Ron Daniels

Ron Daniels (born Ronald George Daniel, 1942) is a theatre and opera director. He is an Honorary Associate Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company; former Artistic Director of The Other Place, Royal Shakespeare Company, Stratford-upon-Avon; former Associate Artistic Director of the American Repertory Theatre (ART), Cambridge, Massachusetts; and former Head of Acting and Directing Programs of the Institute for Advanced Theatre Training at Harvard University.

Early years and acting

Daniels was born in Niteroi, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil born 1942.

As a founding member of the Teatro Oficina, São Paulo, 1959–1963

A Incubadeira; Fogo Frio; Todo Anjo é Terrível Look Homeward, Angel with Henriette Morineau, directed by José Celso Martinez Correa; A Vida Impressa em Dolar Awake and Sing; José do Parto à Sepultura by Augusto Boal) Quatro num Quarto; Um Bonde Chamado Desejo A Streetcar Named Desire directed by Augusto Boal); Os Pequenos Burguêses "Les Petits Bourgeois" by Gorki – with Eugenio Kusnet, Raul Cortez, Celia Helena, directed by José Celso Martinez Correa. and John Grass in Indians by Arthur Kopit, directed by Jack Gelber.

Directing 1969–1974 In 1969 Daniels became a director and worked for five years directing for the following institutions:

1969–1972

Victoria Theatre, Stoke-on-Trent: The Pot of Gold; Electra; She Stoops to Conquer; Coriolanus; Major Barbara; Fighting Man; Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?; Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street; Ghosts; Drums in the Night; The Samaritan; Time Travelers; The Recruiting Officer.

1972–1974 Royal Academy of Dramatic Art: Measure for Measure; Fear and Miseries of the Third Reich; The Insect Play; Twelfth Night; A Midsummer Night's Dream; Pillars of the Community.

Drama Centre London: The Word Female Transport by Steve Gooch; Sergeant Musgrave's Dance by John Arden; Into the Mouth of Crabs; By Common Consent by Paul Thompson; The Motor Show; Made in Britain; Bang by Howard Barker; Ashes by David Rudkin, with Ian McKellen, Gemma Jones; The Beastly Beatitudes of Balthazar B by JP Donleavy, with Simon Callow; Across from the Garden of Allah by Charles Wood, with Nigel Hawthorne and Glenda Jackson; The Feast of Snails by Olaf Olafsson

Royal Shakespeare Company 1974–1991 In 1974, Daniels returned to the RSC, where he directed 34 productions until he moved to the US in 1991.

Productions directed

Afore Night Come (by David Rudkin, with Michael Pennington, Richard Griffiths), The Other Place 1974 Destiny (by David Edgar with Michael Pennington and Ian McDiarmid), The Other Place 1976, Aldwych Theatre 1977 The Sons of Light (by David Rudkin, with Peter McEnery), The Other Place 1977 Peer Gynt (with Derek Jacobi), The Other Place 1982, Pit, London 1983 ), Pit 1996 Henry V (with Michael Sheen), Royal Shakespeare Theatre 1997 and Naomi Wallace's One Flea Spare for the Public Theatre He also directed Much Ado about Nothing and The Taming of the Shrew at the Old Globe in San Diego and most recently, Othello at the Shakespeare Theatre in Washington, DC.

Productions

ART and Institute for Advanced Theatre Training 1991–1996

Hamlet (with Mark Rylance) The Seagull (with Mark Rylance) Henry V (with Bill Camp) Bingo (with Alvin Epstein) Ivanov (with Alvin Epstein) Man is Man (with Estelle Parsons) Puntila and His Servant Matti, (Yale Repertory Theatre) Romeo and Juliet (Guthrie Theatre) Anthony and Cleopatra (Shakespeare Theatre, DC) One Flea Spare (by Naomi Wallace with Diane Weist and Bill Camp, Public Theatre, NY) Richard II, Richard III, Macbeth (with Bill Camp, Elizabeth Marvel for Theatre for a New Audience) Hedda Gabler (Dallas Theatre Centre) Points of Departure (by Michael John Garcés, for INTAR) The Suitcase Trilogy (by Han Ong, Ma-yi workshop) Havana is Waiting (by Eduardo Machado, Cleveland Playhouse) The Front Page (Williamstown Theatre Festival with Richard Kind, Wayne Knight and Jason Butler Harner) Kingdom (by Aaron Jafferis) (Old Globe Theatre, San Diego) The Taming of the Shrew (Old Globe Theatre, San Diego) Much Ado About Nothing (Old Globe Theatre, San Diego) Othello (Shakespeare Theatre, DC) Remember This (by Stephen Poliakoff)

Opera Daniels has worked on Madama Butterfly, La Bohème, Carmen, and Don Giovanni.

Productions

The Shepherd King (Boston Opera) Madama Butterfly (with Catherine Malfitano/Veronica Villaroel/Patricia Racette/Anamaria Martinez at San Francisco Opera and others) Carmen (with Beatrice Uria-Monzon and Marcus Haddock at Houston Opera and others) The Turn of the Screw (Berkshire Opera) Tosca (with Sondra Radvanoski at Opera Colorado) Cosi Fan Tutti (Arizona Opera) La Forza del Destino (San Francisco Opera) II Postino (with Plácido Domigo and Charles Castronovo, LA Opera – LA, Vienna, Paris, Mexico City, International Festival Cervantino in Guanajuato, Santiago, Chile, Madrid) Die Entführurg aus Dem Serail (Opéra de Nice) Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street (with Rod Gilfry and Karen Ziemba)(Opera Theatre of St. Louis) Pagliacci (Opera Theatre of St. Louis) Il Tabarro (Opera Theatre of St. Louis) Charlie Parker's Yardbird (with Lawrence Brownlee – Opera Philadelphia, Chicago Lyric Opera, Apollo Theatre (NY), English National Opera, Madison Opera)

Brazil and Japan In his native Brazil, Ron directed King Lear, Hamlet, Macbeth, Measure for Measure and Colm Tóibín's The Testament of Mary and in Japan, Titus Andronicus and Hamlet.

Brazil

Rei Lear (with Raul Cortez) Tosca Hamlet, Macbeth, Measure for Measure (with Thiago Lacerda) Quem está aí? (with Thiago Lacerda) A Peste (by Albert Camus, with Thiago Lacerda)

Japan

Titus Andronicus (with Mikijro Hira)

Film Director

The War Boys (feature film) written by Naomi Wallace and Bruce McLeod, with Benjamin Walker, Brian J. Smith, Victor Rasuk, Peter Gallagher)

Executive producer

Lawn Dogs (written by Naomi Wallace)

Move back to the UK In 2021 Daniels moved back to the UK. In summer of 2022 he directed Naomi Wallace and Marcus Rediker's The Return of Benjamin Lay, starring Mark Povonelli at the Finborough Theatre, produced by Arsalan Sattari-Hicks. The Return of Benjamin Lay was restaged again in Pittsburgh in February 2025, under the banner of the Quantum Theatre, and later in New York and Philadelphia, produced by Playhouse Creatures Theatre Company, in association with Quintessence Theatre Groups.

Acting coach Daniels runs a weekly 'salon' for actors from across the United States, who continue to work with him to refresh their notions of Shakespeare, examine new ideas and to prepare for auditions and roles. The members of these salons range from Tony winners to early career actors trying to work on their craft.

Since his return to the UK, Daniels has established himself as an acting coach with his teaching based in the work of Shakespeare. Daniels offers his expertise to UK actors looking to train further in Shakespeare through workshops, courses and one off top-up sessions. published 22 May 2019.

He is also known for his translations, with Marcus Daud, of Macbeth, Hamlet, King Lear and Measure for Measure (published by SESC, São Paulo) into Portuguese.

Contributions

Daniels' work with playwright Naomi Wallace is extensively referenced and discussed in The Theatre of Naomi Wallace: Embodied Dialogues

In 1989 Daniels took his Royal Shakespeare Company production of Hamlet, starring Mark Rylance, to Broadmoor Hospital, a high security psychiatric unit. It was one of a series of Shakespeare tragedies presented to the patients, along with workshops that took place after the performances. The book, Shakespeare Comes to Broadmoor by Murray Cox with a foreword from Sir Ian Mckellen offers insights into the impact of such drama performed in the central hall of Broadmoor Hospital between 1989–1991, upon the actors and audiences. Daniels contributed an interviewed chapter to this publication.

BBC Late Show In 1990, the BBC Late Show featured an interview with director Ron Daniels, about his production of A Clockwork Orange at the Royal Shakespeare Company, designed by Richard Hudson and featuring music by Bono and The Edge. The feature, along with interviews with Hudson, production manager Mike Arnold, and theatre critic Tom Sutcliffe, discuss the design and the development of the production for a 90's audience.