Donald Brenner, Stage Director (SSDC)

DONALD BRENNER directed the New York Musical Theatre  Festival (NYMF) production of the new Marx Brothers’ Musical, The Most Ridiculous Thing You Ever Hoid which enjoyed an extended sold-out, critically-acclaimed run at Urban Stages and was awarded the NYMF Award of Excellence for Outstanding Ensemble Performance.   Other Off-Broadway productions include Emmy Award Winner Sherman Yellen's December Fools at Abingdon Theatre Company, Joanne Sydney Lessner’s Critical Mass at  the Lion Theatre and A Tale of Two Cities at the Mint Theatre. He directed the Lincoln Center production of Ali Baba, an original adaptation utilizing middle-eastern musicians, dance and storytelling and the world premiere of Beyond Gravity by Ruth Wolff at New Jersey Repertory Company.

 His over seventy regional theater directing credits include Jeffrey Hatcher’s Wilde Goes West for the Pioneer Theatre Olympic Play Commission Project in Salt Lake City and The Gym at the Berkshire Theatre Festival. Other regional credits in-
clude The Light in the Piazza, Philadelphia, Here I Come!,  Corpse!  and Our Town.

His production of 1776 was named one of the “Top San Diego Productions of the Year” by PBS and earned him a “Best Direction of a Musical” Robby Award Nomination.

As a writer/director he adapted The Miracle on 34^th Street for Off-Broadway’s Lucille Lortel Theatre starring Tony Winners Debbie Gravitte and Chuck Cooper and collaborated with the Johnny Burke estate writing a new book for  Donnybrook.   He created a concert version of Wright and Forrest’s Kismet with Emily Skinner and his own adaptation of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella starring Nancy Anderson and Will Chase.  He has also written adaptations of Shaw’s You Never Can Tell and Dickens’ Great Expectations.

Other Off-Broadway directing credits include Strindberg’s Pariah, Charley’s Aunt and the American premiere of Smetana’s opera, The  Secret.  He also Assistant Directed City Center Encores! The Boys From  Syracuse with Malcolm Gets, Rebecca Luker and Marian Seldes.

Recently, he directed and adapted the stage version of THE CHRISTMAS SWEATER for a Sold Out National Tour, which was simulcast live from the Charleston Performing Arts Center to 500 nationwide movie theatres.