Mark Lamos

Mark Lamos, born March 10, 1946, in Melrose Park, Illinois, is an American theatre and opera director, producer, and actor. He studied violin and ballet from an early age and took part in productions at Proviso East High School in Maywood, Illinois, graduating in 1964. He went on to attend Northwestern University on a music scholarship before launching his professional career as an actor at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis.

Lamos made his first Broadway appearances between 1972 and 1978, performing in The Love Suicide at Schofield Barracks and The Creation of the World and Other Business in 1972, Cyrano in 1973, The Rothschilds, and a revival of Man and Superman in 1978. He later made his film debut in the 1990 feature Longtime Companion.

His career shifted decisively toward directing when he became artistic director of Hartford Stage in 1981, a post he held until 1998. During his tenure, Lamos expanded the company's repertoire to include bolder contemporary dramas alongside large-scale productions of Shakespeare and classical works such as Peer Gynt and The Greeks, a cycle of ancient Greek dramas. Hartford Stage earned national recognition under his leadership, and in 1989 the company received the Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre. Several productions he developed there transferred to Broadway, among them Marvin's Room, Our Country's Good, Tiny Alice, Tea at Five, The Carpetbagger's Children, and Enchanted April. Our Country's Good earned Lamos Tony Award nominations for both Best Direction of a Play and Best Play in 1991.

His New York directing credits include The Rivals, Big Bill, Seascape, Cymbeline, and Measure for Measure, the last of which earned him a Lortel Award, all produced for Lincoln Center Theater, as well as The Gershwins' Fascinating Rhythm and The Deep Blue Sea. Off-Broadway work includes The End of the Day at Playwrights Horizons, Thief River at Signature Theatre Company, Love's Fire at the Public Theater and Acting Company, As You Like It at the Public Theater in Central Park, and Indian Blood, Buffalo Gal, Black Tie, and Harbor at Primary Stages.

Lamos has directed extensively in opera, with productions at the Metropolitan Opera including the world premiere of The Great Gatsby and Adriana Lecouvreur, as well as I Lombardi and Wozzeck, both televised for Great Performances. His work with New York City Opera included televised productions of Paul Bunyan, Tosca, Central Park, and Madama Butterfly, the last of which won an Emmy Award. He has also directed for the Chicago Lyric, San Francisco Opera, Santa Fe Opera, and opera companies in St. Louis, Washington, Dallas, and Seattle, as well as international houses including Gothenburg's Stora Teatern, L'Opéra de Montréal, and Norway's Bergen National Opera. He holds the distinction of being the first American to direct at Moscow's Pushkin Theatre.

Beyond his work at Hartford Stage, Lamos served as artistic director of the Westport Country Playhouse beginning in February 2009, a position he held for more than fifteen seasons. Productions he directed there include Into the Woods, Twelfth Night, She Loves Me, That Championship Season, Of Mice and Men, and Happy Days, among others. In May 2023, he announced his departure from the post, effective January 2024.

Lamos has received the Connecticut Medal for the Arts and honorary doctorates from Connecticut College, the University of Hartford, and Trinity College in Connecticut. He was named a Beinecke Fellow at Yale University in 2007 and has held the Stanford Chair at the University of Miami. He has lectured at Yale and served as a visiting adjunct professor in the Department of Theater at the University of Michigan. Lamos is openly gay and has been partnered with Jerry Jones since 1979.