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Stage and Film DirectorStage and Film Director

I worked 7 seasons at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival as staff carpenter and director of Black Swan Midnight Projects. Built these two towers for Henry V.

MedeaDirector Oregon Shakespeare Black Swan Project

With Kristin Patton, William Moreing, and Sands Hall

Director of 11 projects

while a student

at the University of Wyoming,

including a

full length version of Hamlet.

“I’ve known three men who had the drive to start with nothing and form a viable and exciting company—

Angus Bowmer [founder Oregon Shakespeare Festival],

Michael Leibert [founder Berkeley Repertory], and

Michael O’Rourke [founder Actors’ Theatre].

All three had the tenacity to overcome artistic and financial obstacles.”

—Karl Barron, San Francisco Bay Area Critic

In the beginning . . .

. . . Actors’ Theatre was a nomadic company performing on the street, at fairs, in bars, and empty office buildings . . .

The Snow Queen [musical]

World Premiere 1985

Ashland Phone Building

I welcomed the opportunity to cast an acting student at Southern Oregon University to play the title role in The Elephant Man as his BFA acting thesis. I directed the play on the backstage of a movie theatre, enlisting “the entire audience as extras in the opening crowd scenes.”

“Elephant Man is brilliant, moving, excellent, A marvelous theatrical illusion that draws the audience inside the play . . . Doane [the student] portrays Merrick with consummate skill.”

—Medford Mail Tribune

(Note: I took the stage name O’Rourke in honor of my grandmother 6 months after this production.)

The main room of an office suite before we remodeled in 1987.

The Miracle on Main TheatreBefore

I designed this 49-seat black box.

Miracle on Main TheatreAfter

• Amadeus“An intimate pageant with just 7 actors. . .” in the Miracle on Main Producer / Director

CAPITAL CAMPAIGN

In the winter of ‘89 I negotiated a lease with an option to buy a vaudeville house in Talent, OR, 4 miles north of Ashland. I organized a successful capital campaign to purchase and renovate the Miracle Playhouse, where I directed a wide spectrum of plays.

Prince Caspian Fight Master

The Magician’s Nephew [musical]

Tale of Two Cities [musical]

Miracle Playhouse

CO-AUTHOR / DIRECTORA TRIBUTE TO GARLAND [MUSICAL REVUE]

OREGON CABARET THEATRE / REGIONAL TOUR

Actors’ Theatre“An astonishing example of how a small company can become a major theatrical force ... Dazzling critics and audiences with audacious undertakings, as well as beautifully acted revivals of classics.”

— A. J. Esta, critic for Back Stage

In the Land Where Acorns DanceAfter 5 years of research, I wrote a screenplay portraying the lifeways and suffering of the Winnemem Wintu in the wake of the Gold Rush of ’49 in Northern California. Directed 7 staged readings in Oregon and Alaska.

Anchorage Community Theatre Golden Anniversary 2003

Managing Artistic Director, Michael O’Rourke

Mainstage Productions

Count of Monte Cristo [world premiere]

Long Day’s Journey Into Night [Alaska premiere]

Magician’s Nephew [musical, Alaska premiere]

Bus Stop [held over twice; invitation to Valdez]

Woody Guthrie’s American Song [musical, Alaska premiere]

Bus Stop ACT Studio Theatre Co-Director / Co-Set Designer

In 2003 I designed a 49-seat black box in a warehouse owned by ACT. For one of the first productions in the new Studio Theatre, we created “a terrific production design that put the audience right inside the diner.”

Dr. McDowell, president of Prince William Sound Community College, invited ACT to perform Bus Stop for the Last Frontier Theatre Conference in Valdez, AK in June 2004. We transferred the set to a large proscenium stage, sitting 100 onstage—twice as many as in this theatre in Anchorage.

Bus Stop [Valdez]

Student Showcase ProducerAnchorage Community Theatre Golden Anniversary

11 student showcases on school and club sites, and 13 showcases at the new ACT Studio Theatre

Funded in part by grants from the Municipality of Anchorage, ConocoPhillips Alaska, and the U.S. Department of Education Fund for the Improvement of Education.

As Artistic Director, I wrote and directed the winter show to open in the new black box.

Scrap Mettle SOUL, Chicago, moved into the Ravenswood United Methodist Church rummage room with a flexible 120-seat theatre in the Fall of

2005, which we dubbedThe New Theatre.

Streetwise performers and highly trained professionals, taking cues from the rhythms, languages, and ethnicities of Uptown, Chicago, work to build community through the arts in one of the most diverse neighborhood in the US. Rehearsal shots of “Uptown Christmas Carol” show a gritty new musical set in a Chicago homeless camp.

musical book / director 2006

The Snow Queen [musical]

Chicago Premiere 2006

Ravenswood New Theatre

Hoka Hey Stone Soup! Woodland Montessori Kindergarten 2011 Director / Adaptor

Still photo from my short film Refuge of Dragonflies,based on characters in Victor Hugo’s ‘Hunchback of Notre Dame.’

I wrote, directed & edited in 2008, winning 4 international film fest awards.

Great Plains Theatre ConferenceOmaha 2010

Carry Me [original play staged reading] Director

Dinner with FriendsMadison Theatre Guild 2011

Screen adaptation & staged reading based on Winona’s powerful novel, which traces the lives of seven generations of Anishinaabe (Ojibwe) on the White Earth Reservation in Minnesota. Winona was present for post show discussion.

Michael O’Rourke

“Michael O’Rourke has been tireless in his pursuit of excellence . . . his intelligence is keen . . . his imagination unlimited . . . his integrity unshakable. His vision for what this art can be or do for artists and audiences is among the

highest I know. ”—James Edmondson, Associate Artist, Oregon Shakespeare Festival

Photos: Vilmar Borges, Lisa Byrne, Chava Florendo, David French, Kent Harrison, Rob Jaffe, Oliver Korshin, Hank Kranzler, Leah Levinger, James O. Mason, Helga Motley, Marie Schulte, Jared Silver.

Directorhttp://vimeo.com/user2696242/videos