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 Photo by Jeffrey Hornstein |
William Martin
Director
William Martin is a free-lance director, playwright, dramaturg, and acting coach. After receiving his Ph.D. in theatre history from the University of Wisconsin, he began his directing career staging operas with many Metropolitan Opera notables including Jerome Hines and Eleanor Steber. His first Broadway venture was the Tony-nominated “Best Musical” The Lieutenant for which he received a Drama Desk Award nomination for “Best Director ’74-75”. Since that time he has directed more than 200 productions of both musical and non-musical theatre On- and Off-Broadway and in the regional and university theatre arenas with such names as Eartha Kitt, George Grizzard, Jessica Tandy, Hume Cronyn, Deborah Kerr, Frank Langella, Barry Bostwick, Salome Jens, Barbara Barrie, Jason Alexander, Maureen Anderman Patricia Richardson, Pamela Meyers, and Dick Shawn.
During his 34-year professional career, Dr. Martin has established himself as a premier “actors’ director” and a reputed adjudicator and instructor for university and theatre conferences. He is the creator of the “Character Kinespheric Technique”. Among his produced plays are his adaptations of The Three Musketeers, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Last Unicorn, and his co-authored That Man Jefferson, which was credited in The Best Plays of 1976 as the best of the Bicentennial theatrical offerings; and most recently his musical farce A Naughty Knight was produced Off-Broadway.
Dr. Martin is a theatre historian, dramaturg, and co-founder/vice president of the Lyric Theatre International, which is a research and publishing organization restoring the entire canon of John Philip Sousa’s comic operas, including The Glass Blowers, which was produced at the New York City Opera to successful reviews. If this were not enough, he was brought in on special assignment by Joseph Papp to the casting office of the NY Shakespeare Festival, and later he was the manager of the Applause Theatre and Cinema Bookstore in New York City, where much of his time was spent advising actors on audition materials.
He has been a private acting coach for 26 years, specializing in Shakespearean and contemporary audition preparation and sharpening acting skills.
In addition to his being a member-in-good-standing of The Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers (since 1975), ASCAP, and The Dramatists Guild, and a member and past-trustee of The National Theatre Conference and of New Jersey Repertory Company, Dr. Martin served for nearly 20 years as a board member and past-president (5 years) of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation.
