Josh Costello

Welcome

2011-12-31T20:35:00.000-08:00

Please visit www.joshcostello.com for my updated directing portfolio. Switching over to that site as of January 2012.

Welcome to my online stage directing portfolio. This site is undergoing renovations; the basic info is here but more images and video from past productions will be added soon.

I’m currently seeking a freelance directing gig for the 2012/13 season — I have a few scripts I’m shopping around, and I’m open to other possibilities.

For more information, to set up an interview, or to offer me a directing job, please email me at joshcostello at gmail dot com.

Now Playing

Little Brother by Cory Doctorow
adapted and directed by Josh Costello
Custom Made Theatre Company
more information here

Little Brother by Cory Doctorow

2011-06-23T23:57:00.000-07:00

I am adapting and directing Cory Doctorow's novel Little Brother for Custom Made Theatre Company, opening January 2012.

Much more information here.

Reborning at SF Playhouse

2011-06-18T11:42:00.000-07:00

I recently directed the world premiere of Reborning by Zayd Dohrn at SF Playhouse, starring Lorri Holt, Lauren English, and Alex Alioto.

The SF Chronicle said: "Dohrn's compact script bristles with sharp, breezy dialogue... In Josh Costello's skillful stagings, edgy comedy eases into serious emotional territory..."

The Huffington Post said: "A major triumph... a strong contender for any award given for the Best New Play of 2011... Costello has drawn magnificent performances from his three-actor ensemble... This is a powerful play performed by three exceptionally strong actors..."

Click here for photos, reviews, and more information.

Toil And/Or Trouble by Lauren Gunderson

2011-06-13T22:55:00.000-07:00

I directed a workshop and reading of Toil And/Or Trouble, a new play by Lauren Gunderson, as a part of Just Theater's New Play Lab. Starring Michael Barrett Austin, Anthony Nemirovsky, and Alex Chreighton.

Two ambitious young men and one badass lady fight the recession with dictatorial dreams: instead of going back to grad school like everyone else in business... why not take over a small country? Seriously. No I'm serious.

I previously directed two touring productions of Lauren's A Short History of Nearly Everything for MTC.

Anansi the Spider

2011-05-04T21:51:00.000-07:00

I'm directing a new adaptation of Anansi the Spider for MTC's School Tour program in 2012. Tommy Shepherd and Dan Wolf will write and perform.

Ana loves stories, and wants the other kids to act them out the way they're written. But when she finds herself caught up in the legend of Anansi and the Sky God, with music, beats and rhymes creating a world of magic and mystery, Ana discovers that sometimes you have to write your own story—and that writing your own story might be the most exciting thing you can do.

The African folktale is updated, reimagined, and filled with music, beats and rhymes in this new play for elementary schoolers, specially commissioned by Marin Theatre Company.

The show will tour to elementary schools in February and March 2012. Public performances will be announced soon as well.

Reborning photos

2011-05-03T10:00:00.000-07:00

Press photos from Reborning are up here.

Tall Tales by Steve Yockey

2011-02-19T23:01:00.000-08:00

I directed TALL Tales, a new play by Steve Yockey, for MTC in February and March 2011. The production starred Patrick Jones and Danielle Levin (members, AEA), and was hilarious. We performed for over 4000 students in schools in Marin, San Francisco, and the East Bay, and held public performances at MTC as well.

More photos here.

School Tour video

2011-02-08T21:31:00.000-08:00

Here is a video montage from Steve Yockey's Animal vs. Animal: an Aesop's Fables mashup, which I directed for Marin Theatre Company in 2010. The whole team is coming back for Tall Tales this February and March, including public performances at MTC.

PlayGround

2010-12-17T17:03:00.000-08:00

I directed This Is My Body, a new short play by Daniel Heath, for the December PlayGround, with Elena Wright and Jomar Tagatac. A great script, a great cast, and another fantastic evening with tons of great people from the Bay Area theatre community. So much fun.

Theatre Bay Area Annual Conference

2010-06-14T22:40:00.000-07:00

I was a panelist at the 2010 Theatre Bay Area Annual Conference. The panel was called "From Both Sides Now: Accidental Administrator by Day, Artist by Night" -- thanks to my co-panelists and everyone who participated in the discussion!

My Children! My Africa!

2010-04-13T19:45:00.000-07:00

My Children! My Africa! was nominated for six Bay Area Critics Circle Awards. Congratulations to Peter, Laura, Eric, Ted, Michael, Lynne, and the whole team!

"...in the hands of three exceptional actors and a skilled director, one dedicated teacher's tragedy is a fierce reminder of the complexity of trying to right social wrongs"
-San Francisco Chronicle

I directed My Children! My Africa! for Marin Theatre Company in 2009. Click here for more photos and reviews.

Aesop's Fables

2010-03-15T23:26:00.000-07:00

I directed a new adaptation of Aesop's Fables by Steve Yockey, commissioned by Marin Theatre Company for our School Tour program. I always have a blast directing the School Tour shows, and I was thrilled to get the chance to develop a new play with a fantastic playwright.

The adaptation is titled Animal vs. Animal: an Aesop's Fables mashup. The production starred Danielle Levin and Patrick Jones (members, AEA). Photos here.

PlayGround

2010-03-15T08:22:00.000-07:00

I directed a short play by Garret Groenveld for the March edition of PlayGround.

Marin Young Playwrights Festival

2010-01-28T21:35:00.000-08:00

Article in the Marin IJ about the Marin Young Playwrights Festival, a new program I started this year at Marin Theatre Company.

At high schools throughout the county, teenage playwrights are gearing up for the competition, choosing their actors and rehearsing during lunch breaks, after school and on weekends.

"The purpose of the festival is to encourage a focus on playwriting in the high schools," said Josh Costello, MTC's director of expanded programs. "American theater is depending on the next generation of playwrights coming up and writing spectacular plays for the theater."

Thirty students from eight high schools entered the inaugural festival. One of the teen finalists is Jasper Hirose, an 18-year-old Terra Linda High School senior. "It's been a fantastic experience," Hirose said. "To think that a play you wrote at such a young age is going to actually be performed is a real privilege and an honor. Competitions like this are important because they are a testament to the future. What teenagers do now is a promise that good things are on the horizon. You're looking at the playwrights and the actors of the future. I'm proud to be part of it."

I'm directing a staged reading of the winning script in May at Marin Theatre Company, in conjunction with MTC's New Works series.

The Word

2009-10-05T21:00:00.000-07:00

I directed a reading of The Word, a new play by Zay Amsbury, at SF Playhouse on October 12.

The Word by Zay Amsbury tells the story of the relationship between a small northern California town and the religious cult that sets up a compound nearby. When the town's police chief and the compound's leader form a strange covenant, the two communities are forever linked. As the world changes around them, the community leaders must compromise to keep their homes secure, while their children fight to maintain the values they were raised with – even if it means tearing down the only world they have ever known.

with Michael Barrett Austin, David Cramer, Alex Curtis, Jackson Davis, Dodds Delzell, Patrick Jones, Marissa Keltie, Jarion Monroe, Peter Ruocco, Shaye Troha, Elena Wright

Freak

2009-08-18T23:08:00.000-07:00

Here's a photo from Freak by Naomi Iizuka and Ryan Pavelchik, which I directed for Marin Theatre Company's 2009 summer teen program.

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

2009-05-10T22:50:00.000-07:00

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe performed at schools around Marin and the Bay Area in February and March, in addition to an extended run of public performances at Marin Theatre Company.

Two professional actors played all the roles, telling the whole story in under 40 minutes, with live foley performed by the stage manager. It was a ton of fun. Kids went crazy for it, and grownups dug it as well.

Photo gallery.

Ubu for President in the Top 10 of 2008

2009-05-01T20:39:00.000-07:00

Ubu for President (my adaptation of Ubu Roi directed by Patrick Dooley for the Shotgun Players at John Hinkle Park in Berkeley last summer) was named one of the top 10 productions of 2008 by the East Bay Express.

interview in Theatre Bay Area magazine

2009-04-12T13:38:00.000-07:00

I'm quoted in April's Theatre Bay Area magazine, in an article about theatre education in the Bay Area. Here's the link.

Thus, as Josh Costello, artistic director of expanded programs at Marin Theatre Company, says, it should be the responsibility of the larger theatres themselves to fill the gap, and, not incidentally, to provide for the next generation of theatre professionals and theatre audiences. "We have the skills, and we've got to give back to the community as best we can," he says.

...Costello says that as the recipient of arts education when he was in school, he knows firsthand that it enhances critical thinking and sensitivity to others. "In addition to the more obvious things, like learning to use your imagination, [theatre] is a powerful way to practice the skill of teamwork," he adds. "We as a society lose out when schools aren't addressing those needs."

My Children! My Africa!

2009-02-15T20:44:00.000-08:00

My Children! My Africa! enjoyed an extended and acclaimed run in January and February 2009 at Marin Theatre Company. This production has been nominated for six Bay Area Critics Circle Awards.

"Packs an enormous punch... in the hands of three exceptional actors and a skilled director, one dedicated teacher's tragedy is a fierce reminder of the complexity of trying to right social wrongs... heart-wrenching..."
-SF Chronicle (full review)

Click here for more information.

Photo Gallery

2009-01-28T21:45:00.000-08:00

Click here for a show-by-show gallery of my directing work on Flickr.

Click here for a slideshow of some of my favorite photos from shows I've directed.

Scroll down for several of my favorites.

Lovers & Executioners

Hamlet

Julius Caesar

Marisol

The Rover

Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead

My Children! My Africa!

My Children! My Africa! Chronicle Review

2009-01-22T21:12:00.001-08:00

Change can be ugly. It's often brutal and unfair. But that doesn't make it any less necessary. Tuesday evening, at the end of a day packed with the euphoria of high hopes, Marin Theatre Company opened a timely revival of a play that pits one set of good intentions against another in the face of a terrible evil. In the afterglow of President Obama's inauguration, the drama's fatal conflict in a battle against entrenched racism packed an enormous punch.

Written in 1989, "My Children! My Africa!" is one of the last of the impressive series of anti-apartheid plays Athol Fugard wrote before his native South Africa's extreme version of racial segregation finally came to an end. It isn't as well constructed as such Fugard classics as "The Island," "Sizwe Bansi Is Dead," "Boesman and Lena" or "Blood Knot" - too many monologues interrupt the action to a somewhat didactic effect. But in the hands of three exceptional actors and a skilled director, one dedicated teacher's tragedy is a fierce reminder of the complexity of trying to right social wrongs.

L. Peter Callender embodies that complexity with every paternalistic utterance and sidelong glance he casts as the prematurely aging black teacher called Mr. M. Even. As he lectures his "unruly" students on decorum, his eyes glow with pride and a genial tolerance softens without undermining his stern voice. Having successfully engineered the first debate between his best students and a team from a nearby white school, Callender projects a feeling of triumph that turns the corrugated metal and salvaged timber classroom of Eric Sinkkonen's fine set into a palace.

The appreciative joy Callender's M takes in the debate captains' arguments seems to elevate their performances as well. Laura Morache's earnest and outgoing Isabel, the visitor, and Lloyd Roberson II's more guarded but fun-loving and intellectually combative Thami, M's prize student, throw themselves into the debate with adolescent intellectual glee. The delight they take in the competition blends with an awakening to the humanity of a racial "other" under Josh Costello's orchestrated direction.

Fatal fissures begin to appear early on when Thami expresses his generation's frustration with the lack of results from M's gradualist approach to undermining apartheid.

The real events of the late '80s intrude when the township explodes in violence as M prepares his greatest coup, fielding Thami and Isabel as an interracial team in a national competition. A break between Isabel and Thami is trumped by a heart-wrenching showdown in which M's anger at Thami's actions wrestles with his pride in the mind he nurtured.

"Hope has broken loose," M confides in a fiercely articulated speech to the audience. "I'd like to put you inside a black skin and ask you to keep Hope alive, find food for it on these streets where our children ... go hungry and die of malnutrition. Believe me, it is a dangerous animal for a black man to have prowling around in his heart."

Tuesday, those words had an impact Fugard probably never imagined.

link

Impact Theatre

2009-01-22T17:15:00.000-08:00

Impact Theatre is a small nonprofit theatre company which I founded in Berkeley, California in 1996. I was the Artistic Director until 2000, when I moved to Seattle for grad school. Since then, Melissa Hillman has taken the reigns and is taking the company to the next level.

In 1996 I was fresh out of undergrad and filled with a lot of righteous energy -- I wanted to make theatre that would appeal to my own generation. Impact's mission was and is to fill an unmet need for community, storytelling, and direct experience for young people in the Bay Area. We did a lot of original plays and were blessed with a couple of truly talented young writers.

Starting with no budget, no space, and no reputation, we attracted an audience of students, hipsters, young people, and curious traditional theatregoers with an aesthetic that focused on actor over design, language over spectacle, and immediacy over everything. People took notice. We kept ticket prices absurdly low and worked on the shows and the company for no financial compensation. Company members came and went, we dealt with all kinds of drama, and we kept on putting up about four shows a year. The shows themselves were a supremely mixed bag -- sketch comedy, heavy drama, experimental commedia, superheroes, and eventually Shakespeare. Some fell flat, of course, but some of them fulfilled our mission and, frankly, my own dreams. The highest praise I've ever received was from a teenager moved to tears by a show, who said she had never imagined that theatre could mean anything to her.

Below you'll find information on a few Impact Theatre shows. Sweet Self was a world premiere drama by Zay Amsbury, a close friend and collaborator of mine for several years. Zay also wrote The Wake-Up Crew, my final show as Impact's Artistic Director. One of Impact's boldest experiments was to create new commedia characters based on present-day archetypes -- like the Soccer Mom, the Campus Activist, and the Raver Kid -- and put them onstage with lazzi and a story structure but no set script, in People's Parking: A 90's Berkeley Commedia and Commedia 2000: Soccer Mom vs. Monster Bud. Impact's first Shakespeare was a Henry IV Part One cut that I developed with Melissa Hillman; we called it Henry IV: The Impact Remix. Impact's biggest success was House of Lucky, which premiered at a tiny space in Berkeley, moved to San Francisco for an award-winning twice-extended run at The Marsh, and was eventually picked up by The Magic.

Sweet Self is an original play by Zay Amsbury. The production I directed with Impact Theatre in 1998 was probably the most moving piece of theatre I've ever been involved with.

The story centers around a tightly knit group of friends in Santa Cruz, friends that think of each other as family. The head of this family is Eddie, a small-time pot dealer whose East Coast mother and sister need his help. Annie is the youngest member of the group, a sixteen-year-old runaway and budding alcoholic. A pair of incidents give rise to the story: Eddie steals money from his drug contacts to give to his mother, and Annie is raped after blacking out while drunk. Eddie vows to find the rapist, and his violent search threatens to tear the group of friends apart even as the dangerous drug contacts seek revenge for their stolen cash. Confronted by his girlfriend Jo, Eddie admits to sexually abusing his sister as a child -- and that he too had blacked out from alcohol the night Annie was raped. Finally, Eddie's guilt is confirmed, and he makes a choice -- he gives the stolen money to Annie and gives himself up to be killed by the drug dealers.

The Impact production had a small budget indeed, and we found a way to make this work to our advantage. Due to the theater space crunch in the Bay Area, we performed in the cafeteria of the North Berkeley Senior Center under flourescent lights. The audience, a few rows deep, formed three sides of a square on the floor. The fourth side was a row of chairs for the actors to sit in when not on stage. That's all that was needed, as the reviews and audience reactions showed.

"...if there was ever a case for not judging a theater group by its budget, Impact Theatre's Sweet Self is it... an intense, serious drama... builds methodically towards its troubling emotional climax... a decidedly contemporary play, and its language -- unlike some plays that try desperately to portray Gen X life -- is honest and real... it succeeds at leaving its audience thoroughly moved... the company has come under the leadership of artistic director Josh Costello, and if Sweet Self is any indication, the company is in good hands."
-Contra Costa Times

"an ambitious foray into no-frills contemporary drama... authentic, rough language... Costello directs with a sure hand, and before long you forget about the limitations of the minimalist staging..."
-East Bay Express

"...for the last two years, under the leadership of artistic director Josh Costello, Impact has emerged as a focused, productive troupe... Sweet Self is a powerful, well-acted drama about a makeshift family of twentysomethings entangled in the Santa Cruz drug trade. This is no-frills theater at its best... Without all the usual theatrical trappings -- like sets or props -- the actors and the production team are free to create a world that exists solely in the imagination of the viewers. This bare-bones approach also is bolstered by intensely visceral performances and a tight, well-paced script... The acting ensemble is outstanding. These may not be experienced actors, but they connect with Amsbury's play and give the naturalistic dialogue an easy, realistic rhythm that hardly ever seems like self-conscious acting... at no time is it condescending or gimmicky.. It remains to be seen whether or not this ambitious company will achieve its mission and get young people into the theater, but with quality work like Sweet Self, they should."
-Oakland Tribune

The Wake-Up Crew is an original play by Zay Amsbury. It's about a young man who returns to Santa Cruz to make nice with an old friend, only to discover that said friend is trying to take over the world with his newly-discovered super powers. What I love about the script is that it manages to combine an emotional, moving story about friendship and sacrifice with my favorite kind of comic-book craziness. The Impact Theatre production won the SF Bay Guardian Award for Best Fight Choreography of 2000.

"...there's more punch to this thing than the entire Batman film series put together... there are so many fun things about The Wake-Up Crew that it's hard to know where to begin..."
-Daily Californian

"...kicks some serious butt... director Josh Costello has lots of surprises up his sleeve... eloquent... a funny, energetic, and even intelligent show"
-Oakland Tribune

Impact Theatre produced People's Parking: A 90's Berkeley Commedia in 1997 and followed it up with Commedia 2000: Soccer Mom vs. Monster Bud in 2000. These two shows, which I co-directed with Jaron Hollander -- who has spent time as a clown with Cirque Du Soleil -- were an attempt to bring the spirit of the commedia dell'arte into the present day. Over an extended rehearsal period, we developed new commedia-style characters based on present day archetypes -- finding analogues in our own society for the Italian commedia stock characters. Instead of the miserly masters and mischievous servants, we had the soccer mom, the homeless man, the raverboy, the cheerleader, the campus activist, and more, each with a mask, lazzi, and characteristic physical and vocal stylizations (though the two lovers in People's Parking were unmasked). Following in the footsteps of the original commedia tradition, the actors improvised all of the dialogue in performance each night, working within a set plot structure.

These shows were raunchy, energetic, and fun. They weren't high art, but they captured Peter Brook's "Rough Theatre" like nothing else I've seen. Someday I'd like to return to this form and develop it further.

"succeeds in generating abundant laughter... this rollicking, somewhat free-form theatrical exercise is an attempt to recreate the broad, familiar style of 16th-century Italian commedia dell'arte in which stock comic characters like Pantalone and Arlecchino are replaced with more contemporary characters from the streets of Berkeley..."
-Oakland Tribune

Henry IV Part One has always been one of my favorite Shakespeare plays; Prince Hal reminds me so much of people in my generation. And then there's Falstaff. And Hotspur. And the battles. I first directed Henry IV with a group of teenagers at Cal Shakes. In cutting the play for that production, it occurred to me that this is a play about a young man without a positive male role model: his father is an overly-ambitious backstabber, and his friends are thieves and drunks. Hal's choice to join his father in battle is a rejection of Falstaff, but it's also a commitment to becoming a better king than Henry IV. It's also a play that's deeply concerned with the concept of honor -- critiquing honor as much as celebrating it.

My cut of the play, which I directed as a staged reading with the Bay Shakespeare Marathon 2000 and which evolved into "The Impact Remix" at Impact Theatre, is focused on Hal's choices -- between his own father and his surrogate father, between honor and friendship, between the tavern and the court. Because I wasn't concerned with English history, or with holding anything back for Part Two, I changed the ending: the king is mortally wounded in battle, and speaks some lines from Henry IV Part Two to Hal before his death.

These three productions also incorporated modern dress and props and Eastern fighting styles and weapons, as if taking place in a future that has developed a new system of honor based on a combination of chivalry and the Bushido code of the Samurai -- the Impact production featured elaborately staged battles with katana.

“Impact delivers a mature, well-conceived, and emotionally searing product while managing to hold onto the blend of boozing, fighting, and sex that has been its trademark.... Smart, fast-paced, and wholly engaging...a stunning, complete-in-itself Henry IV that needs no introduction, sequel, or apology...[with] a much darker, sadder, and to my mind more dramatic and contemporary ending. While it will make those who demand to see Shakespeare delivered exactly as written spin in their seats, it should thrill everyone else."
-East Bay Express

“Costello and Hillman, who also directs, succeed in revitalizing Shakespeare without compromising his art.... The sword battle...is definitely action-movie Shakespeare, and it works.”
-Oakland Tribune

Julius Caesar

2009-01-21T22:15:00.000-08:00

I directed Julius Caesar for the UC Riverside Department of Theater early in 2006. Check here for my blog post about the process. It was a cast of talented undergrads, and a design that took advantage of a nice new campus theater. Brutus tries to protect the glory of Rome, but winds up destroying Rome instead. Cassius tries to win Brutus' friendship and love and respect, but winds up destroying Brutus instead.

The Eight: Reindeer Monologues

2009-01-21T22:03:00.000-08:00

I directed The Eight: Reindeer Monologues at The Chance Theatre in 2004; it was a huge hit, selling out show after show -- they even added performances -- and getting great reviews. The show was such a success that The Chance brought me back to stage it again for 2005. Both productions were nominated for the OC Weekly Award for Best Ensemble; the 2005 production won that award and was also nominated for Best Production of 2005.

The Eight: Reindeer Monologues is a play by Jeff Goode, the author of Marley's Ghost and Poona the Fuckdog. Here's the blurb:

Accusations, rumors and all-out attacks are flying fast and furious around Santa’s toyshop this holiday season. What’s the true story behind Rudolph’s unlikely rise to fame? Does Mrs. Claus have a serious drinking problem? Can St. Nick himself really be guilty of sexual harassment... against one of the reindeer? And with all this going on, how can the spirit of Christmas be saved? Go behind the tinsel and hear the truth about Santa straight from the eight reindeer who know him best. When a doe says “No”, she means “No Way, Sucka!”

As the title suggests, the play is a series of eight monologues, one from each of Santa's reindeer. The cast both years was mostly comprised of Chance company members; some seriously talented and very funny actors. We had a lot of fun developing blocking and business for the characters -- Cupid was mixing a drink as he spoke, Dancer was baking cookies -- that grounded the situation, provided opportunities to play with rhythm and pacing, and got some extra laughs while furthering the storytelling. The show was a blast.

winner of the OC Weekly Award for Best Ensemble of 2005

nominated for the OC Weekly Award for Best Production of 2005

nominated for the OC Weekly Award for Best Ensemble of 2004

"spirited, distinct performances ... exquisitely humorous ... things do get intensely serious. Ultimately, Goode is taking on the entire institution of Christmas, and the sobering question he leaves us with is whether this orgy of consumerism might just be an elaborate smoke screen meant to disguise the rapaciously self-centered creatures who’ve concocted a most noble myth for the most ignoble of purposes. Did I mention it’s also really, really funny?"
-OC Weekly (2005)

"director Josh Costello shows his affinity for Goode's stinging humor. A year ago, Costello helmed the Chance staging of "Reindeer," and although most of the same actors are back in the same roles, this is a new interpretation, keeping much of what made the 2004 production fly while upping the ante with a fresh perspective on the material.
Goode's text is coarse, crude, vulgar and sidesplitting, peppered with topical references specific enough to be funny, yet not bound by current events ... In Costello's hands, each reindeer is as complex as any human, each monologue gradually building to an apex of anger or indignation... refreshingly direct... funny and poignant... right on target - and a refreshing rejoinder to the many syrupy holiday plays that glut the theater scene this time of year "
-OC Register (2005)

"delivers the withering irreverence of only the most well-honed satire... the Chance Theater gives the spiky, R-rated play a distinctive workout...Goode serves up eight successive solo scenes, well-embellished by director Josh Costello and his cast...Costello and company lend the proper tongue-in-cheek irreverence and a wickedly knowing comedic tone, well-balanced by occasional bursts of intense solemnity...a hoof-kick to our gut...an evening of rapid-fire bursts of laughter and intensity."
-OC Register (2004)

"a delicious hoof-stomper, flipping a jingle-belled bird to the season’s most hallowed secular icon"
-OC Weekly (2004)

"great in-your-face seasonal merriment with perverse shock factor... brilliant allegorical satire... hits its mark over and over... wonderful"
—Northern Lights (local weekly)

Ubu for President

2009-01-21T00:22:00.000-08:00

Ubu for President is my adaptation of Alfred Jarry's Ubu Roi. Patrick Dooley directed it for the Shotgun Players in the summer of 2008, playing in Berkeley's John Hinkle Park (the former home of Cal Shakes).

Dialogue Sample

Click here for the Ubu for President blog, with all the reviews and information. Here are a few highlights:

One of the Top Ten Plays of 2008
-East Bay Express

"An engaging romp"
-Robert Hurwitt, SF Chronicle

"Wildly funny"
-Pat Craig, Contra Costa Times

"A scatological send-up of Macbeth in which a stupid, vicious and cowardly glutton rises to power through duplicitous schemes, it also naturally resonates in present-day America"
-Sam Hurwitt, East Bay Express

"outrageous, generally delightful, and very funny"
-Robert Hurwitt, SF Chronicle

"Hysterical... Casi Maggio is a comic highlight as the bubbly teen princess... Sung Min Park is hilariously spaced out and touchy-feely as new character Ming... What they've done to the play is great — if anything, they should do more of it... The insistent energy of the show is infectious, and it's hard not to get swept up in it."
-Sam Hurwitt, East Bay Express

"The Ubus are delightfully vile... Director Patrick Dooley only barely contains the manic energy of his cast, which is as it should be... Costello's snappy script... with a cast this good and a play this funny, you may just bust your gut basket"
-Chad Jones, Oakland Tribune

"a broad burlesque of contemporary popular culture"
-Ken Bullock, Berkeley Daily Planet

"much high and low comedy, silly gags, outrageous word play, only-slightly-masked profanity, an election, and a sort of comedic free-for-all that somehow manages to make some nicely pointed commentary on the current scene."
-Pat Craig, Contra Costa Times

"Josh Costello, who adapted the script from Alfred Jarry's proto-absurdist "Ubu Roi," and Shotgun Players Artistic Director Patrick Dooley say they've tried to avoid making the 112-year-old "Ubu" a satire on the election in progress. Current events won't cooperate. True, the real-life incumbent Ubu isn't running again, and Dave Garrett's clueless Pa Ubu and Sung Min Park's hilariously New Age-spacey Ming bear little relation to actual candidates named John McCain or Barack Obama. But Costello has inserted some telling parallels, including a comic perennial protest candidate. Then again, neither he nor Dooley could've predicted that the opening of Shotgun's annual free show in John Hinkel Park would coincide with Paris Hilton's entrance into the race. The party-hearty Princess Power campaign of the self-entitled Princess Buggerless (Casi Maggio) and her killer, pom-pom-wielding posse is a highlight of a ragtag and enjoyable show."
-Robert Hurwitt, SF Chronicle

Marisol

2009-01-19T22:11:00.000-08:00

I directed José Rivera's Marisol at the Ethnic Cultural Theatre in Seattle in 2002. It's a dark, funny, and deeply moving play about a young woman's search for protection when her guardian angel abandons her to fight a war against God.

Act One takes place in various indoor locations around New York City. In Act Two, the angelic war has begun and New York has become a ravaged wasteland where very little makes sense. The design team outdid themselves on this one -- we used six rolling, reversible flats with a cityscape on one side and interiors on the other, which moved around the stage to create the settings for each scene. At the end of Act One, the flats all rolled back to reveal the full stage for the first time.

The Diary of Anne Frank

2009-01-19T21:17:00.000-08:00

In 2005, The Chance Theatre brought me back to direct a third production in a row. This was the fiftieth anniversary of the stage adaptation of Anne Frank's diary. It was an honor to direct this important and compelling story.

We used the 1997 adaptation (created for the Broadway production with Natalie Portman), which is much tighter, more specific, and more theatrical than the original 1950s version. And the talented cast and design team brought wonderful ideas to the table; this was a surprising and very moving production that opened up the script with strong theatrical choices and intensely personal moments.

L.A. ROAR OF THE CROWD
AWARD WINNER

"CRITIC'S PICK
...Everything begins in shadows when Otto (brilliantly portrayed by Richard Comeau) finds the diary on the raked stage of Katherine Futterer's astounding set under Jon Langrell's ominous light design...Performing the demanding role of this irrepressible adolescent is Kristin Norris. Her infectious interpretation of the energetic young heroine is absolutely convincing. Also outstanding is Michael Irish as Peter, the awkward young boy who awakens Anne's sensuality. Everyone in the cast deserves credit, especially Don Walters and Karen Webster as the difficult, self-important Van Daans, and Annie Mezzacappa as Edith Frank...Costello has captured the exact poetic tone, mood, and ambiance needed to underscore the drama..."
-BackStage West

"...proves that, even 50 years later, Anne Frank's hopeful view still packs a punch... If you find yourself weeping, and maybe just a little bit ashamed, while watching this staging, you're not alone... Backed by an outstanding production team, director Josh Costello has wrought an organic production whose every facet fits the larger mosaic, forming a harsh, wrenching, bittersweet tale. His staging captures Anne's perspective -- of evil as viewed by someone who had only ever known goodness -- and he understands Anne as a sensitive observer of humanity... More critically, Costello gets at the heart of the indescribable tedium the group experiences, relating the incredible tension generated by eight refugees living in close confinement for two years, in constant fear of discovery. For those used to seeing Anne portrayed as a naive youngster subdued by those around her, Kristin Norris is likely to be a shock... Norris delivers a luminous performance with a definite arc from the playful girl who at first sees going into hiding as an adventure to an honest 13-year-old glowing about her budding sexuality... Set designer Katherine Futterer's raked, angled stage depicts the various levels and corridors of a musty and cramped attic. Erika C. Miller clothes the cast in joyless grays, tans and washed out greens and blues, while Jon Langrell's lighting design helps form a tight, effective lens for the drama. Most evocative, though, is Costello and Jeremy Golden's innovative sound design, which frames the story with vivid noises: wailing voices and horns suggesting ancient Israel, Hitler ranting before throngs, glass shattering, trains roaring and piano music -- Chopin etudes that preserve the delicate melancholy pervading this staging."
-OC Register

"Spunky and fresh as ever... poignant... Costello's crisp direction... haunting, brutal... Kristin Norris imbues her portrayal of Anne Frank with boundless vitality..."
-Northern Lights (local weekly)

The Anne Frank Story, a seventeen-panel photographic and text exhibit from the Anne Frank Center in New York, was on display in the lobby.

Romeo & Juliet: A Fire Ballet

2009-01-19T21:00:00.000-08:00

designed & Produced by Michael Sturtz of The Crucible
Choreographed by Corinne Blum of The San Francisco Ballet
with music by Sergei Prokofiev

I collaborated with an amazing group of people, including a choreographer from the San Francisco Ballet, a bboy troupe (the top breakdancer on the west coast played Mercutio), a wushu martial arts troupe, fire dancers, a troupe of aerialists, a whirling dervish with a flaming kilt as the Prince, a metalsmith pouring molten bronze wedding rings as Friar Lawrence, swordsmiths making propane-powered flaming swords for the Mercutio/Tybalt fight, and more.

The sound and video in this clip are from Romeo & Juliet;
the text is advertising The Crucible's next production.

So what exactly was my job on this production? My title was "Stage Director"; I worked with Michael Sturtz, who is the head of The Crucible and the creator of the show. I was responsible for integrating the work being done by the ballet choreographer, the fight choreographer, the Wushu choreographer, the breakdancing choreographer, the fire dancing choreographer, the fire artists, the DJ, the designers, and the dancers themselves. There was some creative input -- staging bits and pieces where necessary, offering ideas to choreographers and designers, giving notes to designers and dancers -- and a lot of communication and management and organization. It was a blast, and the show was absolutely incredible.

"It's all fun and fabulous, but it's also -- thanks to solid acting from the entire ensemble -- surprisingly dramatically effective."
-SF Chronicle

from the East Bay Express:

O for a Muse of Fire
By Sam Hurwitt

One thing they neglected to teach you in shop class was how welding could be combined with an operatic aria or a ballet pas de deux, but fortunately the Crucible is here to fill in the interdisciplinary gaps. The Oakland foundry, sculpture studio, metal shop, and educational crafts lab also knows how to throw a hell of a party, from its summer Fire Arts Festival to its winter anniversary bashes, the eighth of which starts now. When you look over the classes the Crucible offers, you may notice fire dancing, fire eating, and stilt walking alongside blacksmithing, jewelry making, and woodworking, and get an inkling of the crossover possibilities, but the studio itself is way ahead of you. In recent years its anniversary bashes have featured spectacular fire operas combining the cultured pleasures of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas (2005) and Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill’s The Seven Deadly Sins (2006), with the more universal ones of flying flames and molten metal.

This year — Wednesday, in fact — the Crucible debuts its first fire ballet, The Most Excellent and Lamentable Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet: A Fire Ballet, combining Sergei Prokofiev’s classic score with a variety of fire performers, contributions from multidisciplinary SF arts combo the Flavor Group and Chinese martial arts studio Wushu West, ballet dancers, Crucible craftspeople, aerial dancers Flyaway Productions, a plot by some guy named Shakespeare, and choreography by Corrine Blum, late of the San Francisco Ballet. And you know what they say: If music be the food of love, it’s time to fire up the grill. All that sound and fury is designed and produced by Crucible executive director Michael Sturtz, with Impact Theatre founding artistic director Josh Costello serving as stage director and Mark Jan Wlodarkiewicz (DJ Vordo) as musical director. A fund-raiser for the Crucible, the show goes on Wednesdays through Saturdays through January 20. Doors 7 p.m., show 8:30. Tickets $25-$120. Info: TheCrucible.org or 510-444-0919.

SF Chronicle story

SF Chronicle review

Oakland Tribune review

SF Chronicle Culture Blog

East Bay Express review

SF Examiner review

Bay Area Reporter review

The Misanthrope

2009-01-19T20:56:00.000-08:00

I directed Moliere's The Misanthrope in May of 2005 at Shakespeare-by-the-Sea/Little Fish Theater in San Pedro. We had a very strong cast -- including Barbara Suiter from my recent production of The Rover -- and I staged it in the round. We used the Richard Wilbur translation.

The design team created a look for the show that emphasized style and fashion without setting it in any one particular period -- there were some elements from the seventeenth century, but we also looked at current fashion design and all sorts of things to create a flashy, stylish, unique world. This is a play about being the center of attention, and these characters know how to do it.

"Truth and hilarious consequences in a Moliere comedy

Outstanding... not only is Truly able to project the rants and rages of this miserable character, a man who is in despair over the hypocrisy of Parisian society, he is in full command of the stage every time he sets foot on it.

Also excellent is Barbara Suiter, who plays the demanding role of Celimene, the love of Alceste's life. Of course he knows that this little blond beauty is a terrible flirt, a cooing coquette who constantly teases men to distraction, but he knuckles under because of his passion for her. Even when he suspects that she's being unfaithful, she bats her big blue eyes and gets away with it.

His best friend, Philinte (sensitively performed by Ken MacFarlane), tries to soften Alceste's attitude toward the world to no avail. Philinte tries to convince him that the gentle, soft-spoken Eliante (Kate Woodruff) would be a much better choice than the conniving Celimene...

Things come to a head when the pompous fop Oronte (played deliciously over the top by John Reimer) asks Alceste for his opinion of his poetry. Then he proceeds to deliver the pretentious stuff in such an outrageous manner that makes it even worse. When Alceste spits out the blatant truth, the war is on.

Adding fuel to the fire is Arsinoe (the wonderfully wicked Erin Shull), a praying mantis-type female who has a dark scheme up her sleeve to get Alceste's attention diverted to her.

Throw in the foppish behavior of two precious Marquesses (Blake Anthony and Clay Rogers) and the hysterical antics on stage reach fever pitch.

Under the dynamic direction of Josh Costello, the nine-member cast romps through Moliere's timeless comedy with ease. This is no small task when you consider that all of it is delivered in rhyme, in accordance with Richard Wilbur's excellent English adaptation.

Credit must also be given to Diana Mann for her sumptuous costumes and Matt Gromosini for his light design. In fact, kudos to everyone in this rollicking Little Fish Theatre production, which is a delight from beginning to end."

-Long Beach Press-Telegram

"No exaggeration, Misanthrope is fun... razor-sharp delivery by a young cast... the audience is in for a treat... The acting is consistently good, even in the minor roles. In fact, Blake Anthony, a Yale graduate, is hilarious as the minor character Acaste, one of Célimène's many suitors, and his self-promoting monologue is one of the production's memorable moments..."
-The Daily Breeze

"This solid production of the great Moliere piece is played directly with a few unusual touches... clever...a great play..."
-Random Lengths News

House of Lucky

2009-01-18T23:46:00.000-08:00

House of Lucky is a solo show written and performed by Frank Wortham. I directed the world premiere with Impact Theatre in 1998, the coproduction with The Marsh in 1999 (which was extended twice for a three-month run), and the Magic Theatre production in 2001. This show was a major hit in the Bay Area -- it won awards, got amazing reviews, and sold out performance after performance.

"Wortham never misses a beat, and Josh Costello's uncluttered, staccato direction keeps things humming."
—Brad Rosenstein, SF Bay Guardian

"delivers the thrill of a performance virtuoso riding high and hard on the power of the spoken word"
—Steven Winn, SF Chronicle

"Josh Costello, Impact Theatre's artistic director, has directed the show with tremendous attention to detail, and the characters are all vivid and well drawn, with the transitions between people rendered effectively. Wortham is a spellbinding performer...an artist to watch out for, and Impact Theatre, a group that aims to create theatre by and for the younger generations, is fast emerging as one of the most impassioned troupes in the Bay Area. You'll be hearing more from both."

—Chad Jones, Oakland Tribune

"Exhilirating, intoxicating trip...Costello's seamless staging..."

—Robert Hurwitt, SF Chronicle

"Josh Costello has smoothly directed this cavalcade of oddities"

—Mark de la Viña, San Jose Mercury News

"By far the best thing I've seen since I've been living in San Francisco."
—Jennifer Mendoza, SF Foghorn

"Josh Costello's lean, focused direction and Wortham's own undeniable charm and passion..."
—Kerry Reid, East Bay Express

Hamlet

2009-01-18T12:54:00.000-08:00

"a first-rate production of working professionals who demonstrate their talents under the informed, high-spirited direction of Josh Costello... Mark Joseph [as Hamlet] is simply sensational... the audience is completely captivated... don't miss Hamlet!"
-Long Beach Press-Telegram

Hamlet played in July and August 2006 at Shakespeare-by-the-Sea; performances were in parks all over Los Angeles and Orange County for audiences in the hundreds -- over 700 people attended the closing night performance.

I blogged the process of directing this production over at Blogging the Dane. All my analysis and thoughts about the play are there.

montage

Act 2 Scene 2

Long Beach Press-Telegram review of Hamlet
July 7th, 2006

Timeless tragedy in a beautiful setting
By Shirle Gottlieb, Correspondent

THOUGH IT’S certainly open to debate, “Hamlet” is probably the most beloved of Shakespeare’s tragic heroes.

Since 1602 when it was written, “Tragedy of Hamlet” has been translated, updated, adapted and performed all over the world. In addition, the demanding part of the Prince of Denmark has become a challenge for actors everywhere to test their dramatic skills.

Though I’ve seen myriad interpretations of “Hamlet” over the years, I was anxious to see how Shakespeare by the Sea handled this immortal drama - which is playing in repertory with “The Comedy of Errors” through Aug. 12.

I wasn’t alone. Hundreds of people flocked to beautiful Point Fermin to bask in Shakespeare’s words, the park’s natural surroundings and the sunset over the ocean. And it’s free, courtesy of Shakespeare by the Sea, a company whose mission is to make The Bard come alive for young and old in the South Bay area.

Just because it’s free doesn’t mean it’s amateurish. Quite the contrary. This is a first-rate production of working professionals who demonstrate their talents under the informed, high-spirited direction of Josh Costello.

The success or failure of this classic tale of murder, mayhem, madness and incest rests on the shoulders of the actor portraying Hamlet, and Mark Joseph is simply sensational. A member of California Repertory Company in Long Beach, Joseph commands the stage from his opening scene on the ramparts (the one with the ghost of his father) through his dying words at the end of the play.

Almost everyone reading this review knows the story: Something is definitely rotten in the state of Denmark! Out of blind ambition and lust, Uncle Claudius (Don Formaneck) kills his brother, theking, Hamlet’s father. Then in less than two months, he connivingly seizes his brother’s throne and marries Hamlet’s mother Gertrude (Jill Cary Martin), the king’s widow.

When the ghost of Hamlet’s father demands revenge, Hamlet - feeling completely helpless - delivers his world famous monologue (”To be or not to be”) and feigns madness. From this point on, tragedy is heaped upon tragedy until the bloody, awful end.

In spite of its dark, inevitable plot, there’s a lot of humor in “Hamlet,” as there is in all of Shakespeare’s writing. In this case, Chris Roberts is terrific in his portrayal of the dithering old Polonius. Also enjoyable is the good-natured give-and-take banter between Laertes (Aaron Sherry) and Hamlet before their relationship gets thwarted and the three parts played by John E. Farrell (the Ghost, Player King and wise old gravedigger).

As for Ophelia, Rebecca Lincoln is a vision of virginal beauty as the tragic love of Hamlet’s life. Barbara Suiter and Jim Van Over play off of each other well as manipulated students Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. And Crystal Sershen portrays Horatio, Hamlet’s loyal steadfast friend.

Although Valerie Wright’s lovely costumes suggest that this version of “Hamlet” is set in the 19th century, Aaron Jackson’s functional set is completely timeless. Kudos to Martin Noyes for his bang-up job as fight director. Everyone knows the deadly outcome of the duel between Hamlet and Horatio, but the gripping scene is so realistic, the audience is completely captivated.

Take my advice and don’t miss “Hamlet.” Grab a warm sweatshirt and blanket, pack a picnic and head for San Pedro.

Shirle Gottlieb is a Long Beach freelance writer

Directing Resumé

2009-01-18T00:46:00.000-08:00

DIRECTING

Marin Theatre Company (Mill Valley, CA) (currently Artistic Director of Expanded Programs)
MY CHILDREN! MY AFRICA! by Athol Fugard

Six Bay Area Critics Circle Award Nominations
LOVERS AND EXECUTIONERS by John Strand

ANIMAL VS. ANIMAL: an Aesop's Fables mashup by Steve Yockey (school tour)
THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE by CS Lewis, adapted by le Clanché du Rand (school tour)
A SHORT HISTORY OF NEARLY EVERYTHING by Bill Bryson, adapted by Lauren Gunderson (school tour)

Magic Theatre (San Francisco, CA)
HOUSE OF LUCKY by Frank Wortham

The Marsh (San Francisco, CA)
HOUSE OF LUCKY by Frank Wortham
Bay Area Critics Circle Awards for Original Script and Solo Performance
SF Bay Guardian Solo Performance Award

The Crucible (industrial arts center, Oakland CA)
ROMEO & JULIET: THE FIRE BALLET (premiere)

KOCE-TV: Storefront Theatre Live (Orange County’s PBS affiliate, broadcasts throughout Los Angeles County and the OC)
THE ROVER by Aphra Behn (new adaptation) (Chance Theater production; live television broadcast)

Shakespeare-by-the-Sea (Los Angeles, CA)
HAMLET by William Shakespeare (outdoor production performing in parks around LA and the OC)
THE MISANTHROPE by Moliere, translated by Richard Wilbur (indoor production at the Little Fish Theater, San Pedro, CA)

The Met Theatre (Hollywood, CA)
MACBETH by William Shakespeare

The Chance Theater Repertory Company (Orange County, CA)
THE ROVER by Aphra Behn, adapted by Josh Costello (premiere)
OC Weekly Theatre Award nominations for Best Ensemble, Best Direction
THE EIGHT: REINDEER MONOLOGUES by Jeff Goode
OC Weekly Theater Award for Best Ensemble; nominated for Best Production
THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK by Goodrich, Hackett, Kesselman
Roar of the Crowd Award
BackStage West Critic’s Pick

The Ethnic Cultural Theatre (Seattle, WA)
MARISOL by José Rivera

The Bay Shakespeare Marathon 2000 (at The Marsh, for Impact Theatre)
HENRY IV, PART ONE

Impact Theatre (Berkeley, CA) (sample listing)
THE WAKE-UP CREW by Zay Amsbury (premiere)
winner of SF Bay Guardian award for fight choreography
COMMEDIA 2000: SOCCER MOM VS. MONSTER BUD (premiere)
SEXUAL PERVERSITY IN CHICAGO by David Mamet

New York Fringe Festival (New York, NY), Divine Intervention (Chicago, IL), Inspiration Conspiracy (NY, NY)
HOUSE OF LUCKY by Frank Wortham

Mira Theatre Guild (Vallejo, CA)
THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST by Oscar Wilde

Sample listing of shows directed for training programs with student actors:
ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA
ALL’S WELL THAT ENDS WELL
AS YOU LIKE IT
THE COMEDY OF ERRORS
HENRY THE FOURTH, PART ONE
JULIUS CAESAR
ROMEO AND JULIET
THE TAMING OF THE SHREW
TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA
THE WINTER’S TALE
THE FORCED MARRIAGE by Moliere
GALILEO by Brecht

TEACHING

UC Riverside
A.C.T.
Cal Shakes
South Coast Rep
SF Shakes
CSU Long Beach
American Academy of Dramatic Arts

ASSISTANT DIRECTING

Stephen Wadsworth at Berkeley Rep
Valerie Curtis-Newton at NorthWest Asian American Theatre
Steve Pearson at University of Washington
James Bohnen at Boston University

TRAINING

MFA in Directing: University of Washington School of Drama (extensive one-on-one training with Jon Jory)

BFA in Stage Direction and Theatre Education: Boston University School of Theatre Arts

Directors’ Lab West 2004 participant

Bio

2009-01-18T00:42:00.000-08:00

Josh Costello is the Artistic Director of Expanded Programs at Marin Theatre Company, where he directed My Children! My Africa! and the Bay Area premiere of Lovers & Executioners. Other directing work includes House of Lucky at Magic Theatre, Romeo and Juliet: A Fire Ballet at The Crucible in Oakland, Hamlet at Shakespeare-by-the-Sea in LA, and his adaptation of The Rover for The Chance Theater in Orange County and for a live television broadcast on LA and Orange County's PBS affiliate. Josh was the founder and first Artistic Director of Impact Theatre. He was the Education Director at the Marin Shakespeare Company, and has taught at ACT, Cal Shakes, SF Shakes, UC Riverside, Cal State Long Beach, South Coast Rep, and the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in Hollywood. Josh holds a BFA in Theatre from Boston University, and an MFA in Directing from the University of Washington, Seattle.

Lovers & Executioners

2009-01-18T00:28:00.000-08:00

Lovers & Executioners by John Strand
directed by Josh Costello
Marin Theatre Company

"Gender-confused wooing, comic swordplay, double entendres and comedy that exploits and reverses old battle-of-the-sexes humor abound in "Lovers & Executioners," John Strand's curiously rich 1998 variation on a 17th century French farce. Bubbling beneath and enriching the comedy are serious reflections on the thin line between love and hate, the seductiveness of violence and the fundamental need for mutual trust. The degree of skill and glee director Josh Costello and the Marin Theatre Company apply to almost every aspect enhances the local premiere"
-SF Chronicle

"A magnificent production... extremely well-presented by a superb ensemble cast... loaded with laughs... it's a most enjoyable, rollicking, evening of fun"

-KGO

"Lovers and Executioners never stops being hilarious... thoroughly enjoyable... As staged by the Marin Theatre Company, under the sure-handed direction of Josh Costello, the wonderful period details—the witty dialogue all in verse, the magical set by Steve Coleman, the magnificent costumes by Fumiko Bieldfeldt—manage to anchor the story in France of the 1600s while maintaining a solidly contemporary sense of humor and social awareness"
-North Bay Bohemian

"dangerously funny... a splendid cast... Josh Costello stages the action with crisp authority "
-Marin I.J.

Photo Gallery

Macbeth

2009-01-18T00:18:00.000-08:00

I directed Macbeth at the Met Theatre in Hollywood. We had a lot of fun bringing this dark tale to life. I tried to avoid the clichés of chanting witches and an evil temptress by staying focused on the immediacy of the language in each moment, filling every word with intention and purpose and specificity. We found what I believe to be an entirely original take on the story's magic, a way of understanding the supernatural forces in the play that simultaneously supports the text, reveals some of the deeper thematic elements, and frankly creeps me out a whole lot. And we explored a simple and theatrical way of telling a big story on a small canvas.

"About a dozen actors, under the capable leadership of director Josh Costello, come together to retell the familiar story of Macbeth and his rise to the throne and ultimate demise because of fear, greed, and ambition. In this production, Robert Tobin as Macbeth has imposing stage presence. So, too, does Julie Ann Hassett as his Lady Macbeth... John Rocha also does nice work as Macduff... kudos to Costello's very creative staging."
-BackStage West

"An intimate look at the dark side... Josh Costello’s directing brings the well known story to a new setting... an evening of dark delight... the demise of this power-hungry lord inspires shock and satisfaction simultaneously... an extremely intimate setting, with the audience so close that it's practically part of the action. I loved the immediacy of it. I felt the fourth wall disappear as I was pulled forcefully into the action taking place just feet away on stage..."
-LA Splash

"This is a play that’s familiar to nearly everyone, but the MET troupe’s junkie witches and turnabout Brechtian staging brings fresh blood to the familiar. It’s evident even before the play begins, as director Josh Costello piles all the bodies on the stage, welcoming us to the coming bloodbath... Right away, we see we’re in new territory, as not all the witches are female in this show, nor all their sorcery paranormal; prophesy is taken in this play under the “spell” of a hypodermic syringe... Tobin [as Macbeth] quickly realizes that his fate is his fault, and it weighs on him. Heavily. Lady Macbeth isn’t burdened by conscience, and Ms. Hassett gives her none. Ms. Hassett, in fact, gives the play its very chilly best, looking at her husband adoringly only when he is most murderous, but remaining a hectoring maniac in his moments of humanity. Ms. Hassett is cool even when the script is edgy; she’s the rock-solid anchor on which all the treachery of the play is moored. Loved her in this part. ...The kaledaiscope that is the rest of the cast twists artfully with every scene, revealing new characters, faces patterns at every turn. One actor, Adam Burch, takes no less than six parts—worth watching for...the decision not to slur the pace I think in this case is a judicious one, as the kinetic scramble of the actors weaving in and out of scenes actually creates more excitement than conventional stagings. And then there are those marvellous convulsions under the spell of the syringe—some very superior body-acting is accomplished here, more than one time, more than two, more than three—everyone’s got the fever, in fact, even Tobin. I hope someone from one of those crime shows catches this production; the whole cast is easily ready not just for more Shakespeare, but for CSI Vegas too."
-Martini Republic

"...modernized, in this case, doesn't mean mutilated, and the rich, bloody language is the Dog Star of this production... we liked this production very much. On a dirty, jagged postage-stamp of a stage, no more than twelve feet square, a strong ensemble cast steps forward, says their lines of unspeakable terror and beauty, and then steps down to the side... Tobin makes Macbeth seem like a really nice guy who just cracks under the pressure of the murders, and his greater madness, when it does come, is a shocking contrast to the sweet-faced first act. Hassett, unfortunately (and this is Shakespeare's fault) doesn't get enough time on stage, but she shines in the great scene where Banquo's ghost comes and sits at the dinner table with Macbeth and fellow lords. She channels some kind of Beverly Hills madwoman-housewife, trying to make the guests stay at the table while her husband goes mad and draws a dagger at an empty chair. Redon Ramsey as Banquo is understated in life and devastating in death, and Michael Hovance (is that Adrien Brody I see before me?) makes Malcolm a much more interesting part than we'd ever considered it to be. His frustration at exile comes off as being stunned into grief... Christopher Morrison's fight choreography gives the final act a nice kick in the pants... Macbeth is the best bargain performance in town... This production is being untimely ripp'd from us on the 18th of December, so get it while you can"
-LAist

starring
Joseph Beck
Adam Burch
Julie Ann Hassett
Michael Hovance*
Rendon Ramsey
John Rocha
Summer Sinclair*
Barbara Suiter
Robert Tobin
Craig Wadlin

*members of
Actor's Equity
Association

Set Design
Bo Crowell

Costume Design
Dawn Worrall

Stage Manager
Lea Tobin

Fight Choreography
Christopher Morrison

Board Op
Juliana Johnson

Voice/Text Coach
Caroline Ducrocq

Photos
Lea Tobin
Craig Wadlin

Director's Note

Whenever an actor panics because someone has said "Macbeth" inside the theater, I reassure them by saying they can break the curse by reciting a line from A Midsummer Night's Dream -- and also maybe by spinning around three times while they say it or performing some such ridiculous task. It makes them feel better, and there's something appealing in the idea that Shakespeare's dark play of magic can be balanced by his light magical comedy. Macbeth is as filled with magic as any of his plays -- some scholars argue, convincingly, that Macbeth himself becomes a witch by the end of the story. And where the magic in Midsummer is mischievous and delightful, the magic in Macbeth is dangerous and horrible.

But a better opposite for Macbeth, or for Macbeth the character, might be the Prince of Denmark. Because it's not just about the magic, or even about the darkness. Macbeth is a man who takes action, and Hamlet, famously, does not. Of course, a case could be made that Hamlet is constantly pursuing his goal and that his apparent lack of will grows from the complexity of his plight. But when it comes down to it, we watch Hamlet hesitate and we watch Macbeth do. Both Hamlet and Macbeth are faced with difficult choices, and their reactions are very telling. Hamlet desperately wants to act but finds he must wait until the time is ripe. Macbeth wishes he could stop, but his fears drive him to go further and further down the road that he well knows leads to power and ruin. Where we admire Hamlet for his keen intellect, sensitivity, and creativity, we are drawn to Macbeth for the way he confronts his fears by becoming fearful himself.

We are all of us, on some level, drawn to power. And maybe there's another kind of magic in that. We know that power corrupts; we know that it's wrong to lie, cheat and steal. And most of the time, we don't do it -- we let our desire to be a good person win out over our darker desire to take the thing we want and consequences be damned. But when a character in a story makes the other choice, the choice we contemplate and fantasize about but usually don't make, it's fascinating. And the further that character goes, the more fascinating it becomes -- we want to see them punished, but there's a part of us that thrills to see them wield their newfound strength.

Magic is a funny thing. There's the magic of a superstition, a curse on the name of 400-year-old play; it comes true only if you believe it will come true, because you'll make it happen. And there's the magic of woodland fairies or of mysterious witches. But there's also theatrical magic, the magic of a group of actors and an audience, using their imaginations together to create another world and a story to fill it up. That moment in which language and gesture and image all come together in a shared act of creation. This is magic for here and now, for everyone. And it's what brought us all together tonight. Enjoy.

-Josh Costello

Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead

2009-01-18T00:07:00.000-08:00

This was my MFA Thesis production at the University of Washington, Seattle's Professional Director Training Program. I studied there for three years with Jon Jory, Mark Harrison, and Valerie Curtis-Newton, as well as the Acting and Design faculty. This production was the culmination. The cast were members of the MFA Acting program and the BA undergraduate drama program, and the designers were part of the MFA Design program.

The Rover

2009-01-17T23:25:00.000-08:00

The Rover is a seventeenth-century play by Aphra Behn, the English language's first professional female writer. I wrote a new adaptation of The Rover and directed it for The Chance Theater in Anaheim; the production ran in January and February of 2005. That April, we remounted the production for a live television broadcast on KOCE, Orange County's PBS affiliate. DVD footage is available, and KOCE has been rebroadcasting it every now and then.

I had been thinking about adapting The Rover for a few years before the gang at The Chance took me up on it. They provided me with a great space and a fantastic team. Here's the blurb:

An audacious new take on a classic story about a young girl who uses her wits and imagination to escape her fate, defeat her rivals, and win a hard-fought battle of love. This bawdy, rowdy seventeenth-century romp by the English language's first professional woman writer is boldly reimagined in this World Premiere staging at The Chance.

The adaptation mostly uses Behn's dialogue, with some clips taken from her sources and a couple of other plays -- the idea is not unlike my "Remix" of Henry IV. The big change, however, is that four young women play all the roles. The idea here is that Behn's play is about (among other themes) the power of the imagination. The young heroine of The Rover uses imagination to escape a bad situation, to outwit her enemies, and to win her man, and she does this primarily by dressing up in costumes. In the adaptation, four teenage girls act out the story during a slumber party, using their imaginations to deal with the complications of their friendships, to outdo one another, and to explore their fears and dreams about growing up and falling in love.

Another production of the adaptation was mounted early in 2006 at the Dallas Hub Theatre in Texas, directed by Christie Shane. The Dallas Morning News says "Updated Rover rolls with youthful charm."

If you are a potential producer (or potential employer) and this adaptation sounds interesting, please contact me (joshcostello at gmail dot com) to request a script or additional information. I'm very interested in directing this play again.

"Bursting with energy and creativity..."
-Northern Lights (local weekly)

"A teenage girls' slumber party is one of the least likely places to find Restoration drama, but director Josh Costello's adaptation of Aphra Behn's The Rover finds its voice again in Orange County... Costello's work excels in his use of the young girls, whose budding interest in courtship and sex takes centerstage... One of the silliest but most effective conceits is to have the girls use stuffed animals and Barbie dolls to represent collateral characters. They rouse the audience to laughter more than once as Ken and Barbie act out an amusing striptease or a big fluffy dog gesticulates with nuanced motions. This largely collegiate-aged quartet manages to be both worldly and unsophisticated, and it comes off very well. Masako Tobaru's lighting is effective, as her combination of subdued and key lights change moods... Jeremy Golden's large double-decker bunk bed is a successful bit of set design, allowing varied pairings of the cast. Kudos, too, for Christopher Villa's fight direction, as the characters wield umbrellas, canes, and toy swords in well-choreographed skirmishes. Adaptations can be successful or clunkers, as many directors have found, but this one is inventive and pleasurable, showcasing Behn's sharp wit and Costello's inspired imagination..."
-BackStage West

"Rover speaks, glowingly... Josh Costello’s ingenious spin on Aphra Behn’s Restoration Comedy The Rover is anything but sleazy or lowbrow. It’s actually quite innocent. Charming even... Costello actually trusts the script to support his vision... the way Costello relates the story — through a quirky game of charades that slowly evolves into a metaphor on how imagination can bring people together — results in one of the cleverest and most well-intentioned plays in some time...Costello’s highly talented and incredibly enthusiastic cast — Alex Bueno, Emily Clark, Vanessa Martinez and Barbara Suiter — provide an esprit de corps that infuses the 90-minute play with an energy too seldom experienced on local stages. With so much theater so self-important and posturingly pompous, it’s refreshing to see something intentionally light that still manages to make a keen point about how imagination can heal as much as it can distract."
-OC Weekly

Exerpt from
The New Mermaids edition
of The Rover
edited by Robyn Bolam (2005)

The final section of the Introduction is "The Play In Performance," ending with this paragraph:
Over ten years later, The Rover's appeal appears to be undiminished with numerous performances worldwide in 2005. One of the more innovative of these was an adaptation by Josh Costello, who also directed it for the Chance Theater in Anaheim, California. In this, Behn's play (with some cuts, a few lines from Thomaso, and even a couple from Shakespeare's plays in the introduction) was enacted by four 15 year old girls on a sleepover or slumber party, who used their imaginations and what they had on hand – a dressing-up chest and some dolls and puppets. Their skilled manipulation of the latter unexpectedly brought Don Pedro to life as a dog with long drooping ears and a serious expression, while Barbie and Ken dolls were effectively used to dramatize Blunt's encounter with Lucetta. Alex Bueno, Emily Clark, Vanessa Martinez and Barbara Suiter leapt in and out of their shared bunk beds (poised on top of low bookshelves), donning masks, wigs, and makeshift costumes to transport their audience back to Behn's time, occasionally breaking the spell to demonstrate the way in which the girls were taken over by their imaginations. Despite the lively humour that that pervaded this production and the all-female cast, the potential threat of rape in III.v was menacingly conveyed. In its novel exploration of gender roles and the female imagination, Costello's thought-provoking adaptation marks another successful transformation of The Rover on the contemporary stage.

1998 SF Chronicle article

2009-01-16T21:30:00.000-08:00

Here's a 1998 San Francisco Chronicle article all about the big theatres in the Bay Area trying to get young people in the door. This was when the word was starting to get around about Impact Theatre, and Steven Winn interviewed me for the piece.

At Berkeley's tiny Impact Theatre, where tickets are $5 and $10, the shows are all written by and about people in their 20s and 30s. By ``truly speaking to people of our generation in our own community,'' Impact's fearless mission statement vows, the company can ``spark a movement toward theater, storytelling, community and direct experience within our generation as a whole.''

``There's something about the audience and the actors being together, live in the moment,'' says Josh Costello, Impact Theatre's 24-year- old artistic director. ``I wish more people my age knew how cool that can be.''

Ubu for President dialogue sample

2009-01-13T21:51:00.000-08:00

Dialogue sample from Ubu for President:

JUDGE
We'll begin with opening statements. King Wenceslas?

KING WENCESLAS
Thank you. As the rightful and hereditarily appropriate King of Fuggal, I humbly beg the people's indulgence in selecting me to continue as their God-chosen overlord.

JUDGE
Very good. Mister Wounded Knee Goldstein, do you have any opening remarks?

MING
I just want to take a moment to thank all the people of Fuggal who are coming together in harmony and love in support of this election. I also want to thank all of the plants and animals of Fuggal. In fact, I want to thank the living essence of every unfettered soul in this universe or in any other universe. Thank you.

JUDGE
Princess Buggerlas, your opening statement, please.

KING
Oh, she doesn’t have an opening statement.

PRINCESS
Daddy, shh!

KING
Why don’t we just end this silliness right now?

PRINCESS
It is not silliness! I’m running for President!

KING
Now, Princess, what did we talk about earlier? It’s very cute that you’re doing this, but why don’t you go on home and let daddy have his debate?

PRINCESS
I am not a little baby! Don’t talk to me like a little baby! I am a big girl! (starting to cry) I am a big girl!

JUDGE
Mister Leszczynski, we'll move on to you.

LESZCZYNSKI: [deaf]
Eh?

JUDGE
Mister Leszczynski?

LESZCZYNSKI
When I was a boy, we played hide-the-potato without our underpants.

PA UBU
Ha! This guy is hilarious!

JUDGE
Pa Ubu, do you have an opening statement?

PA UBU (to Ma Ubu and Captain Balzac)
Do I have an opening statement?

BALZAC
Yes! Remember…?

PA UBU
Oh, right! Yes! Well, I say, yes, I do have an opening statement. I studied it, yes I did, with Ma Ubu and Ball-sack here. And it is quite a thing, let me tell you. Opening statement. Yes.

LESZCZYNSKI
You seem like a very nice young man.

JUDGE
I’d like each of the candidates to answer the following question in turn. If elected, what do you propose to do about taxes? Princess Buggerlas, let’s begin with you.

PRINCESS
Well, I don’t know much about, like, politics or the economy, or like foreign policy, or the law, or like electorial stuff, or health care, or like education, and I don’t know a whole lot about like governance stuff either, or like how people make things, you know? Yeah.

JUDGE
King Wenceslas, if you are elected President, what would you do about taxes?

KING
Thank you so much for this wonderful question. And thank you to the people of Fuggal. You know, I love Fuggal. I have always loved Fuggal, ever since I was a little boy. And Fuggal has loved me right back. These other candidates may say that they love Fuggal. But have any of them demonstrated that love the way that I have? Do any of them have the kind of experience as a ruler of Fuggal that I have? I don’t think so. If you want a great President, you don’t have to look any further than your King. Thank you so much.

JUDGE
Mr. Wounded Knee Goldstein, what would you do about taxes if you were to become President?

MING
First of all, I’d like to point out that he completely did not answer that question, like at all. Okay. The question is about taxes. And taxes, my friends, are about money. Let me ask you this: what is money? Is it little green pieces of paper? Is it? Or is money really just an illusion? A vast conspiracy whose real purpose is to separate those who have it from those who don’t. And separation is a form of discrimination, people. I believe that real wealth comes from spiritual fulfillment. If we all become a part of the universal One, then we will all be spiritually fulfilled, and therefore very wealthy. If I become President, I will eliminate money, and therefore all taxes will be meaningless. Thank you.

PA UBU
I was told there would be sandwiches!

JUDGE
Mr. Ubu?

PA UBU
Yes? Hello? What?

JUDGE
Would you like to respond to the question?

PA UBU
Question?

JUDGE
If elected President of Fuggal, what would you do about taxes?

PA UBU
Taxes? I would raise them, of course! Why do you think I want to be President?

(MA UBU rushes to him to whisper something, he tries to avoid her, and they end up tangled up with her behind him, and her arms sticking through his armpits. He speaks, and she gestures as if her arms were his arms)

Hornboodle, what are you doing? Ah! Well, I have, of course, discussed this question extensively with my learned advisors, and they tell me that the people do not like taxes, and so I say to the people that I will cut all taxes entirely! (Ma Ubu makes an incomprehensible gesture with her hands; Pa Ubu tries to interpret.) However, the people also like it when the government provides certain services, such as street sweeping and garbage burning, which are funded by taxes, and so I will raise taxes after all! (This isn’t what Ma Ubu meant; she tweaks his nipples or punches him in the gut.) No! No, I will not raise taxes, what a ridiculous idea, I must have been joking. (Ma Ubu approves of this; she pats or rubs his belly.) Ah, that’s nice, yes. Ooh! That tickles! Hee hee hee! Wheee!

JUDGE
Mr. Leszczynski, would you like to answer the question?

LESZCZYNSKI
Oh no, no thank you. Ha ha ha.

JUDGE
In the next portion of the debate, the candidates will be allowed to ask questions of each other. King Wenceslas, let’s begin with you. Do you have a question for one of the other candidates?

KING WENCESLAS
Thank you. Yes, I do have a question for one of the other candidates. First, though, I’d just like to point out that Fuggal is a wonderful place. The grass is green, the sky is blue, and children run around in their short pants, laughing and playing. Birds are singing in Fuggal like never before. Flower blooming is up by over 75%. Also, the population of Fuggal increased by 18 and a half percent during my reign as King. It’s a beautiful day in Fuggal, and when I become President, I intend to keep it that way. Thank you.

JUDGE
But do you have a question for one of the other candidates?

KING WENCESLAS
Ah yes. Thank you. I’ll direct my question to Pa Ubu. Mr. Ubu, how do you explain the poor judgment and outright ingratitude you showed when you decided to run for President against me, your King and, I might add, your old good friend?

JUDGE
Pa Ubu, would you like to respond?

PA UBU
When I am President, we will have a camp for little boys, that’s right, on a river, and the boys will camp and play and learn to build fires and wrestle, and then we’ll dam the river and flood the camp, and those little boys will drown, every one of them.

MING
I have a question.

JUDGE
Yes, Mr. Wounded Knee Goldstein.

MING
Why?

JUDGE
What?

MING
Why?

JUDGE
Why what?

MING
Exactly. That’s all.

PA UBU
I have to go to the bathroom!

MACNURE
Shh, Pa Ubu.

PRINCESS
Can I ask a question? It’s for Ming Jamal.

JUDGE
Of course. Princess Buggerlas, what question do you have for Mr. Wounded Knee Goldstein?

PRINCESS
Well, I was just wondering, do you like dancing? There’s this awesome club that me and my friends are going to after this, and I thought maybe you might want to come dancing with us. If you like dancing.

KING
Princess, we talked about this, you’re not allowed to go to the club anymore.

PRINCESS
I don’t have to do what you say anymore, Daddy! I’m running for President too, you know!

KING
All right, that’s it, young lady, you are grounded!

PRINCESS
But Daddy!

JUDGE
For the next portion of the debate, the candidates will answer questions submitted by the audience.

2009-01-01T20:10:00.000-08:00