Larry Carpenter

Larry Carpenter (born August 12, 1948) is an American theatre and television director and producer. In the theatre, he has worked as an artistic director, associate artistic director, a managing director and general manager in both the New York and Regional arenas. He also works as a theatre director and is known primarily for large projects, working on musicals and classical plays equally. In television, he works as a director for New York daytime dramas. He has served as executive vice president of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society,^[1] the national labor union for professional stage directors and choreographers. He is also a member of the Directors Guild of America PAC.

Biography

Early life and career

Born and raised in

Artistic management and theatre direction

At Stratford, and subsequently at the McCarter Theatre in Princeton, New Jersey, he became the associate artistic director to Michael Kahn. He also met and married his wife Julia MacKenzie.

From Stratford, Carpenter moved to New York to become managing director of Garland Wright's Lion Theatre Company; and then general manager of the Harold Clurman Theatre. He also continued to direct. At the Lion he directed Charles Nolte's A Night at the Black Pig and J.M. Barry's Mary Rose – while also sharing directing duties with Wright for the subsequent iterations of Jack Heifner's Vanities. For Playwrights' Horizons he directed Martin Sherman's Cracks, The Mousetrap, and Anything Goes! He also served as Gower Champion's associate director for his Broadway productions of Rockabye Hamlet, A Broadway Musical, The Act with Liza Minnelli, and 42nd Street.

For the next eight years, while continuing to work as a freelance director, Carpenter served as the artistic director of the American Stage Festival in

Carpenter's first adaptation of A Christmas Carol played many seasons at New England's Merrimack Regional and Nickerson theatres—and at the Citadel Theatre in Alberta and Iowa Stage Theatre Company. A second musical adaptation of A Christmas Carol played the Wilbur and Huntington theatres in Boston—starring Paul Benedict and then Clive Revill.

He wrote a new libretto for the

Carpenter's adaptation of Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities played at both American Stage Festival and the Asolo Repertory Theatre in Sarasota, FL.

Educator

Carpenter has taught and directed performance projects at the

Tony Award

• Nominated, 1999, Best Direction of a Musical, Starmites!

New York Drama Critics' Circle

• Won, 1990 Award Best Foreign Play, Privates on Parade, Roundabout Theatre

• Won, 1999, Best Direction, The Mikado, The Huntington Theatre Company

• Won, 2010, Best Direction: Daytime, One Life to Live
• Won, 2008, Best Direction: Daytime, One Life to Live
• Won, 2007, Best Direction: Daytime, One Life to Live
• Nominated, 2006, Best Direction: Daytime, One Life to Live
• Nominated, 2005, Best Direction: Daytime, One Life to Live
• Won, 2003, Best Direction: Daytime, One Life to Live
• Nominated, 2002, Best Direction: Daytime, One Life to Live

• Won, 2016, Directing Team, General Hospital
• Won, 2015, Directing Team, General Hospital
• Nominated, 2010, Directing Team, One Life to Live
• Won, 2009, Directing Team, One Life to Live
• Won, 2008, Directing Team, One Life to Live
• Nominated, 2004, Directing Team, One Life to Live
• Nominated, 2001, Directing Team, As the World Turns
• Nominated, 2000, Directing Team, As the World Turns
• Nominated, 1995, Directing Team, As the World Turns
• Won, 1993, Directing Team, As the World Turns

Education

In 2002, Carpenter completed his master's degree in 19th Century British Theatre at New York University. Previously, he received the Bob Hope Scholarship for graduate study at Southern Methodist University's Meadows School of the Arts MFA Theatre program. He received his BFA from Boston University School of Fine Arts, where he graduated cum laude as the Harold C. Case Scholar. He has attended many workshops and seminars, the most extensive of which was a semester long FEDAPT program: "Producing for the Professional Theatre."

References