Annette Jolles

Sunday, April 2, 11AM-12PM

Producer and director Annette Jolles will teach a master class on TV/media production in conjunction with Verso Studios crew call members.

Annette Jolles has created a diverse body of work as a director and producer for stage and television, receiving seventeen Emmy Awards for shows including the 9/11 Memorial from Ground Zero, the 2015 NY Papal Visit, and Mitzi Gaynor: Razzle Dazzle for PBS. As the first female director for Live from Lincoln Center, broadcasts include the NY Philharmonic’s New Year’s Eve: La Vie Parisienne; Stars in Concert programs headlined by Sutton Foster, Leslie Odom, Jr., Cynthia Erivo, Norm Lewis and Patina Miller; 50 Years of Mostly Mozart; and threeRichard Tucker Galas: From Bocelli to Barton, A New Century, and Richard Tucker at 100. Additional directing for PBS includes two Michael Feinstein specials from the Rainbow Room, and numerous segments and episodes of Metrofocus, Amanpour, Firing Line, and NYC-Arts. She also directed 119 episodes of The Dr. Joy Browne Show for Discovery Health. Television producing includes NYC’s Veterans Day Parade, Celebrate Israel Parade, Greek Independence Day Parade, and National Puerto Rican Day Parade, and ticker-tape parades for the NY Giants, NY Yankees, and US Women’s Soccer Team, Broadway Under the Stars for CBS2, Egypt Week Live for Discovery, and multiple years of New Year’s Eve from Times Square. In 2021, she had the pleasure of producing and directing PBS’ Stars on Stage from the Westport Country Playhouse in partnership with longtime Westport resident, Andrew Wilk.

Ms. Jolles has also served as Associate Director for a wide range of broadcasts and live cinecasts including Present Laughter starring Kevin Kline, She Loves Me starring Zachary Levi and Laura Benanti, Indecent starring Katrina Lenk, Holiday Inn starring Bryce Pinkham, Lora Lee Gayner and Corbin Bleu, Gypsy starring Imelda Staunton, Company starring Neil Patrick Harris, The Importance of Being Earnest starring Brian Bedford, Sweeney Todd starring Emma Thompson and Bryn Terfel, Audra McDonald: Go Back Home, Lang Lang’s New York Rhapsody, Joshua Bell’s Seasons of Cuba,and the Public Theatre’s Shakespeare in the Park productions of Much Ado About Nothing, Richard III, and Merry Wives for Great Performances.

For Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival, she directed Mozart’s opera Così fan tutte at Alice Tully Hall, the 2017 opening gala The Singing Heart at David Geffen Hall, and the world premiere of John Luther Adams’ In the Name of the Earth at The Cathedral of St. John the Divine. Most recently, she has been developing and directing a new play, Madeleines by Bess Welden, which was honored to win the 2022 National Jewish Plays Contest. She has staged events and galas for clients ranging from the Dramatists Guild Fund, AMIT, and The Little Orchestra Society, to Mercedes Benz and Jenny Craig. She produced the 2019 Disney Networks Upfront, directed the simulcasts of the Discovery Networks Upfront for five years, and served on the directing teams for the ESPN and Martha Stewart Upfronts. As producer/director of “Lone Survivor” Marcus Luttrell’s Patriot Tour, she traveled nationwide to dozens of venues, staging shows featuring Luttrell and Taya Kyle, widow of American Sniper Chris Kyle.

Theatrical concerts include co-producing the annual Project Broadway series at Symphony Space, where she also produced and directed ten seasons of New Voices Concerts, later premiering the series at London’s Southbank Centre. Also for Symphony Space, she curated and directed numerous marathon events featuring Broadway’s biggest stars: Wall to Wall Bernstein, Wall to Wall Sondheim, Wall to Wall Schwartz, Wall to Wall Cabaret, and Frank Sinatra at 100. Broadway producing includes Peter Pan Goes Wrong, Jagged Little Pill, Mrs. Doubtfire, The Play That Goes Wrong, Fiddler on the Roof, China Doll, and The Scottsboro Boys (also, London). She is a summa cum laude graduate of Yale University, where she has taught musical theater performance and directing for the past 16 years.