Gerald Gutierrez

Gerald Gutierrez (February 3, 1950 – December 29, 2003) was an American Tony Award-winning stage director. He was born and died in Brooklyn, New York.

Gutierrez was a graduate of Midwood High School in Brooklyn, New York,^[1] and then the Juilliard School and initially worked as a performer. He then started directing Off-Broadway, often at Playwrights Horizons. He directed, among others, the following plays at Lincoln Center: The Most Happy Fella (1992), The Heiress (1995), A Delicate Balance (1996), and Dinner at Eight (2002). His work with The Heiress and A Delicate Balance was said to be (by Playbill) as "near perfect representations of those plays".^[2][3][4]

Of The Heiress, the Variety reviewer wrote: "Although Gerald Gutierrez’s direction can’t be undervalued, The Heiress is not by any stretch “director’s theater.”... Under Gutierrez's sure hand, the exceptional cast never falters."^[5] He directed the Wendy Wasserstein play Isn't It Romantic in 1983. Gutierrez and Wasserstein were good friends.^[4]

He was said (by The New York Times) to have "an obsession with detail that made each production tick like a perfectly calibrated clock", and to do "ferocious" research.^[6] André Bishop, a close friend of Gutierrez, said: "Of all the directors I know, he was one who combined a scrupulous sense of reality with enormous flair and style."^[1]

Gutierrez died in his sleep of respiratory failure, on December 29, 2003, aged 53.^[3]

Gutierrez was nominated for the 1994 Tony Award, Director of a Play for Abe Lincoln in Illinois.^[7] He won the 1995 Tony Award, Director of a Play for The Heiress and the 1996 Tony Award, Director of a Play for A Delicate Balance.^[8]

• Gerald Gutierrez at the Internet Broadway Database
• Gerald Gutierrez at IMDb