Stephen Sachs

Playwright/Director

Artistic Director

Fountain Theatre, Los Angeles

"One of the great citizens and artists in our city."

Los Angeles City Councilmember Mitch O'Farrell, 2019


"Artistic directors of theaters of all sizes would be wise to follow the lead of the Fountain’s Stephen Sachs,

who is building audience communities

eager for the challenge of path-breaking plays."

Charles McNulty, Los Angeles Times, 2018 

 

Stephen Sachs is an award-winning playwright and director and the co-Artistic Director of the Fountain Theatre in Los Angeles, which he co-founded in 1990. As playwright and director, Sachs has won every theatre award in Los Angeles. Sachs has been nominated for the SDC Zelda Fichandler Award three times, recognizing an outstanding director who is making a unique and exceptional contribution to theatre in their region. He was recently honored by the Los Angeles City Council for “his visionary contributions to the cultural life of Los Angeles.”



  
















He is the author of seventeen produced plays, including his Deaf/Hearing love story, Arrival & Departure (Critic's Choice, LA Times), his stage adaptation of William Goldman's screenplay for All the President's Men, his stage adaptation of Claudia Rankine's Citizen: An American Lyric (winner 2016 Stage Raw Award for Best Stage Adaptation, Fountain Theatre and Kirk Douglas in Los Angeles and Pure Theatre, Charleston, SC), Heart Song (Fountain Theatre and Florida Rep), Cyrano (LA Drama Critics Circle Award, Best New Play) and Bakersfield Mist (2012 Elliot Norton Award, Best New Play) which received a 3-month run on London’s West End starring Kathleen Turner and McDiarmid and is now being produced in regional theatres across the country and translated into other languages and being performed worldwide. His other plays are Dream Catcher (Fountain Theatre), Miss Julie: Freedom Summer (Fountain, Vancouver Playhouse), Gilgamesh (Theatre@Boston Court), Open Window (Pasadena Playhouse, Media Access Award), Central Avenue (PEN USA Literary Award Finalist), Sweet Nothing in my Ear (PEN USA Literary Award Finalist, Media Access Award), Mother's Day, The Golden Gate (Best Play Award, Dramalogue), and The Baron in the Trees. He wrote the teleplay for Sweet Nothing in my Ear which aired on CBS starring Marlee Matlin and Jeff Daniels.


Directing credits include the World Premiere of his play Human Interest Story,  the world premiere of his play Arrival & Departure ​starring Troy Kotsur (Critic's Choice, LA Times);  his stage adaptation of All The President's Men at LA City Hall (starring Bradley Whitford, Joshua Malina, Joe Morton, Jeff Perry and Richard Schiff), Los Angeles Premiere of My Name is Asher Lev, the West Coast Premiere of Broomstick; the US Premiere of Athol Fugard's The Blue Iris,Bakersfield Mist (World Premiere), Completeness by Itamar Moses starring Jason Ritter; Warren Leight's Side Man starring Christine Lahti and Frank Wood; a 3-city China tour of Top Secret (LA Theatre Works), the US Premiere of The Train Driver by Athol Fugard, Conor McPherson's Shining City (LA Premiere), the West Coast Premiere of Athol Fugard's Coming Home (Best Director, LA Weekly Award), the U.S. Premiere of Athol Fugard's Victory (NAACP Award for Best Director); the world premiere of Miss Julie: Freedom Summer at the Fountain and Canadian Stage Company in Toronto and the Vancouver Playhouse; the world premiere of Fugard’s Exits and Entrances at the Fountain (Ovation Award and LA Drama Critics Circle Award, Best Director) and Off-Broadway at Primary Stages in New York, and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland, the LA premiere of Fugard’s The Road to Mecca, Arthur Miller's After the Fall (Ovation Award, Best Director), Sweet Nothing in my Ear (Fountain Theatre, Victory Gardens Theatre in Chicago, Mixed Blood Theatre in Minneapolis), Hippolytos inaugurating the Outdoor Classical Theater at the Getty Villa in Malibu, and many others.

For his work as director and playwright, Sachs has been featured in the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Chicago Tribune, American Theatre Magazine, Los Angeles Magazine, Back Stage, Variety, Hollywood Reporter, L.A. Stage Magazine, the London Times, the Wall Street Journal, and National Public Radio.