XERXES MEHTA
Professor

Xerxes Mehta has directed across the range of dramatic literature. He has an abiding interest in the plays of Chekhov, Molière, Shakespeare and Pinter, and has revisited these playwrights throughout his career. He is, however, particularly known for his work on Beckett. He has directed nine of Beckett’s plays, lectured and published internationally on Beckett’s theatre, and taken productions to international Beckett festivals in France and Germany . He was also President of the worldwide Samuel Beckett Society (2000-2002).

He was the Founder and Artistic Director of the Maryland Stage Company, the professional theatre (Equity LOA) associated with the University of Maryland , Baltimore County from 1987 to 2002. He has directed sixteen productions with the MSC, including The Winter’s Tale, Three Sisters, The Balcony, The Way of the World, Marat/Sade, King Lear, Old Times, The Misanthrope, The Duchess of Malfi, and, most recently, highly praised offerings of Three By Beckett—Not I, That Time and Ohio Impromptu—(international tour to Strasbourg, 1996), Tartuffe (1997), The Seagull (1998), Six Degrees of Separation (1999), the Beckett trio—Play, That Time and Ohio Impromptu—(international tour to Berlin, 2000), and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (2002). In 1986, he staged the American premiere of Louise Page’s Beauty and the Beast, and in 1981, the world premiere of Richard Wilbur’s translation of Racine ’s Andromache. His work has been reviewed by The New York Times, the Village Voice, TheaterWeek, Show Business, Theatre Journal, Western European Stages, Journal of Beckett Studies, The Beckett Circle, France-Amérique, Der Tagesspiegel ( Berlin ), Der Morgenpost ( Berlin ), and print and electronic media in the Baltimore/Washington area. Of the many plays that he has directed, eight have been named “Best of the Year” by the Baltimore and/or Washington media, and four have been anthologized.

B.A. Drama, Cornell University
M.F.A. Directing, New York University, Tisch School of the Arts

Contact: mehta@umbc.edu