{{Short description|British artistic director and dramaturg (born 1972)}} {{refimprove blp|date=September 2025}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} {{Infobox person | name = Gideon Lester | birth_date = {{birth year and age|1972}} | birth_place = London, England | education = {{Plainlist|* University of Oxford * Harvard University }} | occupation = {{flatlist| * Artistic director * dramaturg * curator * creative producer }} | employer = Bard College | parents = Anthony Lester, Baron Lester of Herne Hill | relatives = Maya Lester (sister) }} '''Gideon Lester''' (born 1972) is a British artistic director, dramaturg, curator, and creative producer. He is currently{{when|date=September 2025}} artistic director of the Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts at Bard College, senior curator of the OSUN Center for Human Rights and the Arts, and a professor at Bard. He has collaborated with a broad range of American and international artists, including Romeo Castellucci, Justin Vivian Bond, Krystian Lupa, Peter Sellars, Tania El Khoury, Anna Deavere Smith, and Neil Gaiman.

==Early life and education== Gideon Lester was born in London in 1972 and studied English at Oxford University. In 1995, he was awarded a Fulbright grant and Frank Knox Memorial Fellowship to study dramaturgy at the A.R.T. Institute for Advanced Theatre Training at Harvard.<ref name=amrep>{{cite web|url=http://www.amrep.org/people/gideon.html|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20090730033953/http://www.amrep.org/people/gideon.html|archivedate=2009-07-30|title=Gideon Lester|date=September 9, 2008|website=American Repertory Theatre|accessdate=October 15, 2014}}</ref>

==Career== Lester co-curated the interdisciplinary arts festival "Crossing the Line" from 2013 to 2018. He was Acting Artistic Director of the American Repertory Theatre (A.R.T.) from 2007 to 2009<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.amrep.org/history.html|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20090226224301/http://www.amrep.org/history.html|archivedate=2009-02-26|title=Mission and History of the American Repertory Theatre|website=American Repertory Theatre|accessdate=October 15, 2014}}</ref> and taught at the Columbia University School of the Arts, where he created the Arts Collaboration Lab.<ref>[http://wwwapp.cc.columbia.edu/art/app/arts/theatre/faculty.jsp Columbia School of the Arts Theatre Faculty] {{webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20120805195559/http://wwwapp.cc.columbia.edu/art/app/arts/theatre/faculty.jsp |date=2012-08-05 }}</ref>

He taught dramaturgy at the American Repertory Theatre and playwriting at Harvard.{{when|date=September 2025}}<ref name=amrep/>

He was the A.R.T.'s associate artistic director<ref>{{cite news |title=New Director is to Lead American Repertory |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F03E0D6133DF937A15756C0A9679C8B63 |work=The New York Times |date=May 24, 2001 |accessdate=2008-09-29 | first=Jesse | last=McKinley}}</ref> from 2002 until 2006 and was resident dramaturg at the A.R.T. for five years prior.{{cn|date=September 2025}}

His stage translations include Marivaux's ''Island of Slaves'' (directed by Robert Woodruff at the A.R.T. in 2006)<ref>{{cite news |title=A spin on the classics – 1725 French play gets a modern update, in drag|first=Louise|last=Kennedy|url=http://archive.boston.com/ae/theater_arts/articles/2006/05/12/a_spin_on_the_classics/|work=The Boston Globe |date=May 12, 2006 |access-date=October 15, 2014 }}</ref> and ''La Dispute'', Brecht's ''Mother Courage,''<ref>{{cite news |title='Mother' Lode |url=http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=BG&p_theme=bg&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=0EADDEA114707A13&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120712204031/http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=BG&p_theme=bg&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=0EADDEA114707A13&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM |url-status=dead |archive-date=July 12, 2012 |work=The Boston Globe |date=February 16, 2001 |accessdate=2008-09-29 |format=fee required }}</ref> Büchner's ''Woyzeck,''<ref>{{cite news |title='Woyzeck' crosses the tabloid with the avant-garde |url=http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=BG&p_theme=bg&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=0EADDC8D226760CE&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120716225910/http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=BG&p_theme=bg&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=0EADDC8D226760CE&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM |url-status=dead |archive-date=July 16, 2012 |work=The Boston Globe |date=January 26, 1997 |accessdate=2008-09-29 |format=fee required|first=Ed|last=Siegel}}</ref> and two texts by the French playwright Michel Vinaver, ''King'' and ''Overboard.'' His play ''Amerika or the Disappearance,'' adapted from Franz Kafka's first novel, was staged at the American Repertory Theatre in 2005, directed by Dominique Serrand.<ref>{{cite news |title=Discovering 'Amerika' – In a new role as playwright, the ART's Gideon Lester finds himself in the shifting identities of a Kafka tale |first=Louise|last=Kennedy|url=http://www.boston.com/ae/theater_arts/articles/2005/06/17/discovering_amerika/?page=full|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141019121742/http://www.boston.com/ae/theater_arts/articles/2005/06/17/discovering_amerika/?page=full|url-status=dead|archive-date=19 October 2014|work=The Boston Globe |date=June 17, 2005 |accessdate=October 15, 2014 }}</ref> His other adaptations include ''The Master and Margarita'' after Bulgakov's novel, staged by Janos Szasz at Bard Fisher Center in 2013; ''Wings of Desire'' (A.R.T. and Toneelgroep Amsterdam, 2006),<ref>{{cite news |title=Foolishly, an Angel Falls in Love and Rushes In ... and Up |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/05/theater/reviews/05wing.html?pagewanted=print |work=The New York Times |date=December 5, 2006 |accessdate=2008-09-29 | first=Charles | last=Isherwood}}</ref> ''Anne Frank'' and ''Enter the Actress'', a one-woman show that he devised for Claire Bloom.{{cn|date=September 2025}}

In 2015, he produced Daniel Fish's production of ''Oklahoma!'' at the Fisher Center; it subsequently transferred to St. Ann's Warehouse in Brooklyn in 2018, and opened on Broadway at Circle in the Square in 2019, where it won a Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical. He frequently collaborates with the choreographer Pam Tanowitz, and commissioned her 2018 performance ''Four Quartets'', based on T. S. Eliot's poems of the same name, with music by Kaija Saariaho, design based on the paintings of Brice Marden, and narration by Kathleen Chalfant. ''Four Quartets'' subsequently performed at the Barbican in London.

==Personal life== Lester is the son of politician and human rights barrister, Anthony Lester, Baron Lester of Herne Hill QC, and is the brother of Maya Lester KC.<ref>{{cite journal|url=https://foreignpolicy.com/articles/2014/05/02/can_i_pay_you_in_rubles|title=Can I Pay You in Rubles?|last=Trindle|first=Jamila|journal=FP|date=2 May 2014}}</ref>

==References== {{reflist}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Lester, Gideon}} Category:1972 births Category:Living people Category:British Jews Category:Institute for Advanced Theater Training, Harvard University alumni Category:Theatre people from London Category:Alumni of the University of Oxford Category:Bard College faculty Category:Columbia University faculty Category:Sons of life peers Category:English expatriates in the United States