June Prager
June Prager is an American theatre director who has directed plays in New York, Philadelphia, Seattle, and Virginia. She has also adapted poetry and prose that addresses social injustice and the Holocaust for stage productions. She has served as Producing Artistic Director the Hedgerow Theatre in Rose Valley, PA, founder and executive director the theater organization Theatre International Exchange, and Artistic Director of the Mirage Theatre Company.
Early years[edit]
June Prager was born in Lodz, Poland to parents Sophie and Morris Salzer. They emigrated to America, and Prager received her Master’s Degree in English Literature from Rutgers University. Following a brief career in academia, she gravitated towards theatre and became a stage director. Prager trained in New York City with William Ball at Circle in the Square, with George Morrison, and the Actors Studio Directors Unit led by Lee Strasberg.
Career[edit]
A member of the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers, Prager directed Off-Broadway, Equity Showcase productions, and staged readings of many plays in New York City, including her first Off Broadway credit Once More With Feeling at the Actors Playhouse and The Diary of Anne Frank at the Manhattan Theatre Club. Working with numerous notable actors, she directed Image and Likeness with Sam Waterston at St. Clements Theatre, The Tender Branch with Nancy Franklin at the Roundabout Theatre, The Hold Out with John Seitz at the Ensemble Studio Theatre, and Winter Visitor with Beatrice Straight and Lee Richardson at the Carter Theatre. Her production of Noel Coward’s Nude with Violin earned positive reviews from Howard Thompson, The NY Times: “Watching – and thoroughly enjoying – Noel Coward’s “Nude With Violin” in a zestful, Off Broadway revival, is plain fun.”[1] and from Michael Feingold, Village Voice: “The play is engaging; it was drubbed originally for slowness and for its philistinism towards modern art. Judicious cutting (I assume by director June Prager) has alleviated the first fault, and timed the second.”
Prager has created stage adaptations of Moss Hart’s Christopher Blake with Maria Tucci at the Quaigh, Distant Survivors based on William Heyen’s poetry at Zeiders American Dream Theater, and an adaptation of Native American poetry, Cedars , produced by Red Eagle Soaring, Mirage Theatre, and La MaMa ETC. Regional theatre productions include At Wit’s End at the Electric Theatre Company, Komagata Maru Incident at Temple University, and Women in Wartime at Seattle Public Theater. Prager became Philadelphia’s Hedgerow Theatre’s Artistic Director in 1985 where she directed numerous revivals and invited playwright Eric Bentley and director George C. White as guest artists.
Interested in a more global approach to theatre, she co-founded Theatre International Exchange (TIE) in 1989 with her husband John William Essick. Based in Philadelphia, TIE had an international Board of Advisors including theatre luminaries Jeremy Brett, Joe Dowling, Athol Fugard, and George C. White. TIE developed numerous international theatre collaborations: hosting an international theatre conference, Forum for Theatre Professionals with theatre directors from London, Dublin, Belfast, Montreal, and New York, and actor Hugh Panaro, star of Les Miserables on Broadway; participating in a two-year cultural exchange with the Wilam Horzycy Theatre in Poland, culminating in a bi-lingual co-production of Visions; and presenting premieres by contemporary playwrights from South Africa, Canada and Russia.
In 2010, Prager took over as Artistic Director of the Mirage Theater Company in NYC, co-founded by Miranda D’Ancona and Doris Kaufman. She directed several productions including Carlos at Turtle Shell Productions, Cedars at La MaMa ETC, a tour of Distant Survivors, and a staged reading of Broken Dolls at Theater for the New City.
References[edit]
- ↑ Thompson, Howard (June 11, 1973). "Stage: Nude With Violin". NY Times.
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