Tony Taccone
Encyclopedia
Tony Taccone is an American theater director, and currently the artistic director of Berkeley Repertory Theatre
in Berkeley, California
.
Taccone, attended Boston College as an English major. He frequently participated in poetry readings, which led to performance art. After marrying, he accompanied his wife to the University of Colorado and became involved in the drama department. His acting troupe asked him to fill in for their sick director and stage the next play. Taccone called the gig the "closest thing I ever had to an epiphany," and permanently went behind the curtain. After graduating, Taccone enrolled in UC Berkeley in the doctoral directing program, where he became close friends with fellow student Richard E.T. White.
, who he commissioned to write what Kushner thought would be a short chamber piece called Angels in America
. Over Taccone's tenure there, the Eureka's annual budget grew from $60,000 to $780,000 as their subscriber number grew to 2,400 and the repertory moved to a new building because their theater was destroyed by an arsonist. Despite the growth, they required $1.3 million in order to stay afloat, and talks began that the repertory could not sustain its artists with growing families. Taccone was extremely reluctant to leave, but announced his resignation in 1988.
That year, Taccone became the associate artistic director of Berkeley Rep under Sharon Ott, again replacing White. Right around that time, Angels in America
, which ended up becoming a two-part, seven-hour epic, was becoming a national sensation critically and otherwise, and a boon to the Eureka. Four years later (in 1992), he and Oskar Eustis co-directed the world premiere of the complete work at the Mark Taper Forum
. In 1997, Berkeley Rep won a Tony for Best Regional Theater. That year, Ott left to become artistic director of Seattle Reperatory, and Taccone became full artistic director, where he has staged more than 35 shows, including the world premieres of Continental Divide
and Culture Clash in AmeriCCa
. He has collaborated with Kushner on six projects. Their latest piece featured designs by beloved children’s author, Maurice Sendak
: Brundibar
debuted at Berkeley Rep and then traveled to Yale Rep and the New Victory Theatre
in New York City. Taccone made his Broadway debut with Sarah Jones
’s Bridge & Tunnel. He also staged the show’s record-breaking off-Broadway run, workshopped it for Broadway at Berkeley Rep and directed Jones’ previous hit, Surface Transit
. In 2004, his production of David Edgar
’s Continental Divide
transferred to the Barbican in London after playing the Oregon Shakespeare Festival
, Berkeley Rep and England’s Birmingham Rep. Taccone frequently works in Ashland, where he has also directed Coriolanus
, Othello
, Pentecost
and the American premiere of Seamus Heaney
’s The Cure at Troy
. His other regional credits include noted theatres such as Actors Theatre of Louisville
, Arizona Rep, La Jolla Playhouse
, San Jose Rep, Seattle Rep and San Francisco’s Eureka Theatre, where he served six years as artistic director before coming to Berkeley Rep. Taccone has served on the faculty of U.C. Berkeley, sat on the board of Theatre Communications Group
and acted as a regional representative for the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society.
Playbill recently asserted that "Tony Taccone may very well be the most prominent artistic director in America right now." During his tenure, Berkeley Rep has emerged as the source of many important Broadway shows, including Green Day'sAmerican Idiot, Sarah Ruhl's In the Next Room, or the vibrator play, Carrie Fisher's Wishful Drinking, Sarah Jones' Bridge & Tunnel, and Passing Strange. Two of Taccone’s recent shows also transferred to London: Continental Divide played the Barbican in 2004, and Tiny Kushner played the Tricycle Theatre in 2010.
Taccone's professional career has included fostering clowning, a fascination he developed when he went to take his small family to see the Pickle Family Circus
in the 1980s. He favors clown artistry that is a reaction to tragedy.
Taccone has been called a "theatrical midwife" because he often encourages and fosters new talent. Examples include his work with Sarah Jones on Surface Transit and the aforementioned Tony Kushner.
In 2009, Taccone participated in A Night With the Stars, a play performed by persons who were previously homeless. The play was done as a fundraiser for Community Housing Partnerships in San Francisco.
Taccone made his playwriting debut in May 2011 with his solo show for Rita Moreno and followed this up with his show Ghost Light at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in 2011, which he co-created with Jonathan Moscone.
Taccone's children include Jorma Taccone
, a member of the sketch-comedy troupe the Lonely Island
and a writer for Saturday Night Live
and Asa Taccone, a musician and sometimes collaborator with his brother. Asa has composed music for his father's productions, such as for Bridge & Tunnel and Taking Over. Taccone currently lives in Berkeley with his companion, lawyer Morgan Forsey, and her son Conor.
Berkeley Repertory Theatre
Berkeley Repertory Theatre is a regional theater company located in Berkeley, California. It was founded in 1968, as the East Bay’s first resident professional theatre. Michael Leibert was the founding artistic director, who was then succeeded by Sharon Ott in 1984. The company runs seven...
in Berkeley, California
Berkeley, California
Berkeley is a city on the east shore of the San Francisco Bay in Northern California, United States. Its neighbors to the south are the cities of Oakland and Emeryville. To the north is the city of Albany and the unincorporated community of Kensington...
.
Early life
Tony Taccone was born on July 4, 1951 in Queens, New York to an Italian father and a Puerto Rican mother. They encouraged their children to go into the arts; their daughter became a photographer, and both sons found careers in theater.Taccone, attended Boston College as an English major. He frequently participated in poetry readings, which led to performance art. After marrying, he accompanied his wife to the University of Colorado and became involved in the drama department. His acting troupe asked him to fill in for their sick director and stage the next play. Taccone called the gig the "closest thing I ever had to an epiphany," and permanently went behind the curtain. After graduating, Taccone enrolled in UC Berkeley in the doctoral directing program, where he became close friends with fellow student Richard E.T. White.
Career
When White became artistic director of the Eureka Theatre, a converted warehouse in San Francisco's Mission District, he invited Taccone along. In 1981, White left and Taccone replaced him as the artistic director. It was there that Taccone began his partnership with Tony KushnerTony Kushner
Anthony Robert "Tony" Kushner is an American playwright and screenwriter. He received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1993 for his play, Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes, and co-authored with Eric Roth the screenplay for the 2005 film, Munich.-Life and career:Kushner was born...
, who he commissioned to write what Kushner thought would be a short chamber piece called Angels in America
Angels in America
Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes is the 1993 Pulitzer Prize winning play in two parts by American playwright Tony Kushner. It has been made into both a television miniseries and an opera by Peter Eötvös.-Characters:...
. Over Taccone's tenure there, the Eureka's annual budget grew from $60,000 to $780,000 as their subscriber number grew to 2,400 and the repertory moved to a new building because their theater was destroyed by an arsonist. Despite the growth, they required $1.3 million in order to stay afloat, and talks began that the repertory could not sustain its artists with growing families. Taccone was extremely reluctant to leave, but announced his resignation in 1988.
That year, Taccone became the associate artistic director of Berkeley Rep under Sharon Ott, again replacing White. Right around that time, Angels in America
Angels in America
Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes is the 1993 Pulitzer Prize winning play in two parts by American playwright Tony Kushner. It has been made into both a television miniseries and an opera by Peter Eötvös.-Characters:...
, which ended up becoming a two-part, seven-hour epic, was becoming a national sensation critically and otherwise, and a boon to the Eureka. Four years later (in 1992), he and Oskar Eustis co-directed the world premiere of the complete work at the Mark Taper Forum
Mark Taper Forum
The Mark Taper Forum is a 739 seat thrust stage at the Los Angeles Music Center built by Welton Becket and Associates on the Bunker Hill section of downtown Los Angeles...
. In 1997, Berkeley Rep won a Tony for Best Regional Theater. That year, Ott left to become artistic director of Seattle Reperatory, and Taccone became full artistic director, where he has staged more than 35 shows, including the world premieres of Continental Divide
Continental Divide
The Continental Divide of the Americas, or merely the Continental Gulf of Division or Great Divide, is the name given to the principal, and largely mountainous, hydrological divide of the Americas that separates the watersheds that drain into the Pacific Ocean from those river systems that drain...
and Culture Clash in AmeriCCa
Culture Clash in AmeriCCa
Culture Clash in AmeriCCa is a 2005 documentary film directed by Emilio Estevez. It is an anthology of fun and thought-provoking skits and monologues portraying diverse American immigrants. Emlio Estevez doesn't appear in this documentary film...
. He has collaborated with Kushner on six projects. Their latest piece featured designs by beloved children’s author, Maurice Sendak
Maurice Sendak
Maurice Bernard Sendak is an American writer and illustrator of children's literature. He is best known for his book Where the Wild Things Are, published in 1963.-Early life:...
: Brundibar
Brundibár
Brundibár is a children's opera by Jewish Czech composer Hans Krása with a libretto by Adolf Hoffmeister, originally performed by the children of Theresienstadt concentration camp in occupied Czechoslovakia...
debuted at Berkeley Rep and then traveled to Yale Rep and the New Victory Theatre
New Victory Theatre
The New Victory Theater is an Off-Broadway theater located at 209 West 42nd Street, between 7th and 8th Avenues, in Midtown Manhattan. The New Victory is New York's first and only theater for children and family audiences...
in New York City. Taccone made his Broadway debut with Sarah Jones
Sarah Jones
Sarah Jones is a Tony- and Obie Award-winning American playwright, actress, and poet.Called "a master of the genre" by The New York Times, Jones has written and performed four multi-character solo shows, including Bridge & Tunnel, which was produced Off-Broadway in 2004 by Oscar-winner Meryl...
’s Bridge & Tunnel. He also staged the show’s record-breaking off-Broadway run, workshopped it for Broadway at Berkeley Rep and directed Jones’ previous hit, Surface Transit
Surface transit
Surface transit is a type of public transit that operates on the surface in built-up areas, usually with buses or tram systems....
. In 2004, his production of David Edgar
David Edgar (playwright)
David Edgar is a British playwright and author who has had more than sixty of his plays published and performed on stage, radio and television around the world, making him one of the most prolific dramatists of the post-1960s generation in Great Britain.He was resident playwright at the Birmingham...
’s Continental Divide
Continental Divide
The Continental Divide of the Americas, or merely the Continental Gulf of Division or Great Divide, is the name given to the principal, and largely mountainous, hydrological divide of the Americas that separates the watersheds that drain into the Pacific Ocean from those river systems that drain...
transferred to the Barbican in London after playing the Oregon Shakespeare Festival
Oregon Shakespeare Festival
The Oregon Shakespeare Festival is a regional repertory theatre in Ashland, Oregon, United States. The festival annually produces eleven plays on three stages during a season that lasts from February to October...
, Berkeley Rep and England’s Birmingham Rep. Taccone frequently works in Ashland, where he has also directed Coriolanus
Coriolanus
Gaius Marcius Coriolanus was a Roman general who is said to have lived in the 5th century BC. He received his toponymic cognomen "Coriolanus" because of his exceptional valor in a Roman siege of the Volscian city of Corioli. He was then promoted to a general...
, Othello
Othello
The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in approximately 1603, and based on the Italian short story "Un Capitano Moro" by Cinthio, a disciple of Boccaccio, first published in 1565...
, Pentecost
Pentecost
Pentecost is a prominent feast in the calendar of Ancient Israel celebrating the giving of the Law on Sinai, and also later in the Christian liturgical year commemorating the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples of Christ after the Resurrection of Jesus...
and the American premiere of Seamus Heaney
Seamus Heaney
Seamus Heaney is an Irish poet, writer and lecturer. He lives in Dublin. Heaney has received the Nobel Prize in Literature , the Golden Wreath of Poetry , T. S. Eliot Prize and two Whitbread prizes...
’s The Cure at Troy
The Cure at Troy
The Cure at Troy is an adaptation by Seamus Heaney of Sophocles' play Philoctetes. The adaption is well known for its lines "History says, Don't hope / On this side of the grave, / But then, once in a lifetime / The longed-for tidal wave / Of justice can rise up / And hope and history rhyme."...
. His other regional credits include noted theatres such as Actors Theatre of Louisville
Actors Theatre of Louisville
Actors Theatre of Louisville is a performing arts theater located in downtown Louisville, Kentucky. It was founded in 1964 by Louisville native Ewel Cornett, local producer Richard Block and actor Ken Jenkins of Scrubs fame, and was designated the "State Theater of Kentucky" in 1974. It is run as a...
, Arizona Rep, La Jolla Playhouse
La Jolla Playhouse
La Jolla Playhouse is a not-for-profit, professional theatre-in-residence on the campus of the University of California, San Diego. -Background:...
, San Jose Rep, Seattle Rep and San Francisco’s Eureka Theatre, where he served six years as artistic director before coming to Berkeley Rep. Taccone has served on the faculty of U.C. Berkeley, sat on the board of Theatre Communications Group
Theatre Communications Group
Theatre Communications Group is an organization dedicated to the promotion of non-profit professional theatre in the United States. TCG has over 450 member theatres located in 47 states; 17,000 individual members; and a growing number of University, Funder, Business and Trustee Affiliates...
and acted as a regional representative for the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society.
Playbill recently asserted that "Tony Taccone may very well be the most prominent artistic director in America right now." During his tenure, Berkeley Rep has emerged as the source of many important Broadway shows, including Green Day'sAmerican Idiot, Sarah Ruhl's In the Next Room, or the vibrator play, Carrie Fisher's Wishful Drinking, Sarah Jones' Bridge & Tunnel, and Passing Strange. Two of Taccone’s recent shows also transferred to London: Continental Divide played the Barbican in 2004, and Tiny Kushner played the Tricycle Theatre in 2010.
Taccone's professional career has included fostering clowning, a fascination he developed when he went to take his small family to see the Pickle Family Circus
Pickle Family Circus
The Pickle Family Circus was a small circus founded in 1974 in San Francisco, California, USA. The circus formed an important part of the renewal of the American circus. They also influenced the creation of Cirque du Soleil in Montreal...
in the 1980s. He favors clown artistry that is a reaction to tragedy.
Taccone has been called a "theatrical midwife" because he often encourages and fosters new talent. Examples include his work with Sarah Jones on Surface Transit and the aforementioned Tony Kushner.
In 2009, Taccone participated in A Night With the Stars, a play performed by persons who were previously homeless. The play was done as a fundraiser for Community Housing Partnerships in San Francisco.
Taccone made his playwriting debut in May 2011 with his solo show for Rita Moreno and followed this up with his show Ghost Light at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in 2011, which he co-created with Jonathan Moscone.
Personal life
Taccone credits the success of Angels in America with triggering a personal bout of narcissm that coincided with middle age. He says he eventually returned to the person he wanted to be, and found his friends and family still there, although his marriage was over.Taccone's children include Jorma Taccone
Jorma Taccone
Jorma Christopher Taccone is an American comedy writer-actor-director. Taccone is one third of the sketch comedy troupe The Lonely Island along with childhood friends Andy Samberg and Akiva Schaffer...
, a member of the sketch-comedy troupe the Lonely Island
The Lonely Island
The Lonely Island is an American comedy troupe composed of Akiva "Kiv" Schaffer, Jorma "Jorm" Taccone, and David Andrew "Andy" Samberg, best known for their comedic music. Originally from Berkeley, California, the group is currently based in New York City. The group broke out due to their...
and a writer for Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live is a live American late-night television sketch comedy and variety show developed by Lorne Michaels and Dick Ebersol. The show premiered on NBC on October 11, 1975, under the original title of NBC's Saturday Night.The show's sketches often parody contemporary American culture...
and Asa Taccone, a musician and sometimes collaborator with his brother. Asa has composed music for his father's productions, such as for Bridge & Tunnel and Taking Over. Taccone currently lives in Berkeley with his companion, lawyer Morgan Forsey, and her son Conor.
Theater credits
- Honour, Berkeley Repertory Theatre - director
- Continental Divide, Berkeley Repertory Theatre - director
- Surface Transit, Berkeley Repertory Theatre - director
- Cloud Nine, Berkeley Repertory Theatre - director
- Homebody/Kabul, Berkeley Repertory Theatre - director
- Culture Clash in AmeriCCa, Berkeley Repertory Theatre - director
- The Oresteia, Berkeley Repertory Theatre - director
- Ravenshead, Berkeley Repertory Theatre - director
- Pentecost, Slavs!, Berkeley Repertory Theatre - director
- The Caucasian Chalk Circle, Berkeley Repertory Theatre - director
- Endgame/Act Without Words, Berkeley Repertory Theatre - director
- Volpone, Berkeley Repertory Theatre - director
- The Convict’s Return, Berkeley Repertory Theatre - director
- Major Barbara, Berkeley Repertory Theatre - director
- Serious Money, Berkeley Repertory Theatre - director
- Waiting for Godot - director
- OthelloOthelloThe Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in approximately 1603, and based on the Italian short story "Un Capitano Moro" by Cinthio, a disciple of Boccaccio, first published in 1565...
, Oregon Shakespeare Festival - director - Pentecost, Oregon Shakespeare Festival - director
- CoriolanusCoriolanusGaius Marcius Coriolanus was a Roman general who is said to have lived in the 5th century BC. He received his toponymic cognomen "Coriolanus" because of his exceptional valor in a Roman siege of the Volscian city of Corioli. He was then promoted to a general...
, Oregon Shakespeare Festival - director - The Cure at TroyThe Cure at TroyThe Cure at Troy is an adaptation by Seamus Heaney of Sophocles' play Philoctetes. The adaption is well known for its lines "History says, Don't hope / On this side of the grave, / But then, once in a lifetime / The longed-for tidal wave / Of justice can rise up / And hope and history rhyme."...
, Oregon Shakespeare Festival - director - The Birthday Party and Execution of Justice, Berkeley Repertory Theatre
- Waiting for GodotWaiting for GodotWaiting for Godot is an absurdist play by Samuel Beckett, in which two characters, Vladimir and Estragon, wait endlessly and in vain for someone named Godot to arrive. Godot's absence, as well as numerous other aspects of the play, have led to many different interpretations since the play's...
(1989) - director - Angels in AmericaAngels in AmericaAngels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes is the 1993 Pulitzer Prize winning play in two parts by American playwright Tony Kushner. It has been made into both a television miniseries and an opera by Peter Eötvös.-Characters:...
, Parts One and Two, Mark Taper Forum (1992) - director - Brundibar (2006), New Victory Theater - director
- Zorro in Hell (2006) - director
- Wishful Drinking (2008), Berkeley Repertory Theatre - director
- Taking Over, (2009) - director