Dorothy Danner - Stage Director

Noted for her inventive staging, Dorothy Danner has directed nearly 200 productions of operettas, musicals and plays throughout the United States, Canada and Belgium; including operas for the companies of Glimmerglass, Houston, Philadelphia, Miami, Cleveland, Minnesota, Cincinnati, Portland, Kansas City, Virginia and for San Francisco Merola. Her production of A MIDSUMMER NIGHTS DREAM in New York for the Juilliard, garnered wide critical acclaim, as did her PBS-TV, TRIBUTE TO GILBERT AND SULLIVAN for the Boston Pops and her television staging of Richard Wargo’s opera, BALLYMORE- the first and only musical setting of a Brian Friel play.

Ms. Danner has had the honor of staging the premieres of contemporary composers Barab, Botti, Hamlisch, Harnick, Sirotta and Wargo. And she has served on the awards panel for the National Institute of Music Theatre and on Opera America’s Panel for New Works.

As a performer, Dorothy Danner, aka Dorothy Frank, appeared in 9 Broadway shows, from the original ONCE UPON A MATTRESS to Michael Bennett’s BALLROOM. She performed on numerous TV Variety shows - Perry Como, Ed Sullivan among others- as well as in several films including Mel Brook’s THE PRODUCERS.

A dedicated and inspiring teacher, she was co-founder of the Glimmerglass Young Artist Program, has served on the faculties of the Juilliard School, the Curtis Institute of Music, and the Chautauqua Institution and has been a frequent guest director at the Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia, New York University, Boston University and at Carnegie-Mellon.

Dorothy Danner is a member of a theatrical family that includes actors Blythe, Harry and Hillary Danner, Gwyneth Paltrow, writer-film maker, Jake Paltrow, actress Katherine Moennig and departed brother-in-laws, violin maker William Moennig 3rd and writer-producer Bruce Paltrow.

“The most impressive quality about Dorothy Danner’s staging in fact, was how naturally and spontaneously it grew from the ingeniously structured score----I’ve seen a number of productions but none has clarified this essential quality so sharply or encouraged the performers to communicate the humanity of the piece with so much warmth, wit and vitality.” - A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM

NEW YORK MAGAZINE

“Die Zauberflöte can easily turn silly in the hand of a producer eager to be loved by any vulgar means. Dorothy Danner paid tribute to Mozart and Schikaneder by treating the work seriously and with taste.”

OPERA MAGAZINE

‘This is the best directed production of Three Penny opera that I have seen anywhere in the world ----and I have seen hundreds.”

JONATHAN EATON, KURT WEILL EXPERT
At the Omaha Opera Weill symposium