JOSEPH UCHITEL - ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

The Company's founder and Artistic Director, Joseph Uchitel was educated in the former Soviet Union and spent 10 years as a director in New York before moving to Australia in 1990 to teach and direct.

Joseph has directed for and at many of Sydney's theatre venues. His Australian credits include: The Deal (Ensemble Theatre), The Promise (Marion Street Theatre), Provincial Anecdotes (Look Out Theatre), Chance Visitor (The Rep), Persephone (Stables Theatre), No Names No Packdrill (WAAPA), Capricornia (NIDA) and Blood Wedding (Ensemble Studious). He worked as a director for the Australian National Playwrights' Conference in 1993 and 2002.

Joseph's was nominated for the Sydney Theatre Critic's Award for the production of The Deal at the Ensemble Theatre. His television version of the play Persephone won first prize, the Gold Award for the Best Independent Video Production at the 4th Annual WorldFest - Charleston International Film Festival in the United States. The stage version of Persephone, also directed by Joseph, was first produced at the Stables Theatre.

He taught at NIDA, WAAPA and Actors Centre.

For East Coast Theatre Company Joseph Uchitel directed a one person show of Euripidis' Medea (Sydney Street Theatre), Miranda by Stephen Sewell (Sydney Theatre Company's Wharf 2), Love Fix (Performance Space), an evening of two one act plays: an Australian premiere of Prelude and Liebestod by an acclaimed American playwright Terrence McNally and a World premiere of Aria di Mezzo Carattere by Tim Benzie, an Australian premiere of Mother and Child by Jon Fosse and numerous play readings of Australian and European plays.

"Joseph Uchitel directs simply, keeping a tight control on the special relations and even tighter grasp on the subtlety." - Stephen Dunne, The Sydney Morning Herald, Mother and Child

" a taut production by Joseph Uchitel for the East Coast Theatre Company, with two fine actors, Vanessa Downing and Tamblyn Lord, in a vivid translation by May-Brit Akerholt. We need more of the non-English repertoire in this country." - John McCallum, The Australian, MOTHER AND CHILD

"Simply directed by Joseph Uchitel, the spare, whimsical work delves beneath the polite façade" - Bryce Hallett, The Sydney Morning Herald, LOVE FIX

"Miranda, directed perceptively and with restraint by Joseph Uchitel is a theatrical anomaly: epic theatre on a small scale." - Pamela Payne, The Sun Herald, MIRANDA

"Could there be a more bold, more exciting opening of a new theatre company than this Medea? Directed by Joseph Uchitel ­ passionate, intelligent and powerfully theatrical." - Pamela Payne, The Sun Herald, MEDEA

"Joseph Uchitel's strong, even direction... creates wonderful visual imagery of a tormented mind." - Ian Phipps, The Sunday Telegraph, PERSEPHONE

"There is an impressive cast of new-comers ­ three young actors who can, under Uchitel's very fine direction, play simple, forthrightly emotional actions with a boldness which works very well." - John McCallum, The Australian, THE PROMISE

"It is the direction that is often the best feature of this production This is an intensely integrated production" - Ken Healey, The Sun Herald, THE PROMISE

"Joseph Uchitel's direction is taut, vigorous and lucid. He keeps action crackling across the split levels of stage. great clarity and assurance."
Pamela Payne, The Sydney Morning Herald, THE DEAL

"The best thing about this involving production is the quality of acting and the tight control of director Joseph Uchitel." - John McCallum, The Australian, THE DEAL

"What is delightful and challenging about Joseph Uchitel's production is his use of the stage... his complicated staging, which pulls his characters together into quite realistic space relationships or pushes them apart into almost artificial positioning, a formal reflection on the intimacy/estrangement dichotomy going on underneath." - Angela Bennie, The Sydney Morning Herald, CHANCE VISITOR

"Under Joseph Uchitel's ingenious direction the actors respond well to the complicated demands of Vampilov's particular brand of satire, and Uchitel's demand that they play it for real" - Angela Bennie, The Sydney Morning Herald, PROVINCIAL ANEKDOTES