Darko Tresnjak Succeeds Michael Wilson at Hartford Stage July 1

Darko Tresnjak

Darko Tresnjak will succeed Michael Wilson as artistic director of Hartford Stage on July 1, 2011.

Tresnjak was the artistic director of the Old Globe Shakespeare Festival in San Diego from 2004 to 2009. His directing credits at the Old Globe include Cyrano de Bergerac, Coriolanus, The Women, The Pleasure of His Company, All’s Well That Ends Well, Bell, Book and Candle, Hamlet, Titus Andronicus, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Winter’s Tale, A Comedy of Errors, Antony and Cleopatra, The Two Noble Kinsmen, and Pericles.

He received four awards from the San Diego Theatre Critics Circle: for outstanding direction of Cyrano de Bergerac, The Winter’s Tale, and Pericles and for Excellence in Artistic Direction.

Tresnjak is currently directing and designing the set for Titus Andronicus at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Canada. His acclaimed production of The Merchant of Venice, featuring F. Murray Abraham as Shylock, just completed a national tour. The production originated in 2007 at Theatre for a New Audience and transferred to the Royal Shakespeare Company as part of their Complete Works Festival.

Tresnjak’s directing career began at the Williamstown Theatre Festival where over eight seasons he directed The Skin of Our Teeth, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, The Love of Three Oranges, Princess Turandot, The Blue Demon, The Winter’s Tale, Moving Picture, and Under Milk Wood. He has also directed at the Joseph Papp Public Theater, Theatre for a New Audience, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Vineyard Theatre Company, and Blue Light Theater Company. From 2002-2004 he was Director in Residence at Boston’s Huntington Theatre Company where his productions included What the Butler Saw, Heartbreak House, and Amphitryon.

Tresnjak recently directed Der Zwerg, Der Zerbrochene Krug, and Die Vögel for Los Angeles Opera, the inaugural productions of their acclaimed Recovered Voices cycle. The productions were released last fall on DVD/Blu-Ray by Arthaus Musik. He has also directed at Opera Theater of Saint Louis, Florida Grand Opera, Sarasota Opera, and Virginia Opera.

Connecticut audiences will know Tresnjak’s work from Goodspeed Musicals where he directed Carnival, Amour, and A Little Night Music; Long Wharf Theatre where he directed Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead; and Westport Country Playhouse where he directed Hay Fever and Princess Turandot.

Tresnjak grew up in Yugoslavia, the United States and Poland. He was educated at Swarthmore College and Columbia University and became an American citizen shortly after graduation. Between college and graduate school, he studied at the Martha Graham School, performed with numerous Philadelphia dance and theatre companies, and toured across the United States and Japan with Mum Puppettheatre.

He is the recipient of grants from Theatre Communications Group, Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, National Endowment for the Arts, and the Alan Schneider Award for Directing Excellenceas the Tony Award-winning theatre's new Artistic Director, succeeding Michael Wilson.  He will work in partnership with Hartford Stage Managing Director Michael Stotts.