Di Trevis
Encyclopedia
Diane Trevis is an English
theatre director. She was born in Birmingham
and educated at Sussex University. After eight years as an actress, she began directing in 1981.
Trevis was the first woman to run a company at Britain's Royal National Theatre
. Between 1986 and 1993, she directed Happy Birthday Brecht, The Mother
, The School for Wives
, Yerma
, The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui
and Inadmissible Evidence
for the National. In 2001 she adapted, with Harold Pinter
, Proust's
Remembrance of Things Past
. The production, which transferred to the Olivier
stage in 2002, was described as "ravishing" by the press and won an Olivier Award.
Trevis has also worked extensively at the Royal Shakespeare Company
, with productions of Happy End
, The Taming of the Shrew
, The Revenger’s Tragedy, Much Ado About Nothing
and Elgar’s Rondo. In 1991 she mounted a production of Harrison Birtwistle's
opera Gawain
at the Royal Opera House
. She also directed The Merry Widow
for Scottish Opera
and The Voluptuous Tango
for the Almeida
.
Trevis has had a long-standing affiliation with the US, directing and teaching in New York
, Los Angeles
, Chicago
and Pittsburgh. Her American productions include: As You Like It
, The Duchess of Malfi
, Human Cannon, Le Grand Meaulnes and Silverland. In December 2008 she directed London Cries at the Irondale, Brooklyn
, featuring Jenny Galloway
and Richard Poe
.
For the past seven years, Trevis has been teaching actors and directors in her international workshops. She has taught in the UK, the US, France, Germany, Austria and Cuba. Gary Oldman
, Kenneth Brannagh and Rupert Everett
have all passed through her workshops and she has a following of young actors in London who regularly attend her Sunday workshop. Between 2003-7, Trevis was Head of Directing at Drama Centre London.
A friend of Ian Charleson
, Trevis contributed a chapter to the 1990 book, For Ian Charleson: A Tribute. She has written a book about her life as a director, which is soon to be published.
Currently Trevis will be directing a production of "The Beaux' Stratagem" at The Pennsylvania State University in the Spring 2011.
English people
The English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...
theatre director. She was born in Birmingham
Birmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
and educated at Sussex University. After eight years as an actress, she began directing in 1981.
Trevis was the first woman to run a company at Britain's Royal National Theatre
Royal National Theatre
The Royal National Theatre in London is one of the United Kingdom's two most prominent publicly funded theatre companies, alongside the Royal Shakespeare Company...
. Between 1986 and 1993, she directed Happy Birthday Brecht, The Mother
The Mother (play)
The Mother is a play by the German modernist playwright Bertolt Brecht. It is based on Maxim Gorky’s 1906 novel of the same name.It was written in collaboration with Hanns Eisler, Slatan Dudow and Günter Weisenborn from 1930–31 in prose dialogue with unrhymed irregular free verse and ten initial...
, The School for Wives
The School for Wives
The School for Wives is a theatrical comedy written by the seventeenth century French playwright Molière and considered by some critics to be one of his finest achievements. It was first staged at the Palais Royal theatre on 26 December 1662 for the brother of the King...
, Yerma
Yerma
Yerma is a play by the Spanish dramatist Federico García Lorca. It was written in 1934, and first performed that same year. Lorca describes the play as "a tragic poem."-Plot:...
, The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui
The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui
The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui is a play by the German dramatist Bertolt Brecht, originally written in 1941...
and Inadmissible Evidence
Inadmissible Evidence
Inadmissible Evidence is a play written by John Osborne in November 1964. It was also filmed in 1968.The protagonist of the play is William Maitland, a middle-aged English solicitor who has come to hate his entire life. Much of the play consists of lengthy monologues in which Maitland tells the...
for the National. In 2001 she adapted, with Harold Pinter
Harold Pinter
Harold Pinter, CH, CBE was a Nobel Prize–winning English playwright and screenwriter. One of the most influential modern British dramatists, his writing career spanned more than 50 years. His best-known plays include The Birthday Party , The Homecoming , and Betrayal , each of which he adapted to...
, Proust's
Marcel Proust
Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust was a French novelist, critic, and essayist best known for his monumental À la recherche du temps perdu...
Remembrance of Things Past
Remembrance of Things Past (play)
Remembrance of Things Past is the 2000 collaborative stage adaptation by Harold Pinter and director Di Trevis of Harold Pinter's as-yet unproduced The Proust Screenplay , a screen adaptation of À la recherche du temps perdu, the seven-volume novel by Marcel Proust.In November 2000, the play...
. The production, which transferred to the Olivier
Royal National Theatre
The Royal National Theatre in London is one of the United Kingdom's two most prominent publicly funded theatre companies, alongside the Royal Shakespeare Company...
stage in 2002, was described as "ravishing" by the press and won an Olivier Award.
Trevis has also worked extensively at the Royal Shakespeare Company
Royal Shakespeare Company
The Royal Shakespeare Company is a major British theatre company, based in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England. The company employs 700 staff and produces around 20 productions a year from its home in Stratford-upon-Avon and plays regularly in London, Newcastle-upon-Tyne and on tour across...
, with productions of Happy End
Happy End (musical)
Happy End is a surrealistic three-act musical comedy by Kurt Weill, Elisabeth Hauptmann, and Bertolt Brecht which first opened in Berlin at the Theater am Schiffbauerdamm on September 2, 1929. It closed after seven performances...
, The Taming of the Shrew
The Taming of the Shrew
The Taming of the Shrew is a comedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1590 and 1591.The play begins with a framing device, often referred to as the Induction, in which a mischievous nobleman tricks a drunken tinker named Sly into believing he is actually a nobleman himself...
, The Revenger’s Tragedy, Much Ado About Nothing
Much Ado About Nothing
Much Ado About Nothing is a comedy written by William Shakespeare about two pairs of lovers, Benedick and Beatrice, and Claudio and Hero....
and Elgar’s Rondo. In 1991 she mounted a production of Harrison Birtwistle's
Harrison Birtwistle
Sir Harrison Paul Birtwistle CH is a British contemporary composer.-Life:Birtwistle was born in Accrington, a mill town in Lancashire some 20 miles north of Manchester. His interest in music was encouraged by his mother, who bought him a clarinet when he was seven, and arranged for him to have...
opera Gawain
Gawain (opera)
Gawain is an opera with music by Harrison Birtwistle to a libretto by David Harsent. The story is based on the Middle English romance Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. The opera was a commission from the Royal Opera House, London, where it was first performed on 30 May 1991. Rhian Samuel has...
at the Royal Opera House
Royal Opera House
The Royal Opera House is an opera house and major performing arts venue in Covent Garden, central London. The large building is often referred to as simply "Covent Garden", after a previous use of the site of the opera house's original construction in 1732. It is the home of The Royal Opera, The...
. She also directed The Merry Widow
The Merry Widow
The Merry Widow is an operetta by the Austro–Hungarian composer Franz Lehár. The librettists, Viktor Léon and Leo Stein, based the story – concerning a rich widow, and her countrymen's attempt to keep her money in the principality by finding her the right husband – on an 1861 comedy play,...
for Scottish Opera
Scottish Opera
Scottish Opera is the national opera company of Scotland, and one of the five national performing arts companies funded by the Scottish Government...
and The Voluptuous Tango
Dominic Muldowney
Dominic Muldowney is a British composer.-Biography:He studied at the universities of Southampton and York , and took private lessons with Harrison Birtwistle. From 1974 to 1976 he was composer-in-residence to the Southern Arts Association...
for the Almeida
Almeida Theatre
The Almeida Theatre, opened in 1980, is a 325 seat studio theatre with an international reputation which takes its name from the street in which it is located, off Upper Street, in the London Borough of Islington. The theatre produces a diverse range of drama and holds an annual summer festival of...
.
Trevis has had a long-standing affiliation with the US, directing and teaching in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
, Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
and Pittsburgh. Her American productions include: As You Like It
As You Like It
As You Like It is a pastoral comedy by William Shakespeare believed to have been written in 1599 or early 1600 and first published in the folio of 1623. The play's first performance is uncertain, though a performance at Wilton House in 1603 has been suggested as a possibility...
, The Duchess of Malfi
The Duchess of Malfi
The Duchess of Malfi is a macabre, tragic play written by the English dramatist John Webster in 1612–13. It was first performed privately at the Blackfriars Theatre, then before a more general audience at The Globe, in 1613-14...
, Human Cannon, Le Grand Meaulnes and Silverland. In December 2008 she directed London Cries at the Irondale, Brooklyn
Irondale Ensemble Project
Irondale Ensemble is an experimental theatre company founded in New York City in 1983 by Jim Niesen, Terry Greiss and Barbara Mackenzie-Wood. Since then, they have produced more than forty-five major Off Broadway shows and mounted two international and three domestic tours. In October of 2008...
, featuring Jenny Galloway
Jenny Galloway
Jenny Galloway is a British actress, and singer best known for her stage career.Theatre credits include:* Madame Thénardier - Les Misérables* Widow Corney - Oliver!...
and Richard Poe
Richard Poe
Richard Poe is an American actor. He has worked in movies, television and on Broadway....
.
For the past seven years, Trevis has been teaching actors and directors in her international workshops. She has taught in the UK, the US, France, Germany, Austria and Cuba. Gary Oldman
Gary Oldman
Gary Leonard Oldman is an English actor, voice actor, filmmaker and musician.A member of the 1980s Brit Pack, Oldman came to prominence via starring roles in British films Meantime , Sid and Nancy and Prick Up Your Ears , with his performance in the latter bringing him his first BAFTA Award...
, Kenneth Brannagh and Rupert Everett
Rupert Everett
Rupert James Hector Everett is an English actor. He first came to public attention in 1981, when he was cast in Julian Mitchell's play and subsequent film Another Country as an openly gay student at an English public school, set in the 1930s...
have all passed through her workshops and she has a following of young actors in London who regularly attend her Sunday workshop. Between 2003-7, Trevis was Head of Directing at Drama Centre London.
A friend of Ian Charleson
Ian Charleson
Ian Charleson was a Scottish stage and film actor. He is best known internationally for his starring role as Olympic athlete and missionary Eric Liddell, in the Oscar-winning 1981 film Chariots of Fire. He is also well known for his portrayal of Rev...
, Trevis contributed a chapter to the 1990 book, For Ian Charleson: A Tribute. She has written a book about her life as a director, which is soon to be published.
Currently Trevis will be directing a production of "The Beaux' Stratagem" at The Pennsylvania State University in the Spring 2011.