The New York Times critic Mel Gussow wrote, “The play draws its power from the symbiosis of design, movement, and music, melding diverse performance art forms…. Juan Darien: A Carnival Mass (1988) won glowing reviews and multiple awards. Transposed Heads (after Thomas Mann, 1984), directed by Taymor, used masks and puppets. Working on The King Stag, composer Elliot Goldenthal and Julie Taymor began a continuing creative collaboration. There were collaborations on Haggadah (1980) with composer Elizabeth Swados, and on Carlo Gozzi’s The King Stag (1984) with director Andrei Serban.

Her work quickly earned the support of leading experimental theatres. In New York, she designed puppets, costumes and masks. In Bali, puppets, masks and ritual inspired Julie Taymor to begin Teatr Loh to produce Way of Snow (1976), revived in 1980 for performances in New York and the UNIMA 13th World Puppetry Festival in Washington, DC. Puppetry of Asia, films of Federico Fellini and Akira Kurosawa, the theatre of Jerzy Growtowski and Joseph Chaiken, Bread and Puppet Theater, all influenced Julie Taymor’s later work. After graduating in 1974, she studied theatre in Japan and Indonesia. While at Oberlin College she worked with noted experimental theatre artists Herbert Blau and Bill Irwin. After high school she studied in Paris at the École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq. Theatre legend, Stephen Sondheim called her work, Juan Darien, “one of the best theatre pieces I’ve ever seen”.īy the age of ten Julie Taymor had a serious interest in theatre. Julie Taymor is a creator of bold visual theatre who has earned international honours for her puppet-infused work in theatre, opera, and film. American director, mask maker, designer, puppeteer.

Download julie taymor the lion king