Lear deBessonet

LEAR DEBESSONET is a Tony-nominated director and current Artistic Director of Encores! at New York City Center. Notable productions during her tenure at Encores include her direction of Once Upon a Mattress (currently on Broadway), Into the Woods (Broadway, National Tour), and Oliver! along with last season’s Jelly’s Last Jam and Titanic. She directed and executive produced “Annie Live!” for NBC, and is the Founder of Public Works at the Public Theater where she served as Resident Director from 2012-2020. At the Public, she directed 200-person pageant productions of Hercules, The Odyssey, The Winter’s Tale, and The Tempest along with A Midsummer Night’s Dream for Shakespeare in the Park, Good Person of Szechuan (with the Foundry), Miss You Like Hell, and Romeo and Juliet. She is a passionate advocate for the power of arts in communities, and her TED Talk “What’s possible when the arts belong to everybody” has been viewed around the world. She served as Founder and Co-Artistic Director of Arts for EveryBody: an ambitious national arts and health project bringing together mayors, community health centers, and local artists in 18 cities and towns across America. She received the Drama League Founders Award and Best Director of a Musical Award, an Obie Award for Direction, the Ammerman Award, Lilly Award, and multiple Drama Desk, Lortel, and Outer Critics Circle nominations. 

Photo by Matthew Murphy.