Marshall W. Mason (born February 24, 1940) is an American

theater 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 ...

, educator, and writer. Mason founded the

Circle Repertory Company The Circle Repertory Company, originally named the Circle Theater Company, was a theatre company in New York City that ran from 1969 to 1996. It was founded on July 14, 1969, in Manhattan, in a second floor loft at Broadway and 83rd Street by direc ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

and was artistic director of the company for 18 years (1969–1987). He received an

Obie Award The Obie Awards or Off-Broadway Theater Awards are annual awards originally given by ''The Village Voice'' newspaper to theatre artists and groups in New York City. In September 2014, the awards were jointly presented and administered with the ...

for Sustained Achievement in 1983. In 2016, he received the Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theater. From 1983 to 1986, Mason was president of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society, a national

labor union A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits (s ...

Early life, education, and off-off-Broadway

Mason was born in

Amarillo, Texas Amarillo ( ; Spanish for " yellow") is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the seat of Potter County. It is the 14th-most populous city in Texas and the largest city in the Texas Panhandle. A portion of the city extends into Randall Cou ...

, on February 24, 1940. He graduated from

Northwestern University Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern is the oldest chartered university in Illinois and is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in the world. Charte ...

with a

bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Middle Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to si ...

in theater in 1961. At the age of 19, while at Northwestern, he received his first award for directing a production of

Tennessee Williams Thomas Lanier Williams III (March 26, 1911 – February 25, 1983), known by his pen name Tennessee Williams, was an American playwright and screenwriter. Along with contemporaries Eugene O'Neill and Arthur Miller, he is considered among the thr ...

' ''

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof ''Cat on a Hot Tin Roof'' is a three-act play written by Tennessee Williams. An adaptation of his 1952 short story "Three Players of a Summer Game", the play was written by him between 1953 and 1955. One of Williams's more famous works and his p ...

''. Upon graduating, he moved to

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

, where he began working in the

off-off-Broadway Off-off-Broadway theaters are smaller New York City theaters than Broadway and off-Broadway theaters, and usually have fewer than 100 seats. The off-off-Broadway movement began in 1958 as part of a response to perceived commercialism of the pro ...

theater movement in venues such as the

Caffe Cino Caffe Cino was an Off-Off-Broadway theater founded in 1958 by Joe Cino. The West Village coffeehouse, located at 31 Cornelia Street, was initially conceived as a venue for poetry, folk music, and visual art exhibitions. The plays produced at ...

La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club (La MaMa E.T.C.) is an Off-Off-Broadway theatre founded in 1961 by Ellen Stewart, African-American theatre director, producer, and fashion designer. Located in Manhattan's East Village, the theatre began in the ...

, and the

Judson Poets Theatre The Judson Memorial Church is located on Washington Square South between Thompson Street and Sullivan Street, near Gould Plaza, opposite Washington Square Park, in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of the New York City borough of Manhattan. ...

. Mason directed multiple productions at La MaMa during the 1960s. The first was ''

Balm in Gilead ''Balm in Gilead'' is a 1965 play written by American playwright Lanford Wilson. Dramatic structure Wilson's first full-length play, ''Balm in Gilead'' centers on a café frequented by heroin addicts, prostitutes, and thieves. It features many u ...

'' (1965), which was also his first collaboration with playwright

Lanford Wilson Lanford Wilson (April 13, 1937March 24, 2011) was an American playwright. His work, as described by ''The New York Times'', was "earthy, realist, greatly admired ndwidely performed." Fox, Margalit"Lanford Wilson, Pulitzer Prize-Winning Playwright ...

. He then directed Wilson's ''The Sand Castle or There is a Tavern in the Town or Harry Can Dance'' and ''The Girl on the BBC'', both at La MaMa in 1965. He directed a second production of ''The Sand Castle'' in 1967. That same year, Mason directed a production of Donald Julian's ''A Coffee Ground Among the Tea Leaves'' at La MaMa. In 1969, he directed a production of Julian's ''In Praise of Folly'' with

set design Scenic design (also known as scenography, stage design, or set design) is the creation of theatrical, as well as film or television scenery. Scenic designers come from a variety of artistic backgrounds, but in recent years, are mostly trai ...

by Wilson. Since their early collaboration at La MaMa, Mason has directed over sixty productions of Lanford Wilson's plays. ''

Playbill ''Playbill'' is an American monthly magazine for theatergoers. Although there is a subscription issue available for home delivery, most copies of ''Playbill'' are printed for particular productions and distributed at the door as the show's p ...

'' has identified this as the longest collaboration between a playwright and director in the history of American theater. Among these productions are ''

The Hot l Baltimore #REDIRECT The Hot l Baltimore the title is a play on the word 'Hotel' with a missing 'e', hence, ''"Hot l"''. The only "official" rendering with a capital "L" (official being defined as actual promotional material) is when the entire word, or ...

'', for which Mason won his first

for Distinguished Direction in 1973; ''

Fifth of July ''Fifth of July'' is a 1978 play by Lanford Wilson. Set in rural Missouri in 1977, it revolves around the Talley family and their friends, and focuses on the disillusionment in the wake of the Vietnam War. It premiered on Broadway in 1980 and w ...

'' (1978); ''

Talley's Folly ''Talley's Folly'' is a 1980 play by American playwright Lanford Wilson. The play is the second in ''The Talley Trilogy'', between his plays '' Talley & Son'' and ''Fifth of July''. Set in an boathouse near rural Lebanon, Missouri in 1944, it i ...

'' (1979); '' Angels Fall'' (1983); '' Burn This'' (1987); and ''

Redwood Curtain ''Redwood Curtain'' is a 1995 American dramatic TV movie created by Hallmark Hall of Fame, and directed by John Korty based upon the 1993 Broadway play of the same name by Lanford Wilson. Starring Jeff Daniels, Lea Salonga, Debra Monk and Joh ...

'' (1992).

Off-Broadway productions

He made his

off-Broadway An off-Broadway theatre is any professional theatre venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, inclusive. These theatres are smaller than Broadway theatres, but larger than off-off-Broadway theatres, which seat fewer th ...

debut in 1964 with a revival of

Henrik Ibsen Henrik Johan Ibsen (; ; 20 March 1828 – 23 May 1906) was a Norwegian playwright and theatre director. As one of the founders of modernism in theatre, Ibsen is often referred to as "the father of realism" and one of the most influential pla ...

's ''

Little Eyolf Little is a synonym for small size and may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Little'' (album), 1990 debut album of Vic Chesnutt * ''Little'' (film), 2019 American comedy film *The Littles, a series of children's novels by American author John P ...

''. In the decades since, Mason has been awarded five

s for Outstanding Direction: * Lanford Wilson's ''

'' (1973) * New York premiere of

' '' Battle of Angels'' (1974) * Lanford Wilson's ''The Mound Builders'' (1975) *

Jules Feiffer Jules Ralph Feiffer (born January 26, 1929)''Comics Buyer's Guide'' #1650; February 2009; Page 107 is an American cartoonist and author, who was considered the most widely read satirist in the country. He won the Pulitzer Prize in 1986 as North- ...

's '' Knock Knock'' (1976) * Lanford Wilson's ''

Serenading Louie ''Serenading Louie'' is a 1976 play by Lanford Wilson. Production history The 1976 Off-Broadway production of ''Serenading Louie'' played at the Circle Repertory Company from May 2 to May 30, 1976. Marshall W. Mason won an Obie Award for his dir ...

'' (1976) He directed 42 productions Off-Broadway, including Edward J. Moore's ''The Sea Horse'' (1974), Romulus Linney's ''

Childe Byron ''Childe Byron'' is a 1977 play by Romulus Linney about the strained relationship between the poet, Lord Byron, and his daughter, Ada Lovelace. Of Linney's more than sixty plays, ''Childe Byron'' is one he identified as holding a "deeply persona ...

'' (1981), Lanford Wilson's '' Talley & Son'' (1985),

William Mastrosimone William Mastrosimone (born August 19, 1947) is an American playwright and screenwriter from Trenton, New Jersey. He attended high school at The Pennington School and received a graduate degree in playwriting from Mason Gross School of the Arts, ...

's ''Sunshine'' (1989),

Larry Kramer Laurence David Kramer (June 25, 1935May 27, 2020) was an American playwright, author, film producer, public health advocate, and gay rights activist. He began his career rewriting scripts while working for Columbia Pictures, which led him to Lo ...

's '' The Destiny of Me'' (1992), Lanford Wilson's ''Sympathetic Magic'' (1997) and

Wilson Wilson may refer to: People *Wilson (name) ** List of people with given name Wilson ** List of people with surname Wilson * Wilson (footballer, 1927–1998), Brazilian manager and defender * Wilson (footballer, born 1984), full name Wilson R ...

's ''Book of Days'' (2002)''''.

Broadway productions

His

Broadway Broadway may refer to: Theatre * Broadway Theatre (disambiguation) * Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S. ** Broadway (Manhattan), the street **Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...

debut was on February 24, 1976, with a production of Jules Feiffer's '' Knock Knock'', for which he received his first

Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play The Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play has been given since 1960. Before 1960 there was only one award for both play direction and musical direction, then in 1960 the award was split into two categories: ''Dramatic'' and ''Musical''. In 1976 ...

nomination. He has since directed twelve productions on

and has been nominated for the

Tony Award The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Broadway Theatre, more commonly known as the Tony Award, recognizes excellence in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual c ...

five times. His additional Broadway credits include

Albert Innaurato Albert Francis Innaurato Jr. (June 2, 1947 – September 24, 2017) was an American playwright, theatre director, and writer. Early career Innaurato was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1947. After graduating from the prestigious Central Hi ...

's '' Gemini'' (1977); Ron Clark and

Sam Bobrick Sam Bobrick (July 24, 1932 – October 11, 2019) was an American author, playwright, television writer, and lyricist. Early life Bobrick was born to a Jewish family in Chicago on July 24, 1932. His father was a storekeeper and his mother worke ...

's '' Murder at the Howard Johnson's'' (1979); Lanford Wilson's ''

'' (1980), ''Talley's Folly'' (1980), and '' Angels Fall'' (1983); Peter Nichols' '' Passion'' (1983); William M. Hoffman's ''

As Is As is, when employed as a term with legal effect, is used to disclaim some implied warranties for an item being sold. Certain types of implied warranties must be specifically disclaimed, such as the implied warranty of title. "As is" denotes tha ...

'' (

Drama Desk Award The Drama Desk Award is an annual prize recognizing excellence in New York theatre. First bestowed in 1955 as the Vernon Rice Award, the prize initially honored Off-Broadway productions, as well as Off-off-Broadway, and those in the vicinity. F ...

for Best Play, 1985); Lanford Wilson's '' Burn This'' (1988);

Chekhov Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (; 29 January 1860 Old Style date 17 January. – 15 July 1904 Old Style date 2 July.) was a Russian playwright and short-story writer who is considered to be one of the greatest writers of all time. His career ...

's ''

The Seagull ''The Seagull'' ( rus, Ча́йка, r=Cháyka, links=no) is a play by Russian dramatist Anton Chekhov, written in 1895 and first produced in 1896. ''The Seagull'' is generally considered to be the first of his four major plays. It dramatises ...

'' (1992);

Rupert Holmes David Goldstein (born February 24, 1947), better known as Rupert Holmes, is a British-American composer, singer-songwriter, dramatist and author. He is widely known for the hit singles "Escape (The Piña Colada Song)" (1979) and " Him" (1980). ...

' ''Solitary Confinement'' (1992); and Lanford Wilson's ''

'' (1992).

Regional theater productions, international productions, and television

He has worked widely in

regional theater A regional theater or resident theater in the United States is a professional or semi-professional theater company that produces its own seasons. The term ''regional theater'' most often refers to a professional theater outside New York City. A reg ...

, including the

Mark Taper Forum The Mark Taper Forum is a 739-seat thrust stage at the Los Angeles Music Center designed by Welton Becket and Associates on the Bunker Hill section of Downtown Los Angeles. Named for real estate developer Mark Taper, the Forum, the neighborin ...

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world ...

, the

Guthrie Theater 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 ...

Minneapolis 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 origin ...

, the

Steppenwolf Theater Steppenwolf Theatre Company is a Chicago theatre company founded in 1974 by Terry Kinney, Jeff Perry, and Gary Sinise in the Unitarian church on Half Day Road in Deerfield, Illinois and is now located in Chicago's Lincoln Park neighborhood on H ...

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

Arena Stage Arena Stage is a not-for-profit regional theater based in Southwest, Washington, D.C. Established in 1950, it was the first racially integrated theater in Washington, D.C. and its founders helped start the U.S. regional theater movement. It is ...

and Ford's Theater in Washington, D.C., the

McCarter Theater McCarter Theatre Center is a not-for-profit, professional company on the campus of Princeton University in Princeton, New Jersey. The institution is currently led by Artistic Director Sarah Rasmussen and Managing Director Michael S. Rosenberg ...

Princeton Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the nin ...

, the Hartford Stage Company, the

Pittsburgh Public Theater Pittsburgh Public Theater, or The Public for short, is a professional theater company located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. After the retirement of longtime Producing Artistic Director Ted Pappas, The Public began the 2018–2019 season with a new ...

, the Repertory Theater of St. Louis, the

Cincinnati Playhouse The Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park is a regional theatre in the United States. It was founded in 1959 by college student Gerald Covell and was one of the first regional theatres in the United States. Located in Eden Park, the first play that pr ...

, and the Milwaukee Rep. For the 1988 season, he was appointed guest

artistic director An artistic director is the executive of an arts organization, particularly in a theatre or dance company, who handles the organization's artistic direction. They are generally a producer and director, but not in the sense of a mogul, since th ...

of the

Ahmanson Theater The Ahmanson Theatre is one of the four main venues that compose the Los Angeles Music Center. History The theatre was built as a result of a donation from Howard F. Ahmanson Sr, the founder of H.F. Ahmanson & Co., an insurance and savings and ...

of the

Los Angeles Music Center The Music Center (officially named the Performing Arts Center of Los Angeles County) is one of the largest performing arts centers in the United States. Located in downtown Los Angeles, The Music Center is composed of the Dorothy Chandler Pavilio ...

. Mason has directed three productions in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

as well as ''

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? ''Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?'' is a play by Edward Albee first staged in October 1962. It examines the complexities of the marriage of a middle-aged couple, Martha and George. Late one evening, after a university faculty party, they receive ...

'' at the

National Theatre of Japan The is a complex consisting of three halls in two buildings in Hayabusachō, a district in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. The Japan Arts Council, an Independent Administrative Institution of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Techno ...

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.46 ...

. On television, Mason has directed

William Inge William Motter Inge (; May 3, 1913 – June 10, 1973) was an American playwright and novelist, whose works typically feature solitary protagonists encumbered with strained sexual relations. In the early 1950s he had a string of memorable Broad ...

’s ''Picnic'', Lanford Wilson’s ''The Mound Builders'' and ''

'', and

Robert Patrick Robert Hammond Patrick (born November 5, 1958) is an American actor. Known for portraying villains and honorable authority figures, he is a Saturn Award winner with four other nominations. Patrick dropped out of college when drama class sparked ...

’s ''Kennedy's Children''. He has received two

CableACE Award The CableACE Award (earlier known as the ACE Awards; ACE was an acronym for "Award for Cable Excellence") is a defunct award that was given by what was then the National Cable Television Association from 1978 to 1997 to honor excellence in Am ...

nominations for his productions on Showtime.

Awards and recognition

On Broadway, Mason has been nominated for the

five times. Off-Broadway, he has received five

s for Outstanding Direction of a play and a sixth Obie Award for Sustained Achievement. He is the recipient of the 1979

Theatre World Award The Theatre World Award is an American honor presented annually to actors and actresses in recognition of an outstanding New York City stage debut performance, either on Broadway or Off-Broadway. It was first awarded for the 1945–1946 theatre se ...

and the 1977 Margo Jones Award for his discovery and nurturing of new playwrights and actors in his work with the

. In 1999, he was recognized with a Mr. Abbott Special Millennium Award as one of the most innovative and influential directors of the twentieth century. In 2014, he was elected to the Theater Hall of Fame. He received the 2015 Artistic Achievement Award from the New York Innovative Theater Foundation. In 2016, Mason received the Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre.

Teaching and writing

Mason is

Professor Emeritus ''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...

of Theater at

Arizona State University Arizona State University (Arizona State or ASU) is a public research university in the Phoenix metropolitan area. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, ASU is one of the largest public universities by enrollment in the ...

, where he taught for ten years. In 2001, he was honored with ASU’s Creative Activity Award. He was the chief

drama critic A critic is a person who communicates an assessment and an opinion of various forms of creative works such as art, literature, music, cinema, theater, fashion, architecture, and food. Critics may also take as their subject social or governme ...

for the ''

Phoenix New Times ''Phoenix New Times'' is a free digital and print media company based in Phoenix, Arizona. ''New Times'' publishes daily online coverage of local news, restaurants, music and arts, as well as longform narrative journalism. A weekly print issue ...

'', a weekly newspaper, in 1994-1995, and received the 1995 Phoenix Press Club Award for his writing about the performing arts. He wrote
Creating Life On Stage: A Director's Approach to Working with Actors
' (2007) and
The Transcendent Years: Circle Repertory Theater and the '60s
'' published as a Kindle e-book in 2016. He is a member of the

College of Fellows of the American Theatre The College of Fellows of the American Theatre is an honorary society of outstanding theatre educators and professional theatre practitioners. Origin The organization was formed in 1965 as a project proposed by members of the American Theatre Ass ...

at the

Kennedy Center The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts (formally known as the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts, and commonly referred to as the Kennedy Center) is the United States National Cultural Center, located on the Potom ...

Personal life

He lives in Mazatlán, Mexico and in

. On July 25, 2011, the first Monday after

New York State New York, officially the State of New York, is a state in the Northeastern United States. It is often called New York State to distinguish it from its largest city, New York City. With a total area of , New York is the 27th-largest U.S. sta ...

enacted its

marriage equality Same-sex marriage, also known as gay marriage, is the marriage of two people of the same sex or gender. marriage between same-sex couples is legally performed and recognized in 33 countries, with the most recent being Mexico, constituting ...

law, Mason married his partner of 37 years, theater artist Daniel Irvine.

Additional directing credits

*''

Home Free! ''Home Free!'' is a one-act play by American playwright Lanford Wilson. The play is among Wilson's earlier works, and was first produced Off-Off-Broadway, off-off-Broadway at the Caffe Cino in 1964. Production history The play premiered at Joe ...

'' (1965) *'' The Madness of Lady Bright'' (London, 1968) *''The Gingham Dog'' (1968) *'' Three Sisters'' (1970) *''A Streetcar Named Desire ''(1978) *''Hamlet'' (with William Hurt) (1979) *''Mary Stuart'' (1979) *''Foxfire ''(1981) *''Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?'' (Tokyo, 1985) *''Summer and Smoke ''(1988) *''Sleuth'' (National Tour) (1988) *''A Poster of the Cosmos'' (1994) *''The Moonshot Tape'' (1994) *''Cakewalk'' (1996) *''Robbers'' (1997) *''King Lear'' (1998) *'' Long Day's Journey into Night'' (1998) *''The Elephant Man'' (London, 1998) *''Ghosts'' (2001) *''Private Lives'' (2002) *''Cat on a Hot Tin Roof ''(2005) *''

The Goat, or Who is Sylvia? ''The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia?'' is a full-length play written in 2000 by Edward Albee which opened on Broadway in 2002. It won the 2002 Tony Award for Best Play, the 2002 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Play, and was a finalist for the 2003 ...

'' (2006)

References

External links

* *
archive

Robert Patrick's page on "Marshall W. Mason and Claris Nelson"
*
archive
*
Mason's page on La MaMa Archives Digital Collections
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mason, Marshall W. American theatre directors Northwestern University School of Communication alumni Obie Award recipients Special Tony Award recipients People from Amarillo, Texas 1940 births Living people