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Stuart Oken |
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A native Chicagoan and graduate of the University of Illinois, STUART OKEN began his career in Chicago. His first theatrical position was Managing Director of Chicago's acclaimed Organic Theater Company from 1974-76. In 1976, he simultaneously produced his first solo production, Michael Weller's Moonchildren, which won 3 Jeff Awards and marked the professional directing debut of Robert Falls. From 1978-1985, he was founder and producer of Chicago's Apollo Theater Center, building a new 400 seat theater that presented regional premieres of such acclaimed works as David Mamet's Sexual Perversity In Chicago, Albert Innaurato's Gemini, Jules Feiffer's Hold Me and the Steppenwolf Theatre Company productions of Sam Shepard's True West and Lanford Wilson's Balm In Gilead. Relocating to Los Angeles in 1985, Mr. Oken entered the film business and produced 4 full-length feature films: About Last Night (stars: Rob Lowe, Demi Moore, Jim Belushi, Elizabeth Perkins; director: Edward Zwick, Tri-Star), Impromptu (stars: Judy Davis, Hugh Grant, Emma Thompson, Bernadette Peters; director: James Lapine, Hemdale), Queens Logic (stars: John Malkovich, Kevin Bacon, Jamie Lee Curtis; director: Steve Rash, New Line) and Freejack (stars: Emilio Estevez, Anthony Hopkins, Mick Jagger; director Geoff Murphy, Warners.) From 1992-1995 he served as President of Witt-Thomas Films at Warner Brothers. Mr. Oken spent the 9 years at Disney Theatrical Productions where he served as Executive Vice-President and co-head of the company. At Disney, his role focused on developing and producing the company's new theatrical projects including the U.S. and International rollout of Beauty And The Beast, the creative development, production and rollout of The Lion King (6 Tony Awards, 1998), Der Glockner Von Notre Dame (a German language world premiere of The Hunchback Of Notre Dame in Berlin, 1999) and Elton John and Tim Rice's AIDA (4 Tony Awards, 2000.) Stuart Oken serves as Artistic Director of American Music Theatre Project at Northwestern University's School of Communication.
Bio as of November, 2007.
Working in the Theatre (video)
Production: Aida - April, 2000
Internet Broadway Database Listing (IBDB.com)
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