Nicholas Martin seems to have inherited the New York title -- previously held, on occasion, by Michael Mayer and Mark Brokaw -- of Most Ubiquitous Director. After scoring two hits last season with Christopher Durang's Betty's Summer Vacation at Playwrights Horizons, and John Guare's Bosoms and Neglect at the Signature Theatre Company, Martin has been everywhere.
His latest engagement is with the Acting Company, for which he will direct Sheridan's classic comedy of manners, The Rivals.
Martin spent the summer directing Guare's new Chaucer in Rome and Tennessee Williams' Camino Real at the Williamstown Theatre Festival. This fall, Martin is scheduled to pilot, at the Vineyard Theatre, Fully Committed, a new play by Becky Mode about an out of work actor dealing with an avalanche of people all trying to secure a reservation for New York's hottest restaurant on a Saturday night.
Also on the Acting Company's 1999-2000 agenda is Shakespeare's Macbeth, directed by Anne Justine D'Zmura. The company will tour its productions in several major cities, beginning Nov. 13 at the College of Staten Island. The tour will continue through May 2000, concluding in New York.
-- By Robert Simonson