Julie Taymor

Julie Taymor, the first female to win a Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical, is a strong female presence in the theatrical world. Best known for her award-winning stage adaptation of The Lion King, Taymor brings her unique touch on innovation onto the stage.

In the early years of Taymor’s career, she traveled through different countries and eventually founded the Teatr Loh, a group of global puppeteers and actors, and staged her first-ever theatre productions The Way of Snow and Tirai. In The Way of Snow, Taymor fused her perception of modernization and the artistry of puppetry in a foreign historical context. She witnessed the transformation of traditional puppetry into electricity and strongly resonated with the “lost” techniques. Consequently, in her first production The Way of Snow, Taymor displayed the gradual modernization process with varieties of puppetry. During the late 1980s and early 1990s, Taymoralso proceeded to direct several Shakespearean plays including The Tempest and The Taming of the Shrew. In the early 1990s, Taymor branched off to the direction of operas, leaving productions like The Magic Flute and The Flying Dutchman.

Perhaps the most well-known production by Julie Taymor is her adaptation of The Lion King, which earned her eleven Tony Award nominations and 2 Tony Awards. Initially, the whimsy and fictional nature of the show contrasts Taymor’s style of art. However, Taymor’s unique innovation won her the director role. She co-designed more than 100 life-size puppets to mimic the animals in the show, creating full-body puppets worn by actors. Eventually, her revolutionizing creativity brought her success. The Lion King, after its debut in 1997, became the longest-running show in Broadway history, watched by over 100 million audiences. The show’s worldwide gross also exceeds all entertainment titles in the box office history. Commenting on the idea of innovation, Taymor believes that innovation represents giving new experiences to audiences when they come into theatres. She firmly executes the motto “The bigger risk, the bigger payoff” and aims to provide audiences with refreshing experiences even if the story has already been told. Taymor believes that if people don’t innovate in
their way of story-telling, then they’re “not progressing as humans” and “not progressing as artists” (arts.gov)

After The Lion King, Julie Taymor extended her talent beyond theatre and turned to film directing. She released her first Shakespeare-based featured film Titus in 1999. Her unique aesthetic also marked its own place in the film industry. Her biopic film Frida about the artist Frida Kahlo won her Academy Award for Best Original Score and Best Makeup in 2003. Taymor also continued her Shakespearean interest, as she proceeded to direct the film The Tempest in 2010. In 2013, Taymor returned to bringing Shakespeare onstage with her production A Mid-Summer’s Night Dream.

Julie Taymor, with her distinct artistic style and theatrical talent, had left a remarkable legacy in the theatre world. Her dedication to innovation and cultural representation strongly voiced her position as a female theatre director.