Donald Hicken
Donald Hicken is currently the director of Heroes at Everyman Theatre. Other Everyman productions include Fifty Words, Shooting Star, Our Town, I Am My Own Wife, The Turn of the Screw, Betrayal, The Cripple of Inishmaan, The Children’s Hour, Jacques Brel…, My Children! My Africa!, Watch on the Rhine, The Road to Mecca, The Glass Menagerie, and The Lion in Winter. Regional credits include the following- The Berkshire Theatre Festival: The Belle of Amherst; The Baltimore Shakespeare Festival: All’s Well That Ends Well; The Kenyon Festival Theatre, Round House Theatre: The Glass Menagerie (Helen Hayes Award – Outstanding Director Resident Production and Outstanding Resident Production 2000); Rep Stage: The Children’s Hour; The Pennsylvania Stage Company: A Moon for the Misbegotten and The Columbia Festival of the Arts where he was Artistic Director from 1989-1998. Since 1979 Donald has been the Dept. Head of Theatre at The Baltimore School for the Arts plus has taught at Everyman Theatre, The Berkshire Theatre Festival, Center Stage (Director of Training 1976-1981) and The Actors’ Conservatory. It is only fitting that the last production at Everyman Theatre’s Charles Street home is directed by a man who has such a long and distinguished history in the theatre.
What was the first show you directed at Everyman Theatre?
The Lion in Winter (1998).
Can you please tell us a little bit about your current production of Heroes?
It’s a bright, funny and poignant take on aging, and we have three great actors to tell the story.
You have been at Everyman Theatre for many years. With Heroes being the last play in its current space, I would like to know what are some of your fondest memories about working on Charles Street at Everyman Theatre?
I love the intimacy, the challenges presented by those permanent columns and the low ceiling. I have really enjoyed changing the configuration to suit play and the actor-audience relationship.
You are the head of Theatre for Baltimore School of The Arts. What do you like the most about being an educator?
Encouraging my students to use their creative imagination to solve problems, examine the human experience and be empathetic, and as a tool for self discovery.
What are your next few projects?
Look Homeward Angel at BSA in April. Execution of Justice in UK in late May – it’s a BSA Theatre Dept. partnership with Showdown Theatre Arts (a youth theatre in Surrey).
