Quick Facts
Biography
Les Waters (born in Cleethorpes, England) is a notable British theatre director. Waters is the Artistic Director of the Actors Theater of Louisville. He has directed plays Off-Broadway and also at Berkeley Repertory Theatre and the Actors Theater.
Career
In January 2012, he was appointed as the Artistic Director of the Actors Theater of Louisville. He had previously served as associate artistic director of Berkeley Repertory Theatre for the last six years.
Waters has a history of collaborating with prominent playwrights, including Caryl Churchill and Charles Mee, and champions important new voices such as Will Eno, Jordan Harrison, Sarah Ruhl and Anne Washburn.
His productions at Berkeley Rep include the world premieres of Fêtes de la Nuit, Finn in the Underworld, In the Next Room (or The Vibrator Play) and To the Lighthouse; the American premiere of Tragedy: a tragedy; the West Coast premiere of Eurydice; and extended runs of The Glass Menagerie, The Pillowman, The Lieutenant of Inishmore, and Yellowman.
In 2000 he directed Big Love by Charles Mee at the Humana Festival, and in 2001 he directed the play at the Long Wharf Theater in New Haven and the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York City. Waters and Mee received the 2002 Obie Award. Special Citations for Big Love.
His New York credits include directing for Classic Stage Company, the Connelly Theatre, Manhattan Theatre Club, Playwrights Horizons, The Public Theater/New York Shakespeare Festival, Second Stage Theatre and Signature Theatre Company.Elsewhere in America, he has directed for A Contemporary Theatre, American Conservatory Theater, American Repertory Theatre, Arena Stage, the Guthrie Theater, La Jolla Playhouse, the Mark Taper Forum, Steppenwolf Theatre Company and Yale Repertory Theatre.
In his native England, Waters has worked with the Bristol Old Vic, Hampstead Theatre Club, Joint Stock Theatre Group, National Theatre, Royal Court Theatre and Traverse Theatre Club.
Waters formerly led the M.F.A. directing program at UC San Diego, and is an associate artist of The Civilians, a theatre group based in New York.
Honors
- Top 10 Theater Productions of 2007 in Time Magazine for Sarah Ruhl's Eurydice
- Best Theater of 2006 in the New York Times for Eurydice
- Top 10 Plays of 2005 in TimeOut New York
- He won an Obie Award in 2002 for Big Love, staging its premiere at the Humana Festival and subsequent runs at Berkeley Rep, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, the Goodman Theatre and Long Wharf Theatre.
- Drama-Logue Award
- Edinburgh Fringe First Award
- KPBS Patte
- Several awards from critics’ circles in the Bay Area, Connecticut and Tokyo.