Stephen Sachs (born August 14, 1959) is an American stage director and playwright. He is the co-artistic director of the Fountain Theatre in Los Angeles, which he co-founded in 1990.[1]
Sachs was born in San Francisco and grew up in Los Angeles. He graduated from Los Angeles City College Theatre Academy in 1980 and worked as an actor in film, TV, and theater. He made his debut as a professional stage director in 1987 with an adaptation of The Baron in the Trees at the Ensemble Studio Theatre, to positive reviews.[2] Sachs co-founded the Fountain Theatre in 1990 with Deborah Lawlor. He has led the venue as artistic director since its founding and has directed and written numerous productions. He is married to actress Jacqueline Schultz; they have two children.[citation needed]
The Fountain Theatre has won hundreds of awards for all areas of production, performance, and design.[citation needed] In 2020, it was honored with the Margaret Harford Award for sustained excellence in theater, presented by the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle.[citation needed] In a 2021 end-of-year retrospective, Los Angeles Times theater critic Charles McNulty called the Fountain "L.A.'s most enterprising intimate theater [that] continues to punch far above its weight… No L.A. theater has done a better job of asking us to reexamine our lives through the lens of acute contemporary drama this year than the Fountain."[3]
Sachs was chosen by South African playwright Athol Fugard as one of the few directors in the United States to premiere his new plays. The collaboration goes back to when Sachs directed the Los Angeles premiere of Fugard's The Road to Mecca, in 2000.[citation needed]
In 2004, Sachs was selected to direct the world premiere of a new Fugard play,[4] titled Exits and Entrances, which won a number of awards.[5] Sachs went on to direct regional productions of the play around the country and overseas.[6]
In 2008, Sachs directed the Fugard play Victory.[7] The production was named "Critic's Choice" and "Best of 2008" in the Los Angeles Times.[8]
Sachs was instrumental in launching and supporting the Deaf West Theatre Company at the Fountain Theatre in 1991.[citation needed] The company won a Tony Honors for Excellence in Theatre award for its acclaimed ASL version of Big River on Broadway in 2003.[9] His play about deafness and cochlear implants, Sweet Nothing in My Ear, was made into a television movie starring Jeff Daniels and Marlee Matlin and presented on the Hallmark Hall of Fame on April 20, 2008.[citation needed] The teleplay was written by Sachs, and the film was directed by Joseph Sargent.[10]
Sachs' play about deafness and language, Open Window, had its world premiere at the Pasadena Playhouse in 2005, winning the California Governor's Media Access Award for Theater Excellence.[11]
His deaf spin on Cyrano debuted at the Fountain Theatre in 2012, starring Troy Kotsur.[12] His 2018 deaf-themed play Arrival & Departure starred Kotsur and his wife, actress Deanne Bray.[13]
As playwright and director, Sachs has won every theater award in Los Angeles. He has been nominated for the SDC Zelda Fichandler Award three times, recognizing an outstanding director who makes a unique and exceptional contribution to theater in their region. He was honored by the Los Angeles City Council for "his visionary contributions to the cultural life of Los Angeles".
