About Jay Scheib

Internationally known for genre-defying works of daring physicality and the integration of new (and used) technologies in live performance, Scheib’s current productions include the West End musical “Bat Out of Hell” after the album by Jim Steinmanat the London Coliseum/English National Opera and a new opera based on Ingmar Bergman’s film “Persona” which was produced by Beth Morrison Projects and premiered at National Sawdust in New York followed by performances at the Elizabeth Stuart Gardner Museum in Boston and in 2017 with LA Opera at RedCat. Scheib's recent mashup of Heiner Goebbels' Surrogate Cities with Richard Wagner's Götterdämmerung played to rave reviews at the Wuppertal Opera House in Germany.

Next year Scheib will stage a new opera by Israeli composer Na’ama Zisser titled “Mamzer/Bastard” at the Royal Opera House in London. Other recent works include the multiplatform “Platonov, or the Disinherited,” which premiered as part of the Without Walls Festival at La Jolla Playhouse followed by performances at The Kitchen in New York City. Conceived as a 100 minute single-take feature film, Scheib’s adaptation of Chekhov’s play was broadcast live from The Kitchen to the AMC Empire 25 Cinema in Times Square and to BAM Rose Cinema in Brooklyn. Other recent works include Luigi Nono’s “No hay camino hay que caminar” as ouverture to Monteverdi’s “Il Ritorno d’Ulisse” under the title “Odyssee” at the Staatstheater Darmstadt in Germany. Scheib’s staging of Thomas Adès’ opera “Powder her Face” was part of the final season of New York City Opera at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM). “Powder her Face” went on to play Festival d’Opéra de Québec in Canada. Other recent works for the stage have included a new contemporary ballet collaboration with choreographer Yin Mei and the Hong Kong Dance Company titled “Seven Sages,” which premiered in March 2012; a new staging of Fassbinder’s controversial play “Garbage, the City and Death” with the Norwegian Theater Academy in Oslo, Norway; and Scheib’s own original Fassbinder adaptation “World of Wires” which premiered at The Kitchen in New York City for which Scheib was awarded a 2012 OBIE Award for Best Direction. Subsequent performances of “World of Wires” included presentations in Krakow Poland as part of the KRT Festival, the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston, Lieu Unique in Nantes, and Festival d’Automne in Paris at the Maison des Arts Cretéil (MAC), France. Also having toured in France and Boston was the recent adaptation of Samuel R. Delany’s novel Dhalgren, titled “Bellona, Destroyer of Cities,” which played the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston and the MAC Exit Festival in Paris, following its New York City premiere at the Kitchen. As a frequent director of operas and works for music theater Scheib staged Evan Ziporyn’s “A House in Bali,” as part of BAM’s Next Wave Festival 2010; Beethoven’s “Fidelio” at the Saarländisches Staatstheater; and an original collaboration with punk band World Inferno Friendship Societ titled “Addicted to Bad Ideas,” and toured eight cities internationally.

Named Best New York Theater Director by Time Out New York in 2009, and one of the 25 theater artists shaping the next 25 years of American theater, by American Theater Magazine, Scheib is a recipient of the MIT Edgerton Award, The Richard Sherwood Award, a National Endowment for the Arts/TCG fellowship, an OBIE Award for Best Direction and the prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship. He is a Professor for Music and Theater Arts at Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he directs the Program in Theater Arts.

“Dazzling” — Antony Tommasini, The New York Times

“When’s the last time it felt as if an entire theater were about to levitate? The blissful overdrive of Jay Scheib’s production can affect even a relative outlier — “Bat Out of Hell” is all but blasting an adoring audience out of their seats.” — Matt Wolf, NEW YORK TIMES

“His brand of theater always seems to be ahead of everybody else. ” — Tom Murrin, PAPERMAG

“Bat Out of Hell,” directed with technological sturm und drang by the American Jay Scheib, is best fake id state irony-free and played with beguiling epicene virility." — Ben Brantley, NEW YORK TIMES