Career
After college, Taymor used a Thomas J. Watson Fellowship to study pre-Bunraku puppetry on Awaji Island, Japan, to learn more about experimental theatre, puppetry and visually oriented theatre. Taymor's greatest acclaim as a director for the stage has come from the popular musical The Lion King (1997), an adaptation of the animated film. Taymor received two Tony Awards for her work on The Lion King, one for Direction and one for Costume Design, making her the first woman to receive a Tony Award for directing a musical.
In 1991, Taymor won the prestigious MacArthur Fellowship ("genius" award) for her innovative work in theatre. In addition, Taymor has received a Guggenheim Fellowship, two Obie Awards, the first Annual Dorothy B. Chandler Award in Theater, and the Brandeis Creative Arts Award. A major retrospective of 25 years of Taymor's work opened in the fall of 1999 at the Wexner Center for the Arts and toured the National Museum of Women in the Arts (Washington D.C.) and the Field Museum of Natural History (Chicago), and was extended due to popular demand in each venue. In September 2009, costumes from The Lion King were requested and presented to the Smithsonian National Museum of American History and they are now part of the Smithsonian collection as well as the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.
For the Metropolitan Opera 2005-06 season, Taymor directed a successful production of The Magic Flute. It was revised for the 2006-07 season and, in addition to full-length performances, was adapted for a 100-minute version over the Holiday season to appeal to children. That version of the opera was the first of a series of NCM Fathom Live on the Big Screen presentations of MET operas downloaded via satellite to movie theaters across North America and parts of Europe for the 2006-07 season.
In June 2006, Taymor directed the opera Grendel for the Los Angeles Opera, starring Eric Owens, which was also presented as part of the Summer 2006 Lincoln Center Festival in New York City. Taymor's more recent work has been as director of the film Across the Universe, a 1960s love story set to the music of The Beatles and starring Jim Sturgess and Evan Rachel Wood. The film opened in September 2007 and received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Comedy/Musical in 2008.
In November 2008, Taymor directed a film version of Shakespeare's The Tempest, released in December 2010.
Taymor was the 2010 Commencement speaker for her alma mater, Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio.
Read more about this topic: Julie Taymor
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