Luke Leonard
| Luke Leonard | |
|---|---|
Luke Leonard at La MaMa Great Jones Rehearsal Studios, New York, 2012
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| Born |
January 17, 1975 Houston, Texas, USA |
| Occupation | Stage director, artist |
| Years active | 1996–present |
| Website | lukeleonard |
Luke Leonard (born January 17, 1975) is an American artist whose work spans the performing and visual arts. He is a theatre director, designer, experimental playwright, actor, filmmaker, and Co-Artistic Director of Monk Parrots, a New York-based multidisciplinary theatre company. Leonard's stage productions have been described as "taking creditable gambles [and] outstanding". by The New York Times, and “bold and experimental...a clear vision...pure theatrical experience” by nytheatre.com. He lives in New York.
Luke Landric Leonard was born and raised in Houston, Texas where he attended Cypress Creek High School, played football, and acted in school plays. He left the football team after his junior year to become president of Cy Creek's Theatre Department and to focus solely on acting in preparation for college auditions. He studied theatre at Sam Houston State University before moving to New York City in 1995 to enroll in the BFA Acting Program at Brooklyn College where he graduated in 1998.
1996–2001 Leonard was among the pioneering artists living and working in DUMBO, Brooklyn where he founded DUMBO Theater eXchange a/k/a DTX with Natalie Cook Leonard and Yukihiro Nishiyama. DTX promoted emerging talent by presenting new writers and directors and fostered neighborhood development within the downtown Brooklyn area. DTX; however, did not survive gentrification and the venue was added to the list of artist casualties forced out of DUMBO. On December 15, 2000, a week before Christmas, Leonard and his wife were illegally vacated from their loft on Water Street along with 60 other tenants. DTX presented approximately 30 productions (short and full length) circa 2000–2001 and hosted all theater events for the 4th Annual DUMBO Arts Festival, produced by Joy Glidden/d.u.m.b.o. arts center (dac). Leonard also studied acting and directing with legendary, experimental director Joseph Chaikin during this time and corresponded with Chaikin by letters until his passing in 2003.
2002–2004 Michelle Moskowitz-Brown hired Leonard to create a theatre series for a new performance space at Brooklyn Information and Culture called BRIC Studio (now BRIC Arts Media House). Leonard established Theater Nexus, a monthly series devoted to emerging and established theatre artists. After losing the DUMBO space, BRIC became DTX's new home for promoting alternative theatre in NYC. Curated by S. Melinda Dunlap and Leonard,Theater Nexus presented experimental work by numerous artists, such as, 13P, Mac Wellman, Jeffrey M. Jones, Young Jean Lee, Erin Courtney, Ken Rus Schmoll, Connie Congdon, S. Melinda Dunlap, Luke Leonard, David Todd, B. Walker Sampson, Barbara Cassidy, Jonathan Bernstein and Douglas Green, to name a few. In 2003, Leonard became the father of actress Gates Leonard.
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