Willem Dafoe on Heading the Venice Biennale Theatre Department and His Mission to ‘Concentrate on the Body and the Poetry That It Can Express’
variety.comNick Vivarelli International Correspondent Willem Dafoe is at the Venice Film Festival with two hats: he’s among the stars playing in the fest’s opener, Tim Burton’s “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.” But he’s also busy at work as recently appointed artistic director of the theatre department at the Venice Biennale, the fest’s multidisciplinary parent organization.
Dafoe spoke to Variety about how he’s tackling that challenge. How did your appointment as artistic director of the Biennale theatre department come about?
As I understand it, you got a call from Biennale president Pietrangelo Buttafuoco. Yes. He asked me if I’d be interested.
And then I basically asked what it entailed, and he told me, and I said: “Yes, this would be interesting. It would be a challenge.
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