Guest Artist
MAX WEBSTER
Award-Winning Theatre and Opera Director, The Life of Pi
In Conversation with Mahira Kakkar
Monday, March 20, 2023 – 7:00pm ET on Zoom
Award-winning director, Max Webster, joins Mahira Kakkar and members of The Actors Center, Monday, March 20, 2023 at 7:00pm ET on Zoom for an evening of conversation about his journey as an actor turned director, his creative process, and his experience developing Life of Pi.
The production, starting previews this month, features three Olivier Award-winning performers making their Broadway debut, including Hiran Abeysekera as ‘Pi’, and Fred Davis and Scarlet Wilderink as part of the puppeteering team of the Royal Bengal tiger ‘Richard Parker’. The play won 5 Olivier Awards including Best New Play, as well as garnering Max a nomination for Best Director
Max has directed major productions in London at The Old Vic, The Globe Theatre and English National Opera, as well as across Europe, North America and Asia. He is currently an Associate Director of the Donmar Warehouse, where he recently directed Henry V with Kit Harrington. A graduate of Cambridge, he trained at L’École Jacques Lecoq in Paris, and as a long-term associate to Simon McBurney at Complicite.
His directing credits include Antigone and As You Like It (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre); La Bohème (Göteborgsoperan, Sweden); The Merry Widow (English National Opera); Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax (Old Vic/Old Globe/Minneapolis Children’s Theatre); The Jungle Book (Fiery Angel); Fanny and Alexander, Cover My Tracks (Old Vic Theatre); The Twits (Curve Theatre Leicester); The Winter’s Tale (The Royal Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh); Much Ado About Nothing (Shakespeare’s Globe); Shostakovich’s Hamlet (City of London Sinfonia); Carnival Under the Rainbow and Feast Kakulu (Hilton Festival, South Africa) & Caucasian Chalk Circle (Aarohan Theatre, Kathmandu).
Joining Max in conversation is Mahira Kakkar. She is a company member of The Actors Center and plays Nurse, Amma, and Orange Juice in Life of Pi. Select theater credits include 7 Minutes (Waterwell); Here We Are (Theater for One); Arturo UI with John Doyle and Raul Esparza; Henry VI, The Winter’s Tale (TFANA);The Importance of Being Earnest (Two River); Monsoon Wedding with Mira Nair, Miss Witherspoon and Vanya, Sonia… with Christopher Durang, and Clive with Ethan Hawke. Her film and TV credits include A Suitable Boy (series lead), Manifest, New Amsterdam, Blue Bloods, The Blacklist, Hank and Asha (Slamdance Favorite, Best Actress Napa Film Festival, Best Actress Wild Rose Film Festival), Bite Me, Law & Order, Odd Mom Out, Orange is the New Black. She was born in Kolkata, India, and is a proud graduate of the Jadavpur University and The Juilliard School’s Drama Division.
