It’s no surprise that Tony winner Diane Paulus points to Waitress as a highlight of her directorial career. After premiering in Cambridge, the show debuted on Broadway last year as the first musical to have four different women in the four major creative roles. However, it’s a real-life tale of female empowerment from the show’s run that sticks out in Paulus’ mind. Before the curtain rose for the musical’s opening night on Broadway, the entire cast and creative team jammed onto the stage, and Paulus read a note that had been left in the lobby by a theatergoer who had recently seen the play.
“It said, ‘Thank you for saving my life. I got out of an abusive relationship thanks to this production,’ ” Paulus recalls. “There are many reasons we do it, but the idea that we could reach one person and give them the courage—through a musical even!”
The building blocks of musicals—dance and song—have always been interests for Paulus, who grew up playing the piano and dancing ballet a few blocks from Lincoln Center before entering Harvard with a desire to study politics. But Paulus caught the theater bug, eventually earning a master’s from Columbia in directing and taking over as the artistic director of Harvard’s American Repertory Theater. From The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess to Pippin, she’s directed a number of Tony-winning musicals that have blazed a path from Cambridge to Broadway. Next she’ll direct two world premieres: February’s The White Card, penned by poet Claudia Rankine, and Jagged Little Pill, a Diablo Cody/Alanis Morissette collab slated for May. For Paulus, the prospect of working with two talented teams in back-to-back shows reaffirms why she was first drawn to theater decades ago.
“I loved being in a room and working in a group. I loved that feeling of being part of something that is larger than yourself,” she says. “I found that in the theater.”
“Eve Ensler. I’ve admired her from a distance in awe of her. … I always felt I was an activist in my heart, back to growing up in New York City and wanting to go into politics. And having this impulse that the world could be a better place, and how I wanted to do that through art. Meeting Eve was kind of the pivot point for me of how one can live and combine all those because she’s such an example of that. Getting to know her, getting in her orbit for philosophy, everything that she’s been through and what she stands for, and the kind of courage she has as a human being and as an artist—it’s been an enormous influence. We did In the Body of the World together last year. I read her memoir and said, ‘I want to commission it and adapt it.’ It was one of the most incredible collaborations I’ve had in my life, and we’re now collaborating on a new play with her to bring to A.R.T. in a couple of seasons.”
The Leader Board
Who inspires Boston’s movers and shakers? Ten local talents making a mark in their fields tell us who influenced them along the way.
By Matt Martinelli | Photo: Susan Lapides | Aug. 4, 2017
Diane Paulus
It’s no surprise that Tony winner Diane Paulus points to Waitress as a highlight of her directorial career. After premiering in Cambridge, the show debuted on Broadway last year as the first musical to have four different women in the four major creative roles. However, it’s a real-life tale of female empowerment from the show’s run that sticks out in Paulus’ mind. Before the curtain rose for the musical’s opening night on Broadway, the entire cast and creative team jammed onto the stage, and Paulus read a note that had been left in the lobby by a theatergoer who had recently seen the play.
“It said, ‘Thank you for saving my life. I got out of an abusive relationship thanks to this production,’ ” Paulus recalls. “There are many reasons we do it, but the idea that we could reach one person and give them the courage—through a musical even!”
The building blocks of musicals—dance and song—have always been interests for Paulus, who grew up playing the piano and dancing ballet a few blocks from Lincoln Center before entering Harvard with a desire to study politics. But Paulus caught the theater bug, eventually earning a master’s from Columbia in directing and taking over as the artistic director of Harvard’s American Repertory Theater. From The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess to Pippin, she’s directed a number of Tony-winning musicals that have blazed a path from Cambridge to Broadway. Next she’ll direct two world premieres: February’s The White Card, penned by poet Claudia Rankine, and Jagged Little Pill, a Diablo Cody/Alanis Morissette collab slated for May. For Paulus, the prospect of working with two talented teams in back-to-back shows reaffirms why she was first drawn to theater decades ago.
“I loved being in a room and working in a group. I loved that feeling of being part of something that is larger than yourself,” she says. “I found that in the theater.”
Who influenced you?
“Eve Ensler. I’ve admired her from a distance in awe of her. … I always felt I was an activist in my heart, back to growing up in New York City and wanting to go into politics. And having this impulse that the world could be a better place, and how I wanted to do that through art. Meeting Eve was kind of the pivot point for me of how one can live and combine all those because she’s such an example of that. Getting to know her, getting in her orbit for philosophy, everything that she’s been through and what she stands for, and the kind of courage she has as a human being and as an artist—it’s been an enormous influence. We did In the Body of the World together last year. I read her memoir and said, ‘I want to commission it and adapt it.’ It was one of the most incredible collaborations I’ve had in my life, and we’re now collaborating on a new play with her to bring to A.R.T. in a couple of seasons.”
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