MARTHA BANTA
DIRECTOR
ABOUT
Martha is a director based in New York City. In addition to freelance directing, she has also been the Founding Artistic Director at the Adirondack Theater Festival, an Artistic Associate at New York Theater Workshop, the Associate Director of MAMMA MIA! on Broadway and the National Tours, and the Original Resident Director of RENT for NYTW, Broadway, two National Tours, and London.
Some New York directing credits include new plays at NYSF Public Theater, Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, Ensemble Studio Theater, New York Theater Workshop, New Georges, The Lamb's Theater, Clark Theater at Lincoln Center, Urban Stages, Cherry Lane, Soho Rep.
Martha has directed new play and musical readings/workshops at New York Theater Workshop, The Public Theater, York Theater, Children’s Theater of Minneapolis, New Dramatists, Berkshire Theater Festival, ASCAP, La MaMa, New York University, New Georges, Adirondack Theater Festival.
Some playwrights she’s worked with are Melissa James Gibson, Leslie Ayvazian, Eric Lane, Bill Bowers, Jonathan Larson, Christopher Kyle, Anton Dudley, Steve Murray, Lori Fischer, Matt Wilkas, Josh Brand, Dan Castellaneta.
Regionally she has directed at Portland Center Stage, Cincinnati Playhouse, Pittsburgh CLO, The Ordway, Pittsburgh Public Theater, St. Louis Rep, Westport Country Playhouse, Merrimack Rep, Capital Rep, Vineyard Arts Project and the Berkshire Theater Festival. University Productions include Juilliard, NYU Graduate School, Stony Brook, Ramapo College and Dartmouth. For DISNEYWORLD Florida, she developed and directed Playhouse Disney Live, later renamed Disney Jr. Live, which ran for 17 years.
She was the Founding Artistic Director for the first 13 seasons at the Adirondack Theater Festival (ATF) in Glens Falls, NY where she oversaw 50 productions artistically, many of which were world premieres and several that she directed. ATF continues to flurish and remains dedicated to emerging artists, new plays, and new musicals.
She served many years as Artistic Associate at the critically acclaimed New York Theater Workshop where she was responsible for casting all the readings, helping with new play development, and acting as a general liaison between many of the affiliated artists with the theater.
Martha was the Resident Director on the original production of RENT at New York Theater Workshop and on Broadway. She also supervised the London and tour productions, then went on to direct the first foreign language productions in Germany and Japan.
She was the Associate Director for MAMMA MIA! during its long Broadway run, as well as for the National tour.
