Oskar Eustis to Address School of the Arts Graduates at 2019 Convocation

April 25, 2019

Carol Becker, Dean of Faculty at Columbia University School of the Arts, has announced that Oskar Eustis will speak at this year’s School of the Arts Convocation, to be held Wednesday, May 22, 2019 at 2 pm in Miller Theatre on the Morningside Campus. Eustis will salute the School’s MFA graduates in Film, Theatre, Visual Arts, and Writing, and MA graduates in Film and Media Studies.

Oskar Eustis has served as the Artistic Director of The Public Theater since 2005. In the last three years, he has produced two Tony Award-winning Best Musicals, Fun Home and Hamilton, and back to back winners of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, Hamilton and Sweat. He is currently directing White Noise, by Susan Lori-Parks, at the Public through May 5.

"Oskar Eustis is one of the most respected forces in American Theater," Dean Becker said. "From his early commission of the play that would become Angels in America, to Hamilton, to Sweat he has proven that he knows where this country is, what it needs to experience, and how to support those artists addressing such concerns in unique ways. A person of great vision and principles, he will have much to say to our students as they launch careers in all areas of art making. We are proud to have him as our 2019 Graduation Speaker."

Headshot of Oskar Eustis

Before his tenure at the Public, Eustis served as Artistic Director for Trinity Repertory Company in Providence, Rhode Island from 1994 to 2005. He served as Associate Artistic Director at Los Angeles’ Mark Taper Forum from 1989 to 1994, and prior to that he was with the Eureka Theatre Company in San Francisco, serving as Resident Director and Dramaturg from 1981 to 1986 and Artistic Director from 1986 to 1989. Eustis is currently a Professor of Dramatic Writing and Arts and Public Policy at New York University, and has held professorships at UCLA, Middlebury College, and Brown University, where he founded and chaired the Trinity Rep/Brown University Consortium for professional theater training. At The Public, Eustis directed the New York premieres of Rinne Groff’s Compulsion and The Ruby Sunrise; Larry Wright’s The Human Scale; and most recently Julius Caesar and Public Work’s Twelfth Night at Shakespeare in the Park. He has founded numerous ground-breaking programs at The Public, from Public Works and Public Forum to the Emerging Writers Group and the Mobile Unit. At Trinity Rep, he directed the world premiere of Paula Vogel’s The Long Christmas Ride Home and Tony Kushner’s Homebody/Kabul, both recipients of the Elliot Norton Award for Outstanding Production. While at the Eureka Theatre, he commissioned Tony Kushner’s Angels in America, and directed its world premiere at the Mark Taper Forum. Eustis has also directed the world premieres of plays by Philip Kan Gotanda, David Henry Hwang, Emily Mann, Suzan-Lori Parks, Ellen McLaughlin, and Eduardo Machado, among many others.

"Oskar Eustis is the very definition of a multi-disciplinary, hyphenate artist," said Christian Parker '98, Chair of the Theatre Program. "Over the last four decades, he has built an unparalleled reputation as a dramaturg, director, artistic visionary, and thought leader in the field. His stewardship of Joe Papp’s legacy at the Public Theater/NY Shakespeare Festival since 2005 has been defined by vibrancy, diversity, and a deep commitment to civic engagement. Oskar is a champion of artists, deeply collaborative, and a paragon of values-based leadership. We are thrilled to welcome him to Columbia, and know his insight will stir and inspire the graduates from all of the programs of the School of the Arts."

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