director, producer, and fashion designer. Located in Manhattan's East Village, Manhatt ...
,
Los Angeles Opera
The Los Angeles Opera is an American opera company in Los Angeles, California. It is the fourth-largest opera company in the United States. The company's home base is the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, part of the Los Angeles Music Center.
Leadersh ...
,
Houston Opera
Houston Grand Opera (HGO) is an American opera company located in Houston, Texas. Founded in 1955 by German-born impresario Walter Herbert (conductor), Walter Herbert and three local Houstonians,Giesberg, Robert I., Carl Cunningham, and Alan Rich ...
,
Brooklyn Academy of Music
The Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) is a performing arts venue in Brooklyn, New York City, known as a center for progressive and avant-garde performance. It presented its first performance in 1861 and began operations in its present location in ...
,
Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall ( ) is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. It is at 881 Seventh Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh Avenue, occupying the east side of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street (Manhattan), 56th and 57th Street (Manhatta ...
, the
Ohio Theatre
Ohio () is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Of the List of states and territories of the United States, fifty U.S. states, it is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, 34th-l ...
, and the
Open Fist Theatre. From 1984 to 1990 he was the Artistic Director for
Project III Ensemble Theatre and later was Artistic Director for Mojave Group from 1991 to 1996.
He is currently co-Artistic Director for Zoo District Theatre in Los Angeles.
Major theatrical productions include James Joyce’s The Dead by Richard Nelson, Travesties by Tom Stoppard, Bulgakov’s Flight, and Three Penny Opera,
Goose and Tomtom by David Rabe,
Brecht’s Baal
Philip Glass
Philip Glass (born January 31, 1937) is an American composer and pianist. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential composers of the late 20th century. Glass's work has been associated with minimal music, minimalism, being built up fr ...
’s multi-media opera La Belle et La Bete. Additional work with Glass included staging the international tour of Einstein on the Beach (for Robert Wilson)
, staging Songs from Liquid Days, The Civil Wars (again for Wilson), and The Juniper Tree (for Andrei Serban).
Otte produced the CD-ROM game,
Monty Python & the Quest for the Holy Grail for
7th Level
7th Level was a video game development company based in Dallas, Texas and founded in 1993. Notable game titles by the company include: the three Monty Python games (with the aid of Python member Eric Idle); '' G-Nome'' (1997), a '' MechWarrior'' ...
in 1996 and was named one of the Top 100 producers of the year. Screenwriting and film directing credits include
Blind Faith
Blind Faith were an English supergroup featuring Steve Winwood, Eric Clapton, Ginger Baker, and Ric Grech. They were eagerly anticipated by the music press following on the success of each of the member's former bands, including Clapton a ...
,
I Am Not a Ghost,
Mission Invisible,
Biography
A biography, or simply bio, is a detailed description of a person's life. It involves more than just the basic facts like education, work, relationships, and death; it portrays a person's experience of these life events. Unlike a profile or ...
for A&E, and
Beer Nutz for
HDTV
High-definition television (HD or HDTV) describes a television system which provides a substantially higher image resolution than the previous generation of technologies. The term has been used since 1936; in more recent times, it refers to the g ...
.
As a multi-media creative director for
BRC Imagination Arts
Bob Rogers is an American designer, producer, and director, most known for his work in themed entertainment. Rogers is founder and chairman of strategic design and production company BRC Imagination Arts. Rogers oversees the creative elements ...
, Otte was Co-Creative Director for the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum and Library in Illinois where he created stage/film productions, historical interactive kiosks, and oversaw copy and design elements. The museum occupies two city blocks and includes such high level artifacts as the
Gettysburg Address
The Gettysburg Address is a Public speaking, speech that President of the United States, U.S. President Abraham Lincoln delivered during the American Civil War at the dedication of the Gettysburg National Cemetery, Soldiers' National Cemetery, ...
and Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address within the collection. Also produced by BRC, his production of The Star of Destiny is on permanent exhibit in the
Texas State History Museum in Austin. His work can also be seen at
Lotte World
Lotte World is a major recreation complex in Seoul, South Korea. It consists of the world's largest indoor theme park, an outdoor amusement park called "Magic Island", an artificial island inside a lake linked by monorail, shopping malls, a lu ...
in Seoul, Korea, and at Resorts World in Singapore.
Otte received the Themed Entertainment Award for Outstanding Achievement in 2002 for the Star of Destiny, and again in 2006 for the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum. He has received the LA Weekly Award for comedy direction for Travesties, and been nominated on numerous occasions.
[
Otte is currently on the faculty at the ]Savannah College of Art and Design
Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) is a private nonprofit art school with locations in Savannah, Georgia; Atlanta, Georgia; and Lacoste, France.
Founded in 1978 to provide degrees in programs not yet offered in the southeast of the Unit ...
teaching Themed Entertainment Design.
References
External links
Zoo District Theatre Company
University of Texas at Austin
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Otte, Charles
Living people
1956 births