Rosemary Newcott, Director of Go, Dog. Go!

Rosemary Newcott spent 20 years as the Sally G. Tomlinson Artistic Director of Theatre for Youth and Families at Atlanta’s Alliance Theatre. In addition to directing, and sometimes devising two TYA productions a season, Rosemary also mounted David Bell’s lavish production of A Christmas Carol, featuring an all-Atlanta multi-cultural cast. Rosemary developed the Alliance’s Palefsky HS Collision Project and created the thriving Kathy and Ken Bernhardt Theatre for the Very Young program.

On the national level, Rosemary has developed and directed two plays at New Visions New Voices: Einstein is a Dummy with Karen Zacarias and Deborah Wicks La Puma and Pearl Cleage’s Tell Me My Dream. She also directed the premieres of Mo Willem’s Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Musical and Laurie Brooks’ Jason Invisible — both at The Kennedy Center — and Zacarias’ and La Puma’s Frida Libre at La Jolla Playhouse. Post retirement, Rosemary devised and directed a new musical version of Thumbelina with Amanda Morgan and students at Kennesaw State University and directed the premiere of Hans Christian Anderson by Tim McDonald at Nashville Children’s Theatre. Last season marked the debut of Pearl Cleage’s In My Granny’s Garden at the Alliance and here at Metro Theater Company. She is also consulting director for Funikijam World Music and Theatricals. Earlier in her career, Rosemary acted and directed in nearly every Atlanta theater company, starting her path at the Academy Theatre.

Rosemary is a recipient of a Princess Grace Foundation Fellowship and also a Princess Grace Special Project Award for her adaptation and direction of André Benjamin’s Class of 3,000 LIVE! at the Alliance. She has received several Atlanta Suzi Awards for direction and the 2010 Spirit of Suzi Award. In 2018, she received the Suzi Lifetime Achievement Award and in 2019, the Harold Oaks Excellence in TYA Award and the AATE Compton Bell Lifetime Achievement Award. She is a member of the adjudicator/ workshop leader team at Atlanta’s Junior Theatre Festival. Throughout her career, she has served as guest artist at Augusta College, Emory University, Georgia State University, Hartwick College, Oglethorpe University, University of West Georgia, and Kennesaw State University, as well as numerous high school programs, most notably as a 10-year theater director at the Georgia Governor’s Honors Program. Rosemary has proudly served on the board of TYA/USA and is a member of AEA and SDC.

Rosemary is thrilled to be directing Metro Theater Company’s production of Go, Dog. Go! for its 50th season. She is especially excited because this production is performed at The Big Top. Rosemary explains it “is so perfect for this show because the movement is inspired by European clowning technique.” She says that in this show, “we learn a lot about community and friendship and compassion, and in addition to that – it’s about dogs!” Rosemary promises that “if you love dogs, you will love this play even more!”