Films, News, Theater, Women Directors

Pam MacKinnon Will Head San Francisco’s American Conservatory Theater

MacKinnon: Internet Broadway Database

Broadway director Pam MacKinnon will soon be making her way to the West Coast. The New York Times confirms that the “Parisian Woman” helmer will succeed Carey Perloff as American Conservatory Theater’s (ACT) next artistic director. MacKinnon will officially take over as of July 1.

The Tony winner told NYT she plans to split her time between New York and San Francisco and will “absolutely continue to direct on Broadway.” MacKinnon explained, “I’ve always been a freelance director, but now I feel ready to build something bigger than myself — to put myself into an institution, producing a body of work, and trying to learn as well as grow from a particular audience.” “San Francisco is a great city,” she added.

As ACT’s new leader, MacKinnon plans to bring more plays from young writers to the stage. She also wants to put on productions from the NYC company Clubbed Thumb at ACT. (MacKinnon is currently chairwoman of Clubbed Thumb’s board. She’ll transition to its advisory board when she begins work at ACT.)

MacKinnon won the Best Direction of a Play Tony in 2013 for her rendition of “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” She was nominated for the same award in 2012 for “Clybourne Park.” Her other stage directing credits include “Amélie,” “The Heidi Chronicles” and “China Doll.” MacKinnon’s “The Parisian Woman,” set in the world of D.C. politics, is currently playing at Hudson Theatre. Next she will helm “Log Cabin,” a new play from “Marjorie Prime” scribe Jordan Harrison, at Playwrights Horizons. MacKinnon serves as president of her union, the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society.

“I do think that there are a lot of women directors working right now, and that is really exciting. But I also recognize that there are not that many women working on Broadway, and that is dreadful,” MacKinnon told Women and Hollywood. “The Broadway statistics of men to women as directors has been frozen at the same percentage. When Julie Taymor won a Tony for ‘The Lion King’ and Gary Hynes won one for ‘The Beauty Queen of Leenane’ in 1998, it was like a glass ceiling had broken, but if you look at the percentages across the Broadway field, it hasn’t changed.”


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