In just a decade of working on Broadway, director Danya Taymor ’10 has emerged as one of the busiest and most compelling figures in contemporary American theater. For her work on “The Outsiders” in 2024, she won the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical, and she received a second consecutive nomination in 2025 for Best Direction of a Play for “John Proctor Is the Villain.” A native of Palo Alto, California, Taymor decided to move across the country to pursue a theater degree at Duke without setting foot on campus. She would go on to make her Broadway debut in 2015 as assistant director of the opera “Thérèse Raquin,” and in 2021 she directed “Pass Over,” the first play to be staged on Broadway when theaters reopened after the COVID-19 shutdown.
DukeMag: The New York Times called you “Broadway’s Teen Whisperer.” Was that fun to read, or was it scary?
Danya Taymor: It was both. I think a lot of artists experience this – the last thing you’ve done becomes what people think you do. I’ve been lucky to direct several plays focused on teenagers, but I’ve also directed lots of plays about people of all ages. That said, “teen whisperer” …. definitely. I’ll take that because there is something about plays, literature and film about young people that I think speaks to all of us, because we all remember what it felt like to be that age. And there is something also very special as a director, working with younger actors for whom it’s their first big job.
DM: What do you think is compelling about stories centered on teenagers?
DT: Adolescence is when so many defining experiences happen – first heartbreak, first loss, first time grappling with really challenging and hard things. Also, a lot of first joyful things. With “The Outsiders,” because that story was being told from the perspective of a 14-year-old, I really actively thought, OK, go back in your memory and remember what it felt like, what things looked like, what you dreamed about in order to try to render it in an authentic way. So I think it’s about whether or not you have stayed open enough to still access that teenage self.
DM: You saw “The Lion King” on Broadway – directed by your aunt, Julie Taymor – when you were around 9 years old. Did that set you on this path or is it a coincidence that you became a director?
DT: No, I think not a coincidence. My mom had taken me to our local children’s theater when I was 6, so there was something already in me that loved theater. But when I saw the scale of “The Lion King” it blew my mind. It was amazing because there were kid characters, you know, young Nala and young Simba, and so there was something powerful about seeing somebody my age up there.
DM: How did your time as a theater major at Duke shape you as an artist?
DT: In a surprising way, I think Duke gave me the best theater education I could have gotten. It’s not an NYU, Julliard or Yale, that has a heavy, well-known theater presence, but there were some incredible professors at Duke that I’m still in touch with: Jeff Storer, Jody McAuliffe, Rafael Lopez-Barrantes, Ellen Hemphill. Even though it’s not a huge program, the teachers were amazing. I really became a director at Duke, even though it was a less traditional path. The first play I auditioned for there was “House of Desires” by Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz. When the cast list came out, I was listed as assistant director, which was not something I had asked to be considered for. The sensitivity of this teacher (Lopez-Barrantes) to say, “I don’t know if you should be in the play, but you need to be part of the play, and you should help speak the play.” I felt very seen by that. Duke allowed me to find my voice.
DM: Tell us about how you decided to attend Duke.
DT: Someone said to me, “Why do you want to go someplace where everyone will be like you?” They literally said, “Go to Duke, where you’ll be at a place with the highest level of academics, you’ll meet people from all over the country, all over the world, you’ll live in a place that’s different from where you came from.” And so I think I was really hungry for that, and I really loved it. Once the idea came into my head I just decided to go with it.
DM: You and your husband, actor Gabriel Ebert, were both nominated for Tony Awards last year for "John Proctor Is the Villain". That has to be pretty rare, right?
DT: This is my favorite fact about it: It was the first time since Bob Fosse and Gwen Verdon (“Sweet Charity,” 1966) that a husband and wife had been nominated for the same project. And I like it because I’m Bob Fosse, and he is Gwen Verdon.
DM: What’s next for you?
DT: In the spring, I’m directing “John Proctor Is the Villain” at the Royal Court Theatre in London, and I’m working on a film adaptation of it as well. I’m also developing new plays in New York. I’m drawn to new writing and to new work, and I think that it would be amazing to keep doing that in the film world.
Three essential Broadway productions directed by Danya Taymor
Pass Over (2021) follows two young Black men, Moses and Kitch, on a barren urban street corner. Through sharp, poetic banter they dream of a “promised land” beyond their bleak reality while confronting threats of violence and intrusion by outsiders. Blending influences from “Waiting for Godot” and the Exodus story, the play deals with hope, frustration, survival and the longing for transcendence.
The Outsiders (2024) is a Tony-winning musical adaptation of S.E. Hinton’s classic coming-of-age story set in 1967 Tulsa, Oklahoma. It follows Ponyboy Curtis, his best friend, Johnny Cade, and their Greaser “outsiders” as they navigate clashes with the affluent Socs, grapple with identity, loyalty and loss, and dream of a life beyond their divided world.
John Proctor Is the Villain (2025) reimagines Arthur Miller’s “The Crucible” through the eyes of a rural Georgia high school. As an English class studies the classic, a group of students – grappling with young love, friendship, scandals, #MeToo issues, and a newly formed feminist club – begins to challenge who gets called a hero or villain. With humor, pop music and fierce dialogue, the play explores identity, power and rewriting one’s own narrative.