If there were a patient zero for the immersive movement . . . it would be Diane Paulus.

As you’ll hear in this podcast, this Tony Award-winning Director has been putting audiences in the heart of the action and putting actors in places they never thought they’d act, since she started in this business.

And it’s that fresh look at how stories are told that is the reason why the Broadway productions of her “revival trilogy” (Hair, Porgy and Bess, and Pippin) made those shows look like they were written last week.

Oh, and it’s also why the previously troubled ART tapped her to put that theater in turnaround (and so she has) and why she was brought on board to open Finding Neverland and this season’s Waitress.

Listen in to our chat to hear where her journey to “it” status as a Director began and . . .

• How her “there are no rules” attitude was the key to her early success . . . in a garden.
• How she maintains that attitude on Broadway, where there is nothing BUT rules.
• Where she learned what the “people” thought mattered more than what the critics thought.
• The most challenging part of being the Artistic Director of a regional theater like ART.
• How growing up in NYC shaped her style.

But apart from all that, there’s something else you’ll hear in this podcast that all of us can learn from, no matter if you’re a Producer or a Director or the Head Usher at your local community theater.  Diane has a way of getting people to do things for her, sometimes in extreme situations . . . whether that’s actors in the early days of The Donkey Show or whether that’s the board members at ART (her husband once told me he gave up a successful Hollywood career to go wherever she was and do whatever she wanted to do).

Since the beginning of her career, people have wanted to join her team.  They want to “immerse” themselves in the Paulus world.

Listen in to hear why . . . and then figure out how you can get people to join your team.

(Got a comment? I love ‘em, so comment below! Email Subscribers, click here then scroll down to say what’s on your mind!)

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FUN STUFF:

– Listen to Podcast Episode #53 with Tony Award-winning Director Des McAnuff!  Click here.

– Win two tickets to Tappin’ Thru Life Off Broadway!  Click here.

– Only 16 performances left of Spring Awakening.  Get your tickets today!  Click here.