Jay Scheib (born October 6, 1969) is an American stage director, playwright and artist, noted for his contemporary productions of both classical and new plays and operas. Scheib is a Professor for Music and Theater Arts and director of the Program in Theater Arts at the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...

where he teaches performance media, motion theater, media and methods, and introduction to directing. Scheib has been a regular guest professor at the ''Mozarteum, Thomas Bernhard Institut, Abteilung für Regie und Schauspiel'' in

Salzburg Salzburg (, ; literally "Salt-Castle"; bar, Soizbuag, label=Bavarian language, Austro-Bavarian) is the List of cities and towns in Austria, fourth-largest city in Austria. In 2020, it had a population of 156,872. The town is on the site of the ...

, Austria, where he conducts an annual "viewpoints and composition" studio.

Biography

Early career

Scheib was born in

Shenandoah, Iowa Shenandoah is a city in Page and Fremont counties in Iowa, United States. The population was 4,925 at the time of the 2020 U.S. Census. Once referred to as the "seed and nursery center of the world," Shenandoah is the home to Earl May Seed Compa ...

and attended the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...

. In 1997 he entered

Columbia University School of the Arts The Columbia University School of the Arts, (also known as School of the Arts or SoA) is the fine arts graduate school of Columbia University in Morningside Heights, New York. It offers Master of Fine Arts (MFA) degrees in Film, Visual Arts, ...

from where he later received his Master of Fine Arts degree in Theater Directing. He began his career in

Minneapolis, Minnesota Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origins ...

with a 1991 production of

Antonin Artaud Antoine Marie Joseph Paul Artaud, better known as Antonin Artaud (; 4 September 1896 – 4 March 1948), was a French writer, poet, dramatist, visual artist, essayist, actor and theatre director. He is widely recognized as a major figure of the E ...

's ''Le Jet du Sang'' followed by a commission from the International Festival of Free Theaters in

Szeged Szeged ( , ; see also #Etymology, other alternative names) is List of cities and towns of Hungary#Largest cities in Hungary, the third largest city of Hungary, the largest city and regional centre of the Southern Great Plain and the county seat ...

, Hungary where Scheib was to premiere ''The Seasonal.'' He went on to co-found The American Theater Institute, which eventually became The Arcade Studio. Productions here included: ''The Kingdom'', ''The Suicide'', ''Poems for the Theater'', ''The Device Machine'', ''Lendra // Revolute'', ''John Day'', ''Galileo Sidereal'', Witkacy's ''The Madman and the Nun'',

Heiner Müller Heiner Müller (; 9 January 1929 – 30 December 1995) was a German (formerly East German) dramatist, poet, writer, essayist and theatre director. His "enigmatic, fragmentary pieces" are a significant contribution to postmodern drama and postdr ...

's ''Mommsen's Block'', ''The Battle'' (''Die Schlacht''), ''Prolegomenon'', and ''Pickaxe''.

Awards and honours

Scheib's work as a theater and opera director has been seen in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, France, Norway, Finland, Turkey, Netherlands, Czech Republic, Hong Kong, China, Hungary, Serbia, Slovenia, Italy, and Austria. Known for his sometimes controversial contemporary stagings, and for pioneering his Live Cinema Performances he has won numerous awards including th
2012 Obie Award for Best Director
and a 2011 Guggenheim Fellowship, the Richard Sherwood Award from the Mark Taper Forum, The National Endowment for the Arts / Theater Communications Group Program for Directors, and the Edgerton Award from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 2009 Scheib was named by ''American Theater Magazine'' as one of the 25 Artists who will shape the next 25 years of American Theater. Most recently Scheib's production of ''Bat Out of Hell'' wo
London's Evening Standard Award for Best Musical.
For Scheib's staging of ''Bat Out of Hell'' he has been nominated fo
Best Director for the 2017 WhatsOnStage Award

Recent works

Scheib's opera and music theatrical works include

Jim Steinman James Richard Steinman (November 1, 1947 – April 19, 2021) was an American composer, lyricist and record producer. He also worked as an arranger, pianist, and singer. His work included songs in the adult contemporary, rock, dance, pop, mus ...

's ''

Bat Out of Hell ''Bat Out of Hell'' is the 1977 debut album by American rock singer Meat Loaf and composer Jim Steinman. It is one of the best-selling albums in history. The album was developed from a musical, ''Neverland'', a futuristic rock version of ''P ...

. Bat Out of Hell'' began previews at the

London Coliseum The London Coliseum (also known as the Coliseum Theatre) is a theatre in St Martin's Lane, Westminster, built as one of London's largest and most luxurious "family" variety theatres. Opened on 24 December 1904 as the London Coliseum Theatre ...

on June 5, 2017, ahead of an official opening on June 20 and ran until August 22, 2017. ''Bat Out of Hell'' will made its North American premiere at the

Ed Mirvish Theatre The Ed Mirvish Theatre, also currently known by naming rights sponsorship as CAA Ed Mirvish Theatre, is a historic film and play theatre in the downtown core of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was initially known as the Pantages Theatre, then becam ...

on October 14, 2017, and ran through January 7, 2018. On its final performance, the cast announced a return to London at the

Dominion Theatre The Dominion Theatre is a West End theatre and former cinema on Tottenham Court Road, close to St Giles Circus and Centre Point, in the London Borough of Camden. Planned as primarily a musical theatre, it opened in 1929, but the following year ...

in 2018 for an open-ended West End run. Scheib also recently directed
Persona
', after the film by

Ingmar Bergman Ernst Ingmar Bergman (14 July 1918 – 30 July 2007) was a Swedish film director, screenwriter, Film producer, producer and playwright. Widely considered one of the greatest and most influential filmmakers of all time, his films are known ...

composed by Keeril Makan with libretto and direction b
Jay Scheib
Other productions include ''Addicted to Bad Ideas'', the post-punk "lieder abend" about the life and times of

Peter Lorre Peter Lorre (; born László Löwenstein, ; June 26, 1904 – March 23, 1964) was a Hungarian and American actor, first in Europe and later in the United States. He began his stage career in Vienna, in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, before movin ...

with

The World/Inferno Friendship Society The World/Inferno Friendship Society (also referred to as World Inferno, or Inferno) was an American band from Brooklyn, New York. Its style merged punk, soul, klezmer and jazz, while its collective membership featured horns, piano and guitar ...

. The production premiered at the Philadelphia Festival of Live Arts and went on to tour numerous venues and festivals including the Luminato Festival in Toronto, The Urban Festival, Helsinki, Spoleto Festival, USA, Under the Radar Festival / New York Public Theater, Peak Performances, and the Noorderzon Performing Arts Festival in Groningen, Netherlands. He also directed

Evan Ziporyn Evan Ziporyn (b. Chicago, Illinois, December 14, 1959) is an American composer of post-minimalist music with a cross-cultural orientation, drawing equally from classical music, avant-garde, various world music traditions, and jazz. Ziporyn h ...

's Live Cinema opera ''A House in Bali'' at Cal Performances, Berkeley CA, Cutler Majestic Theater, Boston and the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Brooklyn, New York in fall 2010 featuring contemporary music ensemble ''Bang on a Can'' and ''Gamelan Salukat'' led by Dewa Ketut Alit. Scheib has also staged the world premiere of Irena Popovich's ''Mozart Luster Lustik'' at the Sava Center in Belgrade, carried out the libretto direction and media design for ''The Making of Americans'' at the Walker Art Center based on the novel by

Gertrude Stein Gertrude Stein (February 3, 1874 – July 27, 1946) was an American novelist, poet, playwright, and art collector. Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in the Allegheny West neighborhood and raised in Oakland, California, Stein moved to Paris ...

and staged the five part Novaflot opera saga ''Kommander Kobayashi'' composed by Moritz Eggert, Aleksandra Gryka, Ricardas Kabelis, Juha Koskinen and Helmut Oehring, and conducted by Jonathan Kaell at the

Saarland State Theatre The Saarland (, ; french: Sarre ) is a state of Germany in the south west of the country. With an area of and population of 990,509 in 2018, it is the smallest German state in area apart from the city-states of Berlin, Bremen, and Hamburg, and ...

Saarbrücken Saarbrücken (; french: link=no, Sarrebruck ; Rhine Franconian: ''Saarbrigge'' ; lb, Saarbrécken ; lat, Saravipons, lit=The Bridge(s) across the Saar river) is the capital and largest city of the state of Saarland, Germany. Saarbrücken is S ...

. Scheib's theatrical productions include

Brecht Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht (10 February 1898 – 14 August 1956), known professionally as Bertolt Brecht, was a German theatre practitioner, playwright, and poet. Coming of age during the Weimar Republic, he had his first successes as a pl ...

's ''Puntila und sein Knecht Matti'' at the

Theater Augsburg The Staatstheater Augsburg is a theatre of Augsburg, Germany. Until 1999 it was called Städtische Bühnen Augsburg, from then until the end of August 2018 it was called ''Theater Augsburg''. It offers on four stages musical theatre, plays and bal ...

in Germany;

Tolstoy Count Lev Nikolayevich TolstoyTolstoy pronounced his first name as , which corresponds to the romanization ''Lyov''. () (; russian: link=no, Лев Николаевич Толстой,In Tolstoy's day, his name was written as in pre-refor ...

's ''

The Power of Darkness ''The Power of Darkness'' (russian: Власть тьмы, Vlast′ t′my) is a five- act drama by Leo Tolstoy. Written in 1886, the play's production was forbidden in Russia until 1902, mainly through the influence of Konstantin Pobedonostsev. I ...

'' at the Trafo House of Contemporary Art in Budapest, Daniel Veronese's ''Women Dreamt Horses'' at Performance Space 122, Vallejo Gantner Artistic Director, Chuck Mee's ''Iphigenia'' at the Norwegian Theater Institute, Lothar Trolle's ''Fernsehen 3'' and ''Ein Vormittag in der Freiheit'' at the Volksbühne am Rosa Luxemburg Platz in Berlin. Also known for his Live Cinema adaptations of novels, films, and non-theatrical events, Scheib's staged adaptations include: ''Bellona, Destroyer of Cities'' adapted from Samuel R. Delany's novel, ''

Dhalgren ''Dhalgren'' is a 1975 science fiction novel by American writer Samuel R. Delany. It features an extended trip to and through Bellona, a fictional city in the American Midwest cut off from the rest of the world by an unknown catastrophe. Plot o ...

'' at The Kitchen in New Yor
Samuel R. Delany and Jay Scheib discuss Bellona, Destroyer of Cities with Ashley Crawford
'' World of Wires'' (2012) adapted from the science fiction film ''

World on a Wire ''World on a Wire'' (german: Welt am Draht) is a 1973 German science fiction television serial, starring Klaus Löwitsch and directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder. Shot in 16 mm, it was made for German television and originally aired in 1973 in ...

'', ''Untitled Mars (This Title May Change)'' adapted from Lassewitz, Dick, Lem and the activities of the Mars Desert Research Station in Utah which premiered at Performance Space 122 in New York. His live-cinema adaptation of

Antonioni Michelangelo Antonioni (, ; 29 September 1912 – 30 July 2007) was an Italian filmmaker. He is best known for directing his "trilogy on modernity and its discontents"—''L'Avventura'' (1960), ''La Notte'' (1961), and ''L'Eclisse'' (1962 ...

's works ''This Place is a Desert'' was first performed as a workshop with the Kretakor Ensemble in Budapest followed by a studio presentation at Massachusetts Institute of Technology before its world premiere at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston and its subsequent sold-out run at the Public Theater as part of the Under the Radar Festival. Other adaptations include ''Margarethhamlet'', which premiered in Berlin and ''All Good Everything Good '' after Shakespeare's ''

All's Well That Ends Well ''All's Well That Ends Well'' is a play by William Shakespeare, published in the ''First Folio'' in 1623, where it is listed among the comedies. There is a debate regarding the dating of the composition of the play, with possible dates rangin ...

'' which premiered in Bologna at Raum. Both Shakespeare adaptations were choreographed for a solo performer on guitar and were presented with Margareth Kammerer. The New York City Opera presented the opera, ''Powder Her Face'', by Thomas Adès, in February 2013 at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in a production directed by Jay Scheib.A Duchess Who Made Blue Blood Curdle
The New York Times

References

External links

*

* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20100914124747/http://www.arktype.org/jay_scheib.html Profile on arktype.org
2014 ''Bomb Magazine'' interview of Jay Scheib by Alix Pearlstein
{{DEFAULTSORT:Scheib, Jay 1969 births Living people University of Minnesota alumni American theatre directors People from Shenandoah, Iowa Columbia University School of the Arts alumni