Gordon Edelstein is in his eighth season as Long Wharf Theatre

Long Wharf Theatre

Long Wharf Theatre is a nonprofit institution in New Haven, Connecticut, a pioneer in the not-for-profit regional theatre movement, the originator of several prominent plays, and a venue where many internationally known actors have appeared....

’s Artistic Director. In addition to his work on the world premiere of Athol Fugard’s Have You Seen Us?, Mr. Edelstein will also direct and adapt Henrik Ibsen

Henrik Ibsen

Henrik Ibsen was a major 19th-century Norwegian playwright, theatre director, and poet. He is often referred to as "the father of prose drama" and is one of the founders of Modernism in the theatre...

’s A Doll’s House later in Long Wharf Theatre’s 2009-10 season. In addition, Mr. Edelstein will direct Coming Home at Berkeley Rep this year and The Glass Menagerie

The Glass Menagerie

The Glass Menagerie is a four-character memory play by Tennessee Williams. Williams worked on various drafts of the play prior to writing a version of it as a screenplay for MGM, to whom Williams was contracted...

 starring Judith Ivey

Judith Ivey

Judith Lee Ivey is an American actress and director.-Personal life:Ivey was born in El Paso, Texas, the daughter of Dorothy Lee , a teacher, and Nathan Aldean Ivey, a college instructor and dean. She spent 1965-1968 in Dowagiac, Michigan, where she attended Union High School through tenth grade...

 this spring at Roundabout Theatre in New York City. His recent productions of Arthur Miller

Arthur Miller

Arthur Asher Miller was an American playwright and essayist. He was a prominent figure in American theatre, writing dramas that include plays such as All My Sons , Death of a Salesman , The Crucible , and A View from the Bridge .Miller was often in the public eye,...

’s The Price and Anton Chekhov

Anton Chekhov

Anton Pavlovich Chekhov was a Russian physician, dramatist and author who is considered to be among the greatest writers of short stories in history. His career as a dramatist produced four classics and his best short stories are held in high esteem by writers and critics...

’s Uncle Vanya (which he also adapted) were on numerous best of 2007 lists including the Wall Street Journal. As a director, he has garnered three Connecticut Critics Circle Awards and during his tenure at Long Wharf Theatre, the theatre has produced world premieres by Paula Vogel, Athol Fugard, Craig Lucas, Julia Cho, Noah Haidle, Dael Orlandersmith, and Anna Deavere Smith. Over the course of his career, he has also directed and/or produced premieres by Philip Glass, Arthur Miller, Paula Vogel, Donald Margulies, James Lapine, Charles Mee, Mac Wellman, and Martin McDonagh, among many others, and has directed an extremely diverse body of work from Sophocles to Pinter, and from Shakespeare to Beckett. Under his artistic leadership, Long Wharf Theatre has received 14 additional Connecticut Critics Circle Awards, including six best actor or actress awards in plays that he directed. He was also given the organization’s Tom Killen Award, given annually to an individual who has made an indelible impact on the Connecticut theatrical landscape. Mr. Edelstein has directed countless plays and workshops for Long Wharf Theatre including the world premieres of BFE (transfer to Playwrights Horizons), The Day the Bronx Died (transfer to NY and London), A Dance Lesson, and The Times, as well as We Won’t Pay! We Won’t Pay!, A New War, A Moon for the Misbegotten, Anna Christie, The Front Page, and Mourning Becomes Electra, starring Jane Alexander. Prior to assuming artistic leadership of Long Wharf Theatre, Mr. Edelstein helmed Seattle’s ACT Theatre for five years. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree with honors in History and Religious Studies from Grinnell College in 1976 and was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts from Grinnell College in 2003.

Directing Credits

• At the ACT, they "include the American premiere of Martin McDonagh
  Martin McDonagh
  Martin McDonagh is an Irish-British playwright, filmmaker, and screenwriter. Although he has lived in London his entire life, he is considered one of the most important living Irish playwrights.-Life:...
  
  's A Skull in Connemara (later presented off-Broadway by the Roundabout Theatre Company), the world premiere of Lisette Lecat Ross's Scent of the Roses with Julie Harris
  Julie Harris
  Julia Ann "Julie" Harris is an American stage, screen, and television actress. She has won five Tony Awards, three Emmy Awards and a Grammy Award, and was nominated for an Academy Award. In 1994, she was awarded the National Medal of Arts. She is a member of the American Theatre Hall of Fame...
  
  , and the world premiere adaptation of God of Vengeance by Donald Margulies
  Donald Margulies
  Donald Margulies is an American playwright and a professor of English and Theater Studies at Yale University...
  
  . His inaugural ACT production of Death of a Salesman was named "One of the Best Dramas of 1998" by the Seattle Times."
• At Long Wharf, they include "the world premieres of Michael Henry Brown's The Day the Bronx Died, Joyce Carol Oates
  Joyce Carol Oates
  Joyce Carol Oates is an American author. Oates published her first book in 1963 and has since published over fifty novels, as well as many volumes of short stories, poetry, and nonfiction...
  
  's How Do You Like Your Meat?, David Wiltse's A Dance Lesson, and the Joe Kennan/Brad Ross musical The Times; plus Joe Sutton's Voir Dire and Eugene O'Neill's Anna Christie. His productions of Christopher Hampton's The Philanthropist and David Ives's All in the Timing both received awards from the Connecticut Critics Circle."

Awards

In 2008, he was awarded the Tom Killen Award by the Connecticut Critics Circle, their highest honor, because of "his contributions to theater arts in the state. Edelstein has directed more than 100 plays, musicals and operas across the U.S. and Europe."