Julie Taymor's A Midsummer Night's Dream in the Czech Premiere

Midsummer Night's Dream, Julie Taymor Archive

Midsummer Night's Dream, Julie Taymor Archive

Julie Taymor completed a cinematic version of William Shakespeare's 'A Midsummer Night's Dream', starring David Harewood, Max Casella and Kathryn Hunter, and filmed during her critically acclaimed, sold-out stage production that ran at Theatre for a New Audience's new home in downtown Brooklyn. Scenography by the award – winning set designer Es Devlin, costume design by renowned designer Constance Hoffman. The film was shown at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival as part of the Mavericks in Film Programme and will be released this spring.

Juile Taymor as a special guest of Prague Quadrennial will present on June 25 her original approach to the art of directing in film, theater, and opera.

Taymor became in 1998 the first woman to win the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical, and won a Tony for Best Costumes, for her landmark production of 'The Lion King.' The musical has gone on to become Broadway's all-time highest grossing show and the fifth longest-running show in Broadway history. Her 1996 Broadway debut, 'Juan Darien: A Carnival Mass,' earned five Tony Award nominations. Other theatre credits include 'The Green Bird,' 'Titus Andronicus,' 'The Tempest,' 'The Taming of the Shrew,' 'The Transposed Heads' and 'Liberty's Taken.' Her feature films include 'Titus,' starred Anthony Hopkins, Jessica Lange and Alan Cumming; the biographical film 'Frida,' starring Salma Hayek and Alfred Molina, which earned six Academy Award nominations, winning two; the Beatles inspired 'Across the Universe,' nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy; and her Helen Mirren-starring adaptation of William Shakespeare's 'The Tempest,' which had its North American premiere at the New York Film Festival following a world premiere at the Venice International Film Festival. Beyond the theatre and screen, Taymor has directed five operas internationally, including 'Oedipus Rex' with Jessye Norman, for which she earned the International Classical Music Award for Best Opera Production and an Emmy for a subsequent film version; as well as 'Salome,' 'The Flying Dutchman,' 'Die Zauberflote' (in repertory at The Met), 'The Magic Flute' (the abridged English version, which inaugurated a PBS series entitled “Great Performances at the Met"), and Elliot Goldenthal's 'Grendel.' Taymor is a 1991 recipient of the MacArthur “genius" Fellowship.

Midsummer Night's Dream, Julie Taymor, June 24, 8:30 p.m., Svetozor Cinema

Gallery