Joseph Uchitel is the Founder and the Artistic Director of East Coast Theatre Company (ECTC). He was educated in the former Soviet Union and spent 10 years in New York before moving to Australia. In New York he was associated with the Circle Rep Directors’ Lab where he directed At the Gate by Peter Maeck and Recess by Harry Miller. His other New York credits include Autumn Afternoon in a Suburban Backyard by Richard Taylor (Bruno Walter Auditorium at Lincoln Center) and Suburban Block by Richard Taylor (Cubicolo Theater), Barge Cabaret with Lara Crete (The Music Barge), Journey of Players by Lara Crete (Symphony Space), The Island by A. Fugard, Krapp’s Last Tape by S. Beckett and A Doll’s House by H. Ibsen (New Day Rep, Poughkeepsie).
His credits in the USSR include Shadow Game by Y. Edlis, Medea by Euripides, Cinderella by T. Gabbe, Doctor in Spite of Himself by Moliere, Zakharov’s Death by A. Neverov, The Poem of the Mountain and The Poem of the End by Marina Tsvetaeva, Ole Lukøje’s Fairy Tales by M. Latishev based on H. C. Andersen and The Boors by C. Goldoni (all in the Tiraspol Drama Theatre).
Joseph has directed for and at many of Sydney's theatre venues. His Australian credits include: The Deal (Ensemble Theatre), The Promise (Marian Street Theatre), Provincial Anecdotes (Look Out Theatre), Chance Visitor (The Rep), Persephone (Stables Theatre). He worked as a director for the Australian National Playwrights' Conference in 1993 and 2002.
He taught and directed at NIDA, WAAPA, AADA, ACTT, Ensemble Studios, Dramatic Arts at Australian Institute of Music, International Screen Academy and Actors Centre Australia. His directing credits at acting schools include Louis Nowra’s Capricornia (NIDA), No Names… No Pack Drill by Bob Herbert (WAAPA), Golden Girls by Dymphna Cusack (ACTT), Blood Wedding (Ensemble Studios), Philistines and Vassa Zheleznova by Maxim Gorky, Variations, Scenes from Chekhov Plays, N. Gogol’s Marriage, The Tragedy of Macbeth by W. Shakespeare and Ivanov by A. Chekhov (ACA), A Month in the Country by Ivan Turgenev (ACA and AIM Dramatic Arts) and most recently directing and filming scenes from The Boys, screenplay by Stephen Sewell, with the graduating students at ISA.
Joseph was nominated for the Sydney Theatre Critic's Award for the production of The Deal at the Ensemble Theatre. His television version of the play Persephone won the first prize, the Gold Award for the Best Independent Video Production at the 4th Annual WorldFest - Charleston International Film Festival in the United States. The stage version of Persephone, also directed by Joseph, was first produced at the Stables Theatre.
For ECTC he directed a one person show of Euripides' Medea, Miranda by Stephen Sewell, Love Fix, an evening of two one act plays: the Australian Premiere of Prelude and Liebestod by an acclaimed American playwright Terrence McNally and the World Premiere of Aria di Mezzo Carattere by Tim Benzie, the Australian Premiere of Mother and Child by Jon Fosse, the Australian Premiere of Empress of China by Ruth Wolff, Terminus by Daniel Keene, the Australian Premiere of Death Variations by Jon Fosse and most recently An Italian Straw Hat by Eugene Labiche.
In June, 2006 Joseph went to Moscow to workshop his translation of Daniel Keene’s Terminus with a Russian Theatre Company Strela.
