I’ve been writing with steadily growing enthusiasm about Kate Whoriskey ever since 2005, when Washington’s Shakespeare Theatre invited her to stage The Tempest:
Kate Whoriskey, the director, may fancy herself a purveyor of ideas, but in fact she’s something infinitely more precious–a natural-born stage magician….This “Tempest” is clearly the work of a youngish director (she’s 34) who has yet to learn the lesson of economy. But it doesn’t matter, since she nails together all the elements of what looks to me like a very expensive production with an absolute assurance that would be enviable in an old pro and is downright astonishing in a new face.
More recently, Whoriskey directed the production of Lynn Nottage’s Ruined currently playing at New York’s City Center, on which occasion I called her “a director of extraordinary talent whose work deserves to be seen far more often in New York.” I still think so, but now it looks like I’ll have to fly to the West Coast to see what she’s up to: Seattle’s Intiman Theatre just announced that starting in 2010, Whoriskey will become its next artistic director, replacing the much-admired Bartlett Sher.
This is very big news for a very important regional theater, and as far as I’m concerned it’s 100% good. I can’t wait to see what Whoriskey does with Intiman. My congratulations to an immensely promising young artist.