Mr. O’Brien has been the Artistic Director of The Old Globe in San Diego since 1982. Recent Globe productions: Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Imaginary Friends, Twelfth Night, The Full Monty, The Seagull, The Magic Fire, Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, the world premieres of Associate Artist A.R. Gurney’s Labor Day and Tina Howe’s Pride’s Crossing, as well as Time and Again, The Doctor Is Out (Getting Away With Murder) by Stephen Sondheim and George Furth, plus productions of Henry IV, Much Ado About Nothing, Oleanna, Damn Yankees, King Lear, Ghosts, Hamlet, Uncle Vanya, and world premieres of Terrence McNally’s Up in Saratoga, A.R. Gurney’s The Snow Ball and The Cocktail Hour, Tom Dulack’s Breaking Legs, Stephen Metcalfe’s Emily.
Broadway: Creator/Supervisor, Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, The Coast of Utopia (recipient of the 2007 Tony Award® for Best Direction of a Play which won a total of 7 Tony Awards®, including Best Play), Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (Tony nominations: Best Director and Musical), Henry IV (Tony Award), Hairspray (Tony Award), The Invention of Love (Tony nominations: Best Director and Play), The Full Monty (Tony nominations: Best Director and Musical), More to Love, Labor Day, St. Louis Woman, Pride’s Crossing, The Little Foxes, Hapgood (Lucille Lortel Award for Direction, 1995), Damn Yankees (Tony nomination: Best Musical Revival), Two Shakespearean Actors (Tony nominations: Best Director and Play), Porgy and Bess for Houston Grand Opera and Broadway (Tony Award), as well as Radio City Music Hall.
Elsewhere: The Magic Flute, San Francisco Opera; Tosca, Santa Fe Opera; Così fan Tutte and Aida, Houston Grand Opera; The Most Happy Fella, Michigan Opera and Broadway.TV; An Enemy of the People, All My Sons, I Never Sang for My Father, Painting Churches and The Skin of Our Teeth, all for PBS’s American Playhouse.
Recent awards: 2004 Thomas Degaetani Award (USITT), 2002 “Mr. Abbott” Award (SDCF), 2001 Joan Cullman Award for Extraordinary Creativity, 2001 Joe A. Callaway Award (SDCF), the Drama League’s Julia Hansen Award for Excellence in Directing, 2001. Member, College of Fellows of the American Theatre; Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters, University of San Diego. Mr. O’Brien is a member of the College of Fellows of the American Theatre.
