Alan Schneider Director Award

2007 Award Recipient

Joel Sass, the 2007 award recipient, was nominated by Bain Boehlke, Artistic Director of the Jungle Theater (Minneapolis, MN), who said: "Joel Sass has emerged as an artistic force to be reckoned with.  His award-winning work as a director and scenic designer clearly demonstrates a profound artistic evolution and a nuanced mastery of the form.  He has a rare sensibility that is organic, poetic and frankly amazing."

Boehlke presented the $10,000 award to Sass at the 2007 TCG National Conference in Minneapolis.

Joel Sass is a Minneapolis-based stage director, designer and adapter specializing in new work for the stage and imaginative treatments of classic plays.  His directing credits include Pericles (Guthrie Theater), Lettice and Lovage (Theatre de la Jeune Lune), I Am My Own Wife (Jungle Theater) and many productions as Artistic Director of the award-winning Mary Worth Theatre Company, including Titus Andronicus, Shakespeare’s R & J, Crazyface, Valley of the Dolls, History of the Devils and others.  In 2002, Sass was named Best Director by the Twin Cities theatre critics and Mary Worth was named Best Independent Theatre Company in 2003.  For three seasons he was Resident Assistant Director at Theatre de la Jeune Leune where he worked on numerous world premieres, including Children of Paradise and The Ballroom.  He is a recipient of the McKnight Theatre Artist Fellowship in directing, an Ameriprise IVEY Award for scenic design and numerous grants from the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council.  His current projects include Shining City for the Jungle Theater, Nine Parts of Desire for the Guthrie and the development of two new works:  Cowboy Hamlet, a rockabilly song cycle set within a dirt-floored rodeo ring and a new meditation on Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, which unfolds during the American Civil War.

Previous Recipients of the Alan Schneider Award