"(Zaslove is) an imaginative risk-taker...a remarkably skillful and inventive director."
-- Seattle Times
oh my
"When he's on his game (and he's very seldom off it), Arne is the best theater director I've ever worked with."
-- John Aylward
of ER and John Frankenheimer's Paths to War


"We in the theatre through folk traditions - i.e. song (music and poetry), pictures, language, movement and dance - are able to portray classical human dilemmas in a manner that can nourish the soul. I believe that the immediacy of the theatre event and its closeness to the audience enlivens the spirit. We must create an emotional and psychological environment in which to inspire the audience as well as the artist. I truly see the theatre as being able to change the awareness of individuals, to encourage them to assume responsibility for making themselves and the earth safer, healthier and more in balance.

Throughout time, storytelling has been a method for self-examination and self-revelation. We are purged of our ills by the shaman/actor/artist/healer. This is the kind of leadership in our society that I see theatre representing. We must improve the weather of our souls."

Arne Zaslove


"Like most highly imaginative directors, Zaslove is drawn to material that provides him the maximum scope to employ his imagination. Unlike many of his directorial species, Zaslove honors the playwright's text...(but) when there are two ways of making a point, one verbal, one visual, Zaslove instinctively chooses the latter...Sometimes he does both at once, and the results are electrifying. Zaslove doesn't just direct plays...he inspires performers, he draws a bottom line of seriousness and concentration, which the art of theatre can ill afford to do without. We're extraordinarily lucky to have him..."
-- Roger Downey,
Seattle Weekly
see here


Highlights

The Big Broadcast

Johnson Over Jordan

Peer Gynt
  • In over 40 years as a professional director, Arne has brought his physicality, humor and visual richness to productions all over North America and in Europe.

  • During 20 years as Artistic Director of the Bathhouse Theatre in Seattle, created the company's signature style of updated Shakespeares, American classics, and devised pieces featuring music and folk culture. With company collaboration, conceived and shaped from 'found material' such original touring shows as The Big Broadcast (17 versions of this tribute to the golden age of radio), All Aboard, Black Stage Views, Buckskin to Satin, The Sports Show and many more collage shows. (Some scripts are available upon inquiry.)

  • Directed Sacco and Vanzetti: A Vaudeville at City Theatre in Pittsburgh, exploring politics and history through a two-man musical revue.

  • Wrote the original holiday show A Legend of St. Nicholas (music by Robert Davidson), which played for three seasons at the Bathhouse and has been performed across the country, and Top Hat, White Tie and Tales (a celebration of Irving Berlin's life through his music).

  • In 1987, toured German theatres as a guest of the German government and of the Goethe Institute.

  • Founded the Floating Theatre in the late '70s in Seattle and performed seven of Samuel Beckett's plays with company members John Aylward, Marjorie Nelson and Katherine Ferrand. Other productions include Mister Mister by Gunter Grass, featuring an all-newspaper set, the first production of a legendary '50s rock 'n' roll A Midsummer Night's Dream, and early versions of The Big Broadcast.

  • Directed milestone productions at the Seattle Repertory Theatre in the mid '70s: Indians, Benito Cereno, Michael Ondaatje's Billy the Kid, Max Frisch's Biography (American premiere) and others.

  • Directed U.S. premiere of Tankred Dorst's Ice Age (for which Roberts Blossom won Best Actor Obie, and which Harold Clurman called "the best thing I've seen in New York this year"), followed by New York premiere of Max Frisch's Biography, both at Chelsea Theatre Centre in NY.

    • Directed world premiere of Anton Chekhov's Tatiana Repina at Judson's Poet's Theatre in New York.
  • Pioneered new forms of children's theatre in the late '60s and early '70s. Created The Absurd Musical Revue for Children and other innovative shows for ACT's Young Company.

  • A book incorporating programs and photos from the dozens of shows Zaslove directed at the Bathhouse Theatre is available at the Seattle Public Library and at the University of Washington Drama Library. Both libraries also have catalogued complete sets of reviews.