David Black

Director

David Black is an American theatrical director, producer, and artist. first appeared on stage at the age of eight in The Greatest Show Off Earth! which he wrote, produced and directed. Black attended the Ethical Culture School and worked as an extra at The Metropolitan Opera. At Harvard he appeared in undergraduate operettas and was a soloist with the Harvard Glee Club. After graduation Black pursued an operatic career in Europe. On returning to the United States Black sang with regional opera companies and supported himself by selling mutual funds. In 1960 Black used his money raising experience to help finance a play called Look We’ve Come Through! which presented Burt Reynolds in his first appearance on Broadway.

During the 1960’s Black produced eighteen Broadway shows, winning Tony Awards and presenting some of the theater's brightest stars. His productions include George M! with Joel Grey and Bernadette Peters, A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum with Phil Silvers and Larry Blyden, The Aspern Papers with Maurice Evans and Wendy Hiller, The Ides of March with John Gielgud and Irene Worth,  Ready When You Are C.B! with Julie Harris, and The Impossible Years! with Alan King.

In 1968, president-elect Richard Nixon saw David Black’s production of George M! and invited Black to produce his Inaugural Gala.

In the 1970’s and 80’s  Black directed plays and gave master classes on producing, directing, and acting across the country. He taught audition technique at the John Strasberg School and became an Adjunct Professor of Humanities at The New School where he taught The Magic Of Theater for four semesters with William Hurt, Jessica Tandy, Christopher Walken, Madeline Kahn, Christopher Reeve, Eli Wallach, Tony Randall, and Liv Ullmann, among others.

David Black has written two books, The Magic of Theater based on his popular course at The New School, and  The Actor's Audition, now in its fourteenth printing.

In 1983 Black took up painting on the advice of Patrick Caulfield and John Hoyland of London’s Royal Academy. Black’s first solo exhibition took place in London in 1990. His paintings have been enthusiastically received by the public and by critics on both sides of the Atlantic.

In 1999 Black gave a talk at The National Arts Club called How Producing Broadway Shows Drove Me To A Painting Career. The talk became a one-person play called The Greatest Show Off Earth! which Black performed in 2001 at the Granite Theater in Westerly, RI., and the Ivoryton Playhouse in Ivoryton, CT. In 2002 Black performed his play at The King’s Head Theater in London under the title Falling Off Broadway where it was enthusiastically received by the critics. In 2003 Black performed Falling Off Broadway at The Vineyard Playhouse in Martha’s Vineyard, and in January of 2005 he appeared in Falling Off Broadway at Playwrights Horizons Peter Sharp Theater in New York.

Black has directed Madame Butterfly, Tosca, and Carmen for Connecticut regional opera companies, and continues working as an audition coach. In addition to Falling Off Broadway . Black recently appeared as Albert Einstein in The Day That Einstein Died, and as Groucho Marx in The Groucho Tapes.

Appears in
Augusta