Robert Wilson (b.1941) is an American playwright, director, producer, and designer celebrated for his avant-garde theatre works. Wilson is best known for mixing movement, contemporary music by musicians like Philip Glass, David Byrne, and Lady Gaga, and exciting imagery for very long performances, some of which have reached twelve hours.
Born in Waco, Texas, Wilson studied business administration at the University of Texas at Austin. Still, he dropped out in 1962 and moved to New York City to pursue his interest in the arts earning a degree in interior design from the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn in 1966. He trained as a painter in Texas, Paris, and New York, developing a sense of the visual impact that became evident in his subsequent career as America’s most colorful post-modern creator of theatrical spectacle. Wilson’s set designs have been exhibited in major museums.
Wilson’s work includes The Life and Times of Sigmund Freud (1969,) The Life and Times of Joseph Stalin (1973,) A Letter for Queen Victoria (1974,) Death, Destruction and Detroit (1979,) Great Day in the Morning (1983,) The Forest (1988, with David Byrne) and I La Galigo (2005.)
Wilson has collaborated with singer-songwriter Tom Waits, most notably on The Black Rider (1990) and Alice (1992.) He has created acclaimed productions of Wagner’s Parsifal (1991–2005) and Lohengrin (1998–2006,) Mozart’s The Magic Flute (1991,) and Puccini’s Madame Butterfly (1993.)
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Robert Wilson
Once something becomes discernible, or understandable, we no longer need to repeat it. We can destroy it.
—Robert Wilson
Topics: Intelligence, Intellectuals
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