Stephen Sachs - The Fountain Theatre

The Fountain Theatre

Sachs co-founded the Fountain Theatre in 1990 with Deborah Lawlor. For twenty years, Sachs has guided the Fountain Theatre as Co-Artistic Director and has directed and written many of their acclaimed productions. Over two decades, The Fountain Theatre has won 200 awards for theatre excellence and has been honored by the Los Angeles City Council for "enhancing the cultural life of the City of Los Angeles." It is the only intimate theatre in Los Angeles to have won the Ovation Award (L.A.'s version of the Tony Award) for "Best Production of a Play" four times. For the 2009 Ovation Awards, the Fountain has again been nominated for "Best Production of a Play", and for the newly added category of "Best Season".

Arthur Miller personally gave Sachs exclusive permission to direct his rarely seen After the Fall (3 L.A. Ovation Awards including Best Production and Best Director). Named “Critics’ Choice” (LA Times) and ran for 7 sold-out months.

He has won many theater awards for directing such plays as the Los Angeles premiere of Fugard’s The Road to Mecca, After the Fall, the West Coast premiere of String of Pearls, Sweet Nothing in my Ear (Fountain Theatre, Victory Gardens Theatre in Chicago, Mixed Blood Theatre in Minneapolis), the LA premiere of Steven Dietz’s Lonely Planet (starring Philip Anglim), The Seagull (starring Salome Jens, Philip Baker Hall and Bud Cort), the celebrated 20th Anniversary production of The Boys in the Band, the west coast premiere of Rommulus Linney’s Unchanging Love, and many others.

In February 2007 Sachs directed the world premiere of his own new adaptation of Strindberg’s Miss Julie at the Fountain in Los Angeles. The production was named “Critics’ Choice” in the Los Angeles Times and ran for 4 sold-out months.

Regional theatre directing credits include: Primary Stages (New York), Zephyr Theatre (San Francisco), Santa Barbara Theatre, the Tony-winning Victory Gardens Theatre (Chicago), Mixed Blood Theatre (Minneapolis), New Jersey Repertory, Florida Stage, Assembly Rooms (Edinburgh, Scotland), Canadian Stage Company (Toronto) and the Vancouver Playhouse (Vancouver).