Travis Preston

Travis Preston (born September 20, 1957) is an American director and theater artist known for his staging of classical and contemporary operas and plays. He is the Artistic Director of the CalArts Center for New Performance and Dean of the CalArts School of Theater. His notable works include Prometheus Bound, The Master Builder, Brewsie and Willie, Macbeth and King Lear.[1]

Travis Preston
Born (1957-09-20) September 20, 1957
East Chicago, Indiana
NationalityAmerican
EducationYale School of Drama
Known forVisual/Theater Artist, Performance Art
AwardsOrdre des Arts et des Lettres – Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters
2008 Contributions to the arts in France and throughout the world – Director

Best Opera production in Germany – Opern Welt
1999 Al Gran Sole Carico d’Amore – Director

Best Opera Production Citation – Scandinavian Press Society
1996 Lulu – Director
WebsiteTravis Preston Official Website

Background

Preston was born in September 1957 in East Chicago, Indiana. He applied for Yale School of Drama while working on his Ph.D. in psychology Indiana University.[2] He began his career by directing Aeschylus' Prometheus Bound in 1980 at Wrocławski Teatr Współczesny in Poland.

Much of Preston's early career intersected with Polish Theater. He studied with Jerzy Grotowski at the Teatr Laboratorium in Wroclaw, where he also worked with dramaturg Ludwig Flaszen and trained with Grotowski actors Ryszard Cieslak, Zygmunt Molik, and Rena Mirecka, studying the method of physical actions, plastiques and corporals. Preston spent time with Grotowski on the Mountain Project in the Polish forest. While in Poland Preston was also introduced to the work of Tadeusz Kantor and Józef Szajna.

At Yale, Preston was the assistant of the celebrated Polish film and theater director Andrzej Wajda on a production of White Marriage by Tadeusz Różewicz at the Yale Repertory Theatre. While at Yale Preston was the first student selected to direct at the Yale Rep, a world premiere production of Terra Nova, by Ted Tally.

Preston joined Robert Brustein for the founding of the American Repertory Theatre at Harvard, where he served as Associate Artist until 1990. During this period Preston focused on directing modern classics: O'Neill (Mourning Becomes Electra), Strindberg (The Ghost Sonata), Chekov (The Seagull), and several celebrated productions of plays by Henrik Ibsen, including A Doll's House, Ghosts, and Little Eyolf at the Yale Repertory Theatre. He was one of the founding members of the American Ibsen Theater in Pittsburgh. Significant productions included the American Premiere of The Sleep of Reason by Antonio Buero-Vallejo at Baltimore's Center Stage, The Balcony at the Hong Kong Repertory Theatre, and the American premiere of Bernard-Marie Koltès' Roberto Zucco in New York.

Career

In 2017, Preston directed Fantômas: Revenge of the Image and staged it at the Wuzhen Theatre Festival in China.[3] He also directed and produced Sam Shepard's Buried Child for the Hong Kong Repertory Theatre.[4]

In 2013, Preston revisited Aeschylus' Prometheus Bound, staging it at the Getty Villa at the Barbara and Lawrence Fleischman outdoor Amphitheater.[5] The performance featured Emmy award winner Ron Cephas Jones in the role of Prometheus, and Mirjana Joković as Io. For the play, he and set designer Efren Delgadillo Jr, employed a 23-foot-tall rotating steel wheel symbolizing time and representing the protagonist being bound to a mountaintop, as per the Greek tragedy.[5]

Preston was appointed as the Artistic Director of the CalArts Center for New Performance[6] in 2005 and Dean of the CalArts School of Theater[7] in August 2010.[8] In the same year, he directed Ibsen's The Master Builder at the Almeida Theatre in London, starring Gemma Arterton and Stephen Dillane.[9][10]

In 2005, Preston directed Stephen Dillane in the popular Shakespeare tragedy Macbeth (A Modern Ecstasy). In the play, he explored the inner landscape of Macbeth's soul and staged this one performer drama in a minimalist set at REDCAT in Disney Hall.[11][12] The play was also performed at the Almeida Theater in London and at the Sydney and Adelaide Festivals in Australia.[13]

Preston has been teaching faculty at universities and theater training programs including The Yale School of Drama, Columbia School of the Arts, New York University, the National Theater School of Denmark, Indiana University, Hong Kong Academy for the Performing Arts, and Harvard University.[8]

Devised work

Preston began applying his work on classic texts and text-based methods to devising projects derived from various sources in rehearsal. Using the physical/gestural techniques he developed as a basis, Preston devised a wide ranging series of works that expanded the discourse and practice of contemporary performance creation. These included Paradise Bound: Part II,[14] a spectacle with 100 performers mounted at the Central Park bandshell in New York that involved a chorus of boom boxes “conducted” in an urban ritual of radio cacophony; Woyzeck/Nosferatu (Samuel Beckett Theater, NYC), a meditation on silent cinema and hypnosis; Apocrypha at Cucaracha in New York in 1995, an oratorio based on the Gnostic Gospels: Democracy in America, based on Alexis de Tocqueville's work of the same name, created together with Colette Brooks for the Yale Repertory Theatre.

Opera

As part of Copenhagen's activities as Cultural City of Europe, Travis Preston directed Lulu by Alban Berg - a co-operation between the Danish National Symphony, the Lille Grønnegåde Theater, and the Royal Family of Denmark, performed in the Queen's riding stables of Christiansborg Palace. This began a series of opera works: Luigi Nono's Al gran sole carico d'amore and Boris Godounov at the Hamburg State Opera, Don Pasquale, Falstaff, Don Giovanni, Semiramide, The Pearl Fishers, and Saul and the Witch of Endor at Opera at the Academy in New York. He directed the opening performance gala at Daniel Libeskind's Jewish Museum in Berlin.[14]

Center for New Performance

The CalArts Center for New Performance (CNP) was founded in 2002 by Travis Preston (Artistic Director), Carol Bixler and Susan Solt. It was inaugurated with Travis's innovative all female production of Shakespeare's King Lear – which was staged in six different areas within the huge factory spaces of the Brewery Arts Complex in downtown LA. The production featured a moving platform which carried audience members across the space. This innovative device was further developed in Travis Preston and Tom Gunning's production of "Fantômas: Revenge of the Image.", also a CNP production.

CNP acts as the professional producing arm of the California Institute of the Arts, and was established to create a unique artist- and project-driven platform for the creation of original theater, dance, music, media, and a myriad of cross-disciplinary projects.

It is an extension of the progressive work developed at CalArts, providing a direct dialogue with professional communities at local, national, and international levels. CNP provides an alternate model for supporting upcoming and emergent directions within the performing arts. CNP enables CalArts students to collaborate and develop cutting-edge work with critically acclaimed artists, at a level of experience that surpasses their academic curriculum.

CNP's artistic council features José Luis Blondet, Douglas Kearney, Mara Isaacs, Jenny Krusoe, David Rosenboom, Carey Lovelace, Michael Skloff, and Judy Yin Shih.

Some notable artists who have developed, or starred in CNP productions are, Ron Cephas Jones, Condola Rashad, Stan Lai, Stephen Dillane, Richard Foreman, Martin Acosta, Mirjana Joković, Octavio Solis, David Rosenboom, Roger Guenveur Smith, Dahlak Brathwaite, Lars Jan, Edgar Arceneaux, Nataki Garrett, and the celebrated Mexican performance group, Lagartijas Tiradas al Sol.

Notable work
  • Fantômas: Revenge of the Image – 2017
  • Buried Child - 2017
  • Prometheus Bound - 2013[15]
  • The Master Builder - 2010
  • Brewsie and Willie - 2010
  • Ah! – 2009
  • Macbeth (A Modern Ecstasy) – 2005[16]
  • Bell Solaris: Twelve Metamorphoses in Piano Theater – 2004
  • Boris Godounov - 2004
  • King Lear – 2002[16]
  • Al Gran Gran Sole Carico D'Amore – 1999[17]
  • Lulu - 1996[17]

Recognition

In 2006, Preston was awarded Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters by the French Minister of Culture.[18]

References
  1. Lifestyle. "Spotlight on Travis Preston, Theater Director". Our Culture Magazine. Retrieved June 24, 2020.
  2. Loewenstein, Melinda. "Artistic Director Travis Preston On the Challenges of Directing". www.backstage.com. Retrieved September 6, 2013.
  3. Zhou, Raymond. "A Bystander to the Darkness of Evil". www.critical-stages.org. Critical Stages.
  4. Emerson, Whit. ""Buried Child" in Hong Kong: Disparate Americana". The Theatre Times. Retrieved August 9, 2017.
  5. McNulty, Charles. "Review: 'Prometheus Bound' is a graceful revival at Getty Villa". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved September 6, 2013.
  6. Editors. "CalArts Center for New Performance Announces Season". AmericanTheatre.org. Retrieved September 26, 2019.CS1 maint: extra text: authors list (link)
  7. Martin, Hugo. "Want to design theme park attractions? CalArts has a new degree for you". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved October 2, 2017.
  8. "Travis Preston Appointed Dean of California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) School of Theater". www.stage-directions.com. Stage Directions. Retrieved July 28, 2010.
  9. Taylor, Paul. "The Master Builder, Almeida Theatre, London". The Independent. Retrieved November 22, 2010.
  10. Billington, Michael. "The Master Builder – review". The Guardian. Retrieved November 18, 2010.
  11. Swed, Mark. "Actor grabs Macbeth by throat". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved December 3, 2014.
  12. Breslauer, Jan. "Macbeth with no lady?". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved November 21, 2004.
  13. Billington, Michael. "Macbeth". The Guardian. Retrieved October 29, 2005.
  14. "Faculty Travis Preston". theater.calarts.edu. Retrieved September 9, 2020.
  15. "Preston's Prometheus Bound Brings Poetic Revolution to Getty Villa". www.thisstage.la. LA Stage Alliance. Retrieved September 5, 2013.
  16. Margolies, Dany. "Stephen Dillane & Travis Preston". www.backstage.com. Backstage. Retrieved November 24, 2004.
  17. Breslaur, Jan. "Spark of the new". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved June 9, 2002.
  18. Looseleaf, Victoria. "A New Spin on 'Prometheus Bound'". www.kcet.org. Public Media Group of Southern California. Retrieved September 4, 2013.
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