RUBÉN POLENDO

Artistic Director

Rubén Polendo is artistic director of Theater Mitu; applauded as “one of the ten top, hot companies in New York” and “exciting… outside the boundaries of standard Western drama” (The New York Times). Polendo has written and directed several works with his company including: The Apostle Project; Canticle; Moonchild; Ahraihsak; The Legend of The Kinnaree; The Ramayana; The Mahabharata; The Odyssey. Adaptations include Hamletmachine; The Shakespeare Project; The Noh Cycle; The Tutor; Four Saints in Mexico; Dhammashok (developed at the Sundance Theater Lab/presented at The Mark Taper Forum's ON STAGE series); A Midsummer Night's Dream and String of Fragmentation (Patravadi, Thailand); HAIR (Skirball/ NYU) . This past year, after intensive development at Sundance and at Robert Wilson's Watermill Center, Mitu premiered a new piece at Three-Legged Dog Arts and Technology Center entitled DR.C (or How I Learned to Act in Eight Steps); An opera in Eight Parts, as well as producing and touring a radically innovative adaptation of Death of a Salesman in New York. Polendo's and Mitu's work has been presented at various theaters nationally and internationally including: NYTW (where Polendo is Artistic Associate), The Public, INTAR, Blue Light, Lincoln Center, A.C.T., McCarter, The Perseverance, NAATCO, Mark Taper, Alliance, ETC and South Coast Rep. Polendo holds a Biochemistry Degree (Trinity University), an MFA in directing (UCLA-Peter Sellers, Director) and an MA in non-Western theatre (Lancaster, UK) with a residency at the Kalamandalam (India), as well as residencies with Peter Brook, Robert Wilson and Ariane Mnouchkine. Polendo is director of Theater Mitu's Bangkok Artist Intensive and Theater Mitu's South India Intensive. He and various company members teach Mitu's Training Methodology called Whole Theater at several institutions including NYU, Juilliard, Bard, CCM, Vassar, BYU and University of Mexico. Most recently Polendo was appointed Associate Professor at NYU-Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates) where he will be heading the theater department, while continuing to create work with Theater Mitu in the Emirates and in New York.

Email Rubén: rpolendo@theatermitu.com