BRANDON IVIE
Theatre & Film Director
ABOUT
BRANDON IVIE (he/him) is a New York/Seattle-based director who's specialty in developing new work has taken him across the country and around the world. He is currently the Associate Artistic Director of Village Theatre, creative producing their mainstage season of plays and musicals, and spearheading their expansive new works program, and is the Gregory Award-winning Founding Artistic Director of Contemporary Classics. He has directed extensively across the United States at such Tony-winning theatres as Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Seattle Rep, Paper Mill Playhouse, TheatreWorks Sillicon Valley, Goodspeed Musicals, and Signature Theatre as well as The 5th Avenue Theatre, in NYC at The Public Theatre/Joe's Pub, HERE Arts Center, Musical Theatre Factory and Prospect Theatre, as well as internationally at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and the Hope Mill Theatre (UK). He has spent the last better part of a decade developing and directing Justin Huertas' Lizard Boy which recently had it's NYC premiere Off-Broadway in 2023 and has spawned two cast albums. He has directed the world premieres of Jasper in Deadland by Ryan Scott Oliver and Hunter Foster, String by Adam Gwon and Sarah Hammond, The Noteworthy Life of Howard Barnes by Michael Kooman and Christopher Dimond, and The Yellow Wood by Michelle Elliott and Danny Larsen, and has developed the new musicals The Passage by David Darrow, ZM by Tony winners Greg Kotis and Mark Hollmann, and Writing Kevin Taylor by Will Van Dyke and Josh Halloway, has collaborated on other works by Frank Wildhorn, Rinne Groff, Benj Pasek, Justin Paul, Michael R. Jackson, Brian Yorkey, Tom Kitt, Zoe Sarnak, Emily Kaczmerak, Kit Yan, Melissa Li, and many others. Broadway assisting credits include A Christmas Story, First Date, Next to Normal and Catch Me If You Can, as well as pre-Broadway runs of Gigi and Scandalous. He spent four seasons as Casting Director and Artistic Projects Manager at The 5th Avenue Theatre where he also directed celebrated productions of Cinderella and A Christmas Story. Drama League Directing Fellow, Charles Abbott Directing Fellowship, Lincoln Center Theater Directors Lab. UW School of Drama.
REVIEWS
JASPER IN DEADLAND, Off-Broadway
"A playful, silly-smart new musical. In Brandon Ivie's inventively staged production, Jasper's quest is quite a bit of fun. They've made the underworld an entertaining, memorable place to visit."
-The New York Times
"An electrifying surge of theatrical energy that has the potential to wake up New York from its deep creative sleep. Director Brandon Ivie makes clever use of the simple set, creating an effectively sprawling, stylish Deadland in the decidedly tiny space."
-Entertainment Weekly
LIZARD BOY, OFF-BROADWAY, Edinburgh Fringe, Seattle Rep, Theatreworks silicon valley, hope mill (uk) and Diversionary Theatre
"Lizard Boy is a wildly entertaining volcanic eruption! Imaginatively directed by Brandon Ivie, Lizard Boy is smart, tight, heartwarming, hilarious, and filled with theatrical surprises."
-San Diego Union Tribune
"Brandon Ivie's ingenious direction rattles and bites, and offers a beguiling taste of his vision of the art form... The most inventive moment of all comes at the show’s climax, when Ivie stages an epic battle with musical instruments as weapons — at the same time they’re being played. When one actor needs to raise, say, a ukulele to strike another, the third seamlessly picks up the beat and melody in a dizzying pas de trois…”
-San Francisco Chronicle
"Inventively staged by Brandon Ivie, this wildly original musical with a book, music and lyrics by Huertas has something to say about self-love and acceptance, and particularly about finding love today as a gay person of colour."
-The Guardian
"Brandon Ivie's wonderfully inventive staging is a perfect storm of musical theatre... Lizard Boy is engaging, funny and empowering must-see theatre."
-BroadwayWorld.com
"Director Brandon Ivie cleverly employs minimal props and handmade effects in his antic staging to create impressive Marvel Comics mayhem."
-The Seattle Times
"Under Brandon Ivie's excitingly ingenious direction, Lizard Boy's three stars do absolutely sensational work as actors, as singers, as musicians, and - in one electrifyingly inventive sequence - as choreographed fighters."
-Stage Scene LA
"Ingenious director Brandon Ivie is the perfect fit for the assignment, staging the show with wit, charm and heart, which whisks past faster than a speeding bullet."
-TalkinBroadway.com
"Cheers to Brandon Ivie for his superb direction. This coming-of-age, coming-out, indie-folksy rock-comic-book-infused musical is a sure sign that the American musical is as novelistic, vibrant, fearless, and joyous as ever."
-San Diego Reader
"Brandon Ivie makes it clear why he is one of the most talented and exciting directors to ever come out of Seattle."
-SeattleActor.com
NEXT TO NORMAL, Contemporary Classics
"Brandon Ivie has officially raised the bar with his sophisticated and lingering production... a thrilling piece of musical theatre... a constant barrage of emotion and power."
-Examiner
"Brandon Ivie helms the production with a sure hand, making sure this emotional tale keeps a balance of heart, pathos, and even some humor. Quite simply astonishing."
-TalkinBroadway.com
THE YELLOW WOOD, Contemporary Classics
"Brandon Ivie's production of this new musical is compact musical storytelling... contemporary musical theater at its best."
-Broadway Hour
"Brandon Ivie's capable and electric direction and musical staging... with some flashes of real musical theatre magic floating to the surface, thanks to Ivie's lively and varied staging."
-TalkinBroadway.com
DIRECTING REEL
PRODUCING
Brandon is currently the Associate Artistic Director at Village Theatre, a $13+ million company just outside Seattle. As head of the new musicals program, he produces the annual Festival of New Musicals, and is creator of three groundbreaking initiatives: The Beta Series (a three show season of developmental productions geared towards maximum flexibility with no pressures of critical success), the Writers Residency (week-long writer retreats for early stage development), and At The Table (a diversity and inclusion initiative to give development support to underrepresented writers). He has developed work by Zoe Sarnak and Emily Kaczmerak, Michael R. Jackson and Darius Smith, Timothy Huang, Charles Vincent Burwell and James Sasser, Nikko Benson and Benjamin Halstead, Sukari Jones and Troy Anthony, Kit Yan and Melissa Li, Preston Max Allen and Jessica Kahkoska, Aaron Jafferis, Yako 440 and Rebecca Hart, Brian Crawley, Sam Salmond and Jenny Stafford, Will Aronson, Daniel Maté and Hannah Kohl, Yianni Papadimos and Ben Chavez, and more.
As the Gregory Award-winning Artistic Director of Contemporary Classics, a Seattle-based musical theatre company dedicated to modern musicals, he has produced Seattle premieres of The Last Five Years, john & jen, A New Brain, Zanna, Don't!, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, and Next to Normal, the world premiere of The Yellow Wood, numerous concerts, and the popular New Voices songwriter showcase series giving early voice to such prolific writers as Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, Michael R. Jackson, Joe Iconis, Zoe Sarnak, Ryan Scott Oliver, Brie Lowdermilk and Kait Kerrigan, and many more.
For four seasons he was on staff at The 5th Avenue Theatre as Assistant to the Artistic Director, Casting Director (casting pre-Broadway runs of A Christmas Story, Catch Me If You Can, SHREK, Aladdin, and Memphis), and Artistic Projects Manager producing and directing events and touring programming for the theatre.
Howl's Moving Castle By Myra Platt and Justin Huertas
Afterwords by Zoe Sarnak and Emily Kaczmerak
Howl's Moving Castle By Myra Platt and Justin Huertas
SEATTLE PREMIERE Contemporary Classics
DEVELOPMENTAL PRODUCTION Village Theatre
Village Theatre Brian Yorkey, dir
DEVELOPMENTAL PRODUCTION HERE Arts Center, NYC
Village Theatre Brian Yorkey, dir
