BEST DIRECTOR

A good director is a tasteful visual artist, a searching psychologist, a laser-sharp script analyst and a multi-handed organizer of actors, costumers, set designers and lighting specialists. And year after year, Stageworks’ Anna Brennen has shown herself to belong to the top rank of directors. Last season, she found all the terrible, heart-wrenching silences of Frozen, all the comedy and pathos of The Sisters Rosensweig, whatever clarity was available in the overcrowded Bapbomb and the humanity and cold simplicity of A Conversation With Georgia O’Keeffe. Best of all was her work on Frozen and Rosensweig — the terrible sadness and loss of the mother in the former; the camaraderie, not without dissension, of the sisters in the latter. A Brennen-directed play is a painting in three dimensions, shining with the humanity and truth of its characters. And we’re the fortunate witnesses.