MICHAEL WILSON (Director) made his Broadway debut with the premiere of Matthew Barber’s TONY nominated Best Play Enchanted April starring Jayne Atkinson and Molly Ringwald. His other Broadway productions include Horton Foote’s Dividing the Estate starring Elizabeth Ashley and Gerald McRaney, revivals of John Van Druten’s Old Acquaintance starring Harriet Harris and Corey Stoll, Gore Vidal’s The Best Man starring Candice Bergen and Angela Lansbury, and The Trip to Bountiful starring Cicely Tyson, who received the 2013 TONY Award for Best Actress. Off Broadway, Wilson has directed plays by Marcus Gardley, Rebecca Gilman, John Guare, Beth Henley, Arthur Miller, Tennessee Williams, and Lanford Wilson. For his commission, development and direction of Horton Foote’s 3-part, 9-hour epic The Orphans’ Home Cycle, he received a Drama Desk and Outer Critics' Circle Award. A Morehead-Cain Scholar graduate in Dramatic Art from UNC-Chapel Hill, Wilson began his professional theatre career with Robert Brustein at Harvard’s American Repertory Theatre where he most directed The Night of the Iguana starring Dana Delaney, Bill Heck, James Earl Jones and Amanda Plummer. During his nine seasons as Associate Director of Houston’s Alley Theatre, he staged critically-acclaimed productions Tony Kushner’s Angels in America as well as O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey Into Night starring Ellen Burstyn. Wilson became the fourth Artistic Director of the TONY Award-winning Hartford Stage in 1998. His transformative 13-year tenure there greatly expanded the company’s educational offerings and engagement with the community, especially deepening its commitment to diversity, both on stage and off. He commissioned and developed Quiara Alegria Hudes’ Water By the Spoonful, one of only a handful of new American plays premiering outside of New York to win the Pulitzer Prize. For the last decade or more, Wilson has focused on directing projects for stage and screen, while continuing to serve and lead the field. In 2021, following his 6-year tenure as Treasurer of the union of professional Stage Directors & Choreographers (SDC) Wilson was awarded the President’s Award for Outstanding Service. A long-time member of the American Theatre Wing - Broadway League's TONY Administration committee, Wilson is developing several new plays and musicals, including Edward L Beck’s Ungodly Pursuit starring Vanessa Williams and Chris Noth. Last summer, he was name Artistic Director/Theater at Wild Geese Gallery where he will be offering acting intensive workshops this April and May. 02 07 2024
