Berkeley Repertory Theater
In 1984, Sharon Ott became artistic director of the Berkeley Repertory Theater, in Berkeley, California. During her 13 years in that position, she increased the company's budget from $1.5 million to over $5 million, built the audience to 15,000 subscribers, and improved the company's reputation to win the Regional Theatre Tony Award for Excellence in 1997. She worked with author Philip Kan Gotanda, directing world premieres of Yankee Dawg You Die, and The Ballad of Yachiyo, as well as a production of The Wash in New York and Los Angeles. Ott also directed an adaptation of Maxine Hong Kingston's The Woman Warrior that premiered at Berkeley Rep before moving on to productions in Boston and Los Angeles. She directed the national tour of Anna Deveare Smith's Twilight: Los Angeles which started in San Francisco before touring to Boston, Houston, Seattle, New Haven, and Washington, DC where it was performed at the Ford's Theater with then President Bill Clinton and Vice-President Al Gore in attendance.
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