About
Sculptural. Caustic. Clever. Elegant.
These words have been used to describe BRIAN JUCHA's works. Lively. Aggressive. Inspired. Visually arresting. Jucha, who was the Artistic Director and Executive Producer of Via Theater, has been described by his colleagues as an 'arranger' - 'a theatrical genius' - an 'enfant terrible'. Entrancing. ENTERTAINING. The Houston Chronicle called him "One of the hot New York Artistic Directors." Punch International says, "Jucha is a man of creation waiting to explode onto a stage." Theater Week places Jucha "In the forefront of contemporary experimental theater." He orchestrates images, movement, music, and text into complex, emotionally heightened pieces that explore the mysteries and monstrosities of the human experience.
Jucha recently created the original work TOAST with Catastrophic Theatre in Houston, Texas. He directed the critically acclaimed We Have Some Planes (Winner of Best Director and Best Original Production Awards and featured on the cover of American Theatre) at Infernal Bridegroom Productions in Houston, Texas.
Other productions include Mary Zimmerman's Metamorphoses at Actors Stage in St. Petersberg, Florida; Bat Boy The Musical at Stages in Houston and; and Stephen Belber's play Tape at Actors Theatre of Louisville's Humana Festival and Stamford Center for the Arts in Connecticut. Additional works include adapting and directing the Howard Barker version of Thomas Middleton's Women Beware Women at the American Repertory Theater's Institute for Advanced Theater Training at Harvard (1998), Last Rites also with Infernal Bridegroom Productions (1997), CENSORED!!! (1997), Alien Love (1996),
I fell off the mountain and stubbed my toe on the thorny prick of your cold cold heart [or] bashing my head against a brick wall until i can taste blood (1995) and Loved Less (The History of Hell) (1994), all three of which he wrote and directed for Via Theater; Betty Suffer's Theory of Relativity by Ellen Maddow with The Talking Band at La Mama; Promiscuous by David Cale & Roger Babb for Otrabanda Co.; and Deadly Virtues, an original work for the Actors Theatre of Louisville's 17th Annual Humana Festival of New American Plays.
He also has directed Bring Me Your Love, which he adapted from a short story by Charles Bukowski for Via Theater Triplets, Ellen Maddow's Brown Dog is Dead with The Talking Band at Theater for the New City, Men In Gray at Downtown Art Co., R.W. Fassbinder's The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant presented site-specifically in New York on the 10th anniversary of Fassbinder's death, Women In Black and In Time's Course (Men In White) at HOME, and The River Runs Deep, Savettka Sings the Blues and Dark Shadows at Dance Theater Workshop.
As an actor/performing artist, he performed in works by Anne Bogart, The Iowa Theater Lab, John Jesurun, Mary Overlie and spent the 89-90 season as a member of the acting company of Trinity Repertory Company, appearing in Robert Woodruff's production of Bertolt Brecht's Baal.
He worked with Anne Bogart from 1979-1993, creating original roles in Behavior in Public Places; the OBIE-award winning No Plays, No Poetry...; Assimil; At the Bottom; The Ground Floor; Women and Men; Sehnsucht; Small Towns/Big Dreams; I'm Starting Over, I'm Starting Over Again; The Emissions Project; Leb Oder Tot; Artourist; and Out of Sync.
Mr. Jucha was the Artistic Director of the New York-based theater company Via Theater. He has a BFA from New York University's Experimental Theater Wing, has taught directing, composition, and viewpoints training at the A.R.T. Institute at Harvard, New York University, the Playwrights Horizons Professional Theatre School, and The 42nd Street Collective. Excerpts from Deadly Virtues were published by Smith and Kraus in the Anthology of New American Plays from the Actors Theatre of Louisville's 17th Annual Humana Festival.
Jucha is currently pursuing a career in adult entertainment.