Kris Stewart
KRIS STEWART The founder and executive director of NYMF, Kris Stewart is a theatre producer and director whose work with state theatre and opera companies as well as commercial productions has been seen through the US, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Europe. His work has been recognised with the 2000 Sir Keith Murdoch Prize for Leadership and Innovation and a 2001 Churchill Fellowship, Green Room Awards and Helpmann Awards and other prizes, including Best Production of 1996 for Skylight, and the SANTOS Emerging Director Prize (1996) and nominations for the Ockrent Fellowship (NYC) and the Young Australian of the Year. Kris is an alumnus of the Lincoln Center Theatre's Director's Lab and the Commercial Theater Institute (NYC), and completed his Masters at the West Australian Academy of Performing Arts (Australia's Julliard American GQ). As a major event and festival producer, Kris headed the Australian Ballet's Ballet in the Park, Madison Square Park and Radio City Entertainment's preshow entertainment for A Christmas Carol, the Lygon Street Festa (over 300,000 attendees), the Waterfront Festival, the Williamstown Festival, The LIVE Youth Festival, the VIVA Multicultural Festival and numerous outdoor concerts and events. Formerly Australia's leading practitioner in the development of new musical theatre works, Kris has directed more than a dozen new musicals and over 30 other shows, for organizations as diverse as Melbourne Theatre Company, the Production Company (Australia's Encores Series), International Management Group, Sydney Theatre Company, State Opera of South Australia, the Next Wave Festival, and The Kevin Jacobsen Corporation. In 1996/97, Kris was head of the MSA Performing Arts Department and Artistic Director of Student Theatre Activities for Monash University. His monthly column can be read at www.artshub.com.au. Bio as of September, 2006. American Theatre Wing programs, interviews and/or credits include: Downstage Center (audio) New York Musical Theatre Festival - September, 2006 - Listen Now. Internet Broadway Database Listing (IBDB.com)