Paul Lazar is a founding member, along with Annie-B Parson, of Big Dance Theater. He has co-directed and acted in works for Big Dance since 1991, including commissions from the Brooklyn Academy of Music, the Walker Art Center, Dance Theater Workshop, Classic Stage Company and Japan Society.
Lazar directed Christina Masciotti’s Social Security at the Bushwick Starr, Elephant Room at St. Ann’s Warehouse, Young Jean Lee’s Obie Award winning work We’re Gonna Die at Joe’s Pub, as well as a version of We’re Gonna Die featuring David Byrne at the Meltdown Festival in London. He directed Bodycast: An Artist Lecture by Suzanne Bocanegra featuring Frances McDormand for the BAM Next Wave Festival, and Major Bang for The Foundry Theatre at St. Ann’s Warehouse.
Lazar’s one-person performance, Cage Shuffle, premiered at the American Realness Festival in 2017 and continues to tour the U.S. and Europe. He’s currently creating a new solo work with text from Anne Carson, tentatively entitled, Snowstanding/Waterwalking. Lazar has acted in over 40 feature films, including Snowpiercer, The Host, Mickey Blue Eyes, Silence of the Lambs, Beloved, Lorenzo’s Oil, and Philadelphia. His most recent stage work was Macbeth on Broadway in 2022 and Irene Fornes’ Mud.
At MacDowell, Paul worked on writing a work of theatre that premiered at the Brooklyn Academy Of Music in 2017. He was here at MacDowell with his wife, Annie-B Parson, co-artistic director of their theater company, Big Dance Theater.
