The Outsiders Director Danya Taymor Remembers What It Was Like as a Teenager

Before 2 PM on a Wednesday outside the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre, the anticipation is high and the energy is electric. “It’s like 800 high school students,” said The Outsiders' Tony-nominated director Danya Taymor as the show’s matinee audience eagerly filed past.

Lately, Taymor has been very much in touch with her adolescent self. “Once I got the script and the score and read Susie Hinton's novel, it unlocked to me what it felt like to be 14 years old,” Taymor told Charlie Cooper on The Broadway Show. “What I tried to do when working on the show was bring myself back into that headspace and direct it through the eyes of my 14-year-old self—try to be honest, try to not hold back.”

With The Outsiders, Taymor found herself directing a lot of young performers making their Broadway debuts. It was a privilege, she said. “I love creating ensembles. I love creating trust in the space and the opportunity to earn one another's trust.” It was especially important to create a space where the performers could bring their full selves—something that even applies to the understudies. “We have an understudy going on today for the first time in the role of Ponyboy, and his Ponyboy will be different from Brody Grant’s,” said Taymor. “We just try to create a space where people can bring what makes them unique to the table.”

Taymor directed for the first time in high school. She credits the influence of an “amazing” theater teacher. “She really encouraged us all to do everything: act, write, direct, build a set stage, manage, produce. She really imparted to us that every single job is as important as the other. There's no one thing that's more important. And that's the first time that I directed and I loved it. And I think that's when I first started to have the sense like, oh, I feel more comfortable here than on stage. I feel more myself.”

Directing The Outsiders, Taymor also drew on a more traumatic experience from her youth: When she was 13, one of her friends committed suicide. The event has a parallel in the story on stage. “Something that Susie Hinton did was she was unstinting and the effects of violence on the lives of young people … [The suicide] is something I've obviously thought about a lot through the making of this—how to offer that truth to people who may have experienced that and offer a way to heal and move through it.” Taymor added, “I think that if I had had The Outsiders in my life in this form, it would have been healing and helped me through that period of time.”

This year, Taymor is one of four women nominated in the Tony Awards’ Best Director of a Musical category. (Three women are nominated for Best Director of a Play.) Taymor is overjoyed to be in that company—“It feels so good!” she said—and excited about the message it sends to producers: “You can take it to the bank. We got this. We can lead things. They can be commercially successful. You can trust us.”

If you are having thoughts of suicide, call or text 988 to reach the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline or go to SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources for a list of additional resources. Go here for resources outside the United States.