Leadership

Woolf received a Lifetime Achievement in the Arts award from the St. Louis Arts and Education Council in 2016, honoring his 30+ years of work at The Rep.

His past direction at The Rep includes Heisenberg, Constellations, A Christmas Carol, All the Way, The Winslow Boy, Other Desert Cities and Brighton Beach Memoirs. His directing credits for other companies include productions at Great Lakes Theatre Festival in Cleveland (Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?), Conservatory of Theatre Arts at Webster University (Angels in America–Part One, Two Rockin' Gents), Arrow Rock Lyceum Theatre (The Diary of Anne Frank, The Sunshine Boys), Totem Pole Playhouse (The Voice of the Prairie) and Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park (The Crucible).

While in New York, he served as the project producer of the original productions of The Robber Bridegroom and The Red Blue-Grass Western Flyer Show and was co-producer of Tom Griffin’s Workers. Off-Off-Broadway he directed Impulse and Chicken Soup and worked on The Acting Company’s Broadway season at the Billy Rose Theatre. Stock work has taken him to places such as Lakewood Musical Playhouse, Ivoryton and Cecilwood Theatres. He has worked in major regional theatres including long-term residencies at the world famous Barter Theatre in Abingdon, Virginia, and at StageWest in Springfield, Massachusetts.

He is thrilled to have been honored by the Arts and Education Council which awarded him the St. Louis Arts Award for Individual Excellence in the Arts. In 2011, he was awarded the Kevin Kline Award for Outstanding Direction for his work on The Rep’s production of Red, and his production of Awake and Sing! at The New Jewish Theatre tied with Red for the Kevin Kline Award for Best Production of a Play. He's also been honored by Missouri Citizens for the Arts, which awarded The Rep its Arts Award for Advocacy, and he is pleased to be among the first recipients of “The Good Guy Award” given by the St. Louis Women’s Political Caucus.

He served as a panelist and an on-site evaluator for the theatre program for the National Endowment for the Arts and served on the advisory panel for the Regional Arts Commission and the ad hoc committees for program assistance and touring for the Missouri Arts Council. He served on the executive committee and the national negotiating committee for the League of Resident Theatres, as well as on the board of Missouri Citizens for the Arts, and he is a trustee of the IATSE Local #6 health fund. He has been on the faculty of the Drama Division of the Juilliard School under John Houseman and is adjunct faculty at Webster University. He served on the board of the Kevin Kline Awards.

Since he assumed the management leadership of The Rep in 1987, the theatre has enjoyed growth and stability, strong community support, and responsible financial management. New programming initiatives have included enhanced educational programs and the introduction of the Off-Ramp series.

Favorite shows from 30 seasons at The Rep include Candide, The Voice of the Prairie, Terra Nova, March of the Falsettos and Falsettoland, Six Degrees of Separation, Young Rube, The Living, The Caine Mutiny Court Martial, The Life of Galileo, Arcadia, Sweeney Todd, An Ideal Husband, Into the Woods, Inherit the Wind, Proof, The Crucible, Take Me Out, The Little Dog Laughed, Souvenir, Crime and Punishment, Red, Sunday in the Park with George, and, of course, the great Shaw plays: Saint Joan, Pygmalion and Man and Superman.

He has been active in the leadership of the League of Resident Theatres, having served as vice president for three years, an executive committee member for more than 10 years, and as a member of numerous national negotiating committees. He has taught in Webster University’s Arts Leadership Program and in the Nonprofit Management Center at Washington University, has served on the board of directors of the Arts and Education Council and on the citizens advisory panel for the Regional Arts Commission. Before coming to St. Louis, he spent six years at the Philadelphia Drama Guild and taught financial management for nonprofit arts institutions at Drexel University.

He is a Sondheim fanatic, and travels the world in search of the perfect Sweeney Todd, the best goat cheese tarts and the best chocolate desserts.

This season at The Rep he directs Caught. Previously at The Rep he has directed All My Sons, Disgraced, A Kid Like Jake, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, Next Fall, The Fall of Heaven and the world premieres of The Invisible Hand, Molly's Hammer and Soups, Stews, and Casseroles: 1976. Gordon also led the charge to create Ignite!, The Rep's annual festival of new plays. In 2014, he staged a re-enactment of the founding of St. Louis in honor of its 250th anniversary.

Previously, he spent nine seasons at Cleveland Play House where he produced FusionFest, a performing arts festival, and the Next Stage Festival of New Plays. His Play House directing credits include Dinner with Friends, Proof, Forest City (world premiere), Vincent in Brixton, Tuesdays with Morrie and A Soldier’s Tale, which featured a rarely produced libretto by Kurt Vonnegut.

Elsewhere he has directed for Studio Arena Theatre in Buffalo, Syracuse Stage, Stages Repertory in Houston and American Stage Company in St. Petersburg, Florida among many others. He recently directed the Arabic premiere of Our Town in Cairo. Previously, he served as literary manager and then as associate producer of Primary Stages in New York, where he produced and/or directed countless productions, workshops and readings of new plays by this country’s leading playwrights. He has also directed at many other New York theatres, including the recent revival of Bill W. and Dr. Bob, which ran Off-Broadway for 10 months. He received the 2004 and 2006 Northern Ohio Live Award for Excellence in Theatre and recently served on the advisory panel for the Regional Arts Commission here in St. Louis. He considers himself a lucky man.