44°
Julie Taymor, who lives in Garrison, was born on Dec. 15, 1952, in Newton, Mass.
She is best known for directing the stage musical, "The Lion King", for which she became the first woman to win the Tony Award for directing a musical, in addition to a Tony Award for Original Costume Design.
She has also received the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Costume Design, an Emmy Award, and an Academy Award nomination for Original Song.
She also received the 2012 Director Award for Vision and Courage from the Athena Film Festival at Barnard College in New York City.
She was the director of the Broadway musical, "Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark" and an off-Broadway production of "A Midsummer Night's Dream".
Taymor's interest in theater took root early in her life. By age ten, she was entranced by the Boston Children's Theatre. By 11, she was taking trips to Boston by herself every weekend, where she discovered Julie Portman's Theatre Workshop.
At the age of 13, her parents sent her to both Sri Lanka and India with the Experiment in International Living.
After graduating High School at 16, Taymor went to Paris to study with L'École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq. Her studies there exposed her to mime.
While in Paris, Taymor worked with masks for the first time and immersed herself in film, especially the work of Fellini and Kurosawa.
In 1970, Taymor was enrolled in Oberlin College in Ohio, but she sought experience with Joseph Chaikin's Open Theatre and other companies and studied through correspondence.
After college, Taymor used a Thomas J. Watson Fellowship to study pre-Bunraku puppetry on Awaji Island, Japan, to learn more about experimental theater, puppetry, and visually oriented theater.
Click here to follow Daily Voice Putnam and receive free news updates.
