Interview: Jeanine Tesori (Broadway Composer) and Jonathan Bernstein (Playwright & Director)

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Jeanine Tesori (Broadway Composer) and Jonathan Bernstein (Playwright & Director)

Jul 18, 2010

JEANINE TESORI & JONATHAN BERNSTEIN

JEANINE TESORI is an American musical arranger and composer who won the 1999 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Music in a Play for Nicholas Hytner's production of “Twelfth Night” at Lincoln Center and the 2004 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Music for “Caroline, or Change.”

Tesori made her Broadway debut when she arranged the dance music for the 1995 revival of “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.” In 1997 she composed the score for the off-Broadway musical “Violet,” which won her an Obie Award, the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Musical, and the Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Musical, and arranged the music for the Johnny Mercer revue “Dream,” a task she repeated with the 1998 revival of “The Sound of Music” and the 1999 revue “Swing!” She also served as associate conductor for the Broadway productions of “The Secret Garden” and The Who's “Tommy.”

In 2000, Tesori joined forces with lyricist Dick Scanlan to write eleven new songs for a stage adaptation of “Thoroughly Modern Millie.” A successful run at the La Jolla Playhouse in San Diego prompted a transfer to Broadway in 2002, and Tesori was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Original Score and the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Music.

Tesori has collaborated with Tony Kushner twice, supplying music for “Caroline, or Change” in 2004 and a new translation of Bertolt Brecht's “Mother Courage and Her Children,” which was produced as part of the 2006 Shakespeare in the Park season staged at the Delacorte Theater by The Public Theater. “Caroline” garnered her a second Tony nomination for Best Original Score.

Tesori has composed music for the films “Nights in Rodanthe,” “The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond,” “The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Beginning,” “Shrek the Third,” “Mulan II,” and “The Emperor's New Groove 2: Kronk's New Groove.”

Tesori's most recent stage project is “Shrek the Musical,” which earned her both Tony and Drama Desk Award nominations for her music.

Tesori is a graduate of Barnard College and a member of the Dramatists

Guild of America. She lives with her husband, conductor and musical director Michael Rafter, and their daughter Siena in Manhattan

JONATHAN BERNSTEIN Directing credits include work at Naked Angels, Williamstown Theater Festival, Barrington Stage Company, New York Stage & Film, Signature Theater, Ensemble Studio Theater, Juilliard Drama Division, Symphony Space, The Actor's Company Theater, One Dream Theater, Joe's Pub and many others. Mr. Bernstein has worked in various capacities at New York's City Center, Manhattan Theatre Club, Second Stage Theatre, Roundabout Theatre, Irish Repertory Theatre, Public Theater and 52nd St. Project, where he writes, directs and teaches. Additionally, Broadway/London supervising director credits include “Private Lives” with Alan Rickman and Lindsay Duncan, “The Iceman Cometh” starring Kevin Spacey and Paul Giamatti, “Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf?” starring Dame Diana Rigg and David Suchet, “The King And I,” and the musical “Chicago.”

He has recently received an artistic residency at the Public Theater to develop a new musical entitled “To The Sweet Step” in collaboration with Susan Misner & Mike Errico. His plays have been produced all over the country and his musical entitled “In This House” (written with Sarah Schlesinger and Mike Reid, licensed by TRW Theatrical Rights Worldwide) is currently playing in California. He recently participated in the inaugural 24 Hour Musicals at Joe's Pub, writing an original musical with David Yazbek between the hours of 10pm and 5:30am.

In all, he has been the supervising director of fourteen New York productions, eight of which have been on Broadway. He teaches in the MFA Musical Theater Writing Program at NYU. He is a New York Mets fan, which is sometimes very difficult.

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Birddog: Two People Loving What they Do!

at Aug 01, 2010 - 5:08 PM

Early inspiration of a great teacher always sets the stage for the possibility of honest greatness.

Geoff: There are only 2 types of writers in the world

at Jul 19, 2010 - 10:40 AM

As I'm midway through watching this, I'm thinking of writers such as Steven Pressfield and wondering if Bob McKee would agree with this generalization:

"There are only 2 types of writers in the world: those who always wanted to be writers, and those who didn't but will end up writers anyway."

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Jeanine Tesori (Broadway Composer) and Jonathan Bernstein (Playwright & Director)

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