Creating the space of truth in the make-believe world of the theatre: An interview with Peter Sellars

Abstract

Abstract Peter Sellars is one of the most celebrated directors of opera, theatre and festivals in the contemporary West. He is well known for his adaptations of classic works in response to the political, social and economic conditions at the time of staging, while his activist politics and lack of reverence for hierarchical institutions frequently polarizes response to his work. In a spirited interview, conducted by academic and critic Karen Fricker in July 2013 as part of the Leverhulme Olympic Talks on Theatre and Adaptation, Sellars discusses his background in puppet theatre, his early career at Harvard University and the American National Theatre, and several of his important productions including Ajax (an adaptation of Sophocles by Robert Auletta, American National Theatre, 1986); Children of Herakles (Euripides, premiered at the Ruhr Triennale, 2002); and Desdemona, a music theatre piece created with writer Toni Morrison and singer Rokia Traoré in 2012.