Pam MacKinnon

Early life

MacKinnon is a native of Chicago and was raised in suburban Buffalo, New York. She majored in economics and political science at the University of Toronto and enrolled in a political science Ph.D. program at the University of California, San Diego,but leftto work with Des McAnuff and Anne Bogart in San Diego. She studied at the Lincoln Center Directors' Lab and the Drama League.

Career

MacKinnon has directed many plays by Edward Albee, including the premiere of his Peter and Jerry at the Second Stage Theatre (2007) (and also at Hartford Stage), and his Occupant (2008) by the Signature Theatre Company. Additional Albee works that she has directed include: A Delicate Balance (2009) at the Arena Stage, Washington, DC, and The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia? at the Alley Theatre, Houston, Texas, in 2003. The Houston Chronicle reviewer wrote of MacKinnon's direction of The Goat: "Director Pam MacKinnon negotiates the shifting tone as expertly as Albee has written it." She directed Albee's The Play About the Baby (2002) by the Philadelphia Theatre Company, Philadelphia and at the Goodman Theatre (2003). The Philadelphia Inquirer reviewer wrote that MacKinnon "...displays an unerring understanding of the play's moods and rhythms."

She directed Clybourne Park at the Off-Broadway Playwrights Horizons in 2010, winning the 2010 Obie Award for Directing. The play won the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. She directed the Broadway production of Clybourne Park, receiving a nomination for the 2012 Tony Award, Best Direction of a Play. In the Fall of 2011 she directed David Bar Katz's The Atmosphere of Memory, starring Ellen Burstyn and John Glover at The LAByrinth Theater Company.

In regional theatre she directed Death of a Salesman at the Old Globe Theatre, San Diego, which ran from January 22, 2011 to February 27, 2011. At the South Coast Repertory, Costa Mesa, California, she directed Itamar Moses' Completeness (2011),Gina Gionfriddo's Becky Shaw (2010), and Richard Greenberg's Our Mother's Brief Affair (2009)

MacKinnon directed three plays by Horton Foote under the umbrella title of Harrison, TX: Three Plays by Horton Foote for Primary Stages at 59E59 Theaters, New York City, with performances running from July-September 2012.

MacKinnon directed a production of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? at the Steppenwolf Theatre, Chicago with performances starting in December 2010. She directed the production on Broadway at the Booth Theatre, which ran from September 2012 (previews) to March 3, 2013. MacKinnon won the Tony Award, Best Direction of a Play.

MacKinnon directed the 2014 Broadway revival of Edward Albee's A Delicate Balance starring Glenn Close, John Lithgow and Martha Plimpton. The show ran from October 2014 (previews) to February 22, 2015 at the John Golden Theatre.

MacKinnon directed the world premiere of Amélie, a new musical based on the 2001 film, which premiered at Berkeley Repertory Theatre in September 2015. The book is by Craig Lucas, Daniel Messé (of Hem) wrote the music and Messé and Nathan Tysen wrote the lyrics. The musical opened on Broadway in March 2017 in previews, and is scheduled to close on May 21, 2017.

She is Chairwoman of the Executive Board of Clubbed Thumb, which "commissions, develops, and produces funny, strange, and provocative new plays by living American writers."

Awards and nominations

Source: Playbillvault