'Poor Things' actor Willem Dafoe named Venice Biennale's theater director

ROME, Italy — American actor Willem Dafoe has been appointed artistic director of Venice Biennale's theater department, organizers said in a statement Monday.

"I realize that I am known as a film actor, but I was born in the theater, the theater trained me and galvanized me," Dafoe was quoted as saying in the statement.

"I am a stage animal. I am an actor. Theater taught me about art and life," said the 68-year-old, who was one of the founders of the Wooster Group, a New-York based experimental theater outfit.

Dafoe, who earned his first Oscar nomination for the 1986 war film "Platoon," will direct the department for the two-year 2025-2026 period.

The head of the Biennale's board of directors, Pietrangelo Buttafuoco, said Dafoe's "perfect control of his body on stage has always stemmed from discipline, knowledge, passion and a profound awareness of theater."

Dafoe joined an experimental theater group in Milwaukee aged 19 before training in New York and spending over 20 years performing on stage with the Wooster Group.

He made his name with films, including "Mississippi Burning," with Oscar nominations following for his performances in "Shadow of the Vampire" and Vincent van Gogh biopic "At Eternity's Gate."

Dafoe has been nominated for a total of four Oscars and four Golden Globes — the last in 2024 for "Poor Things" — and is in the cast of the opening film at Venice this year, Tim Burton's "Beetlejuice Beetlejuice."

The so-called "Biennale Teatro" was founded in 1934, the fourth category added to the festival after Art, Music and Cinema.

Its yearly festival features daily events highlighting works from the contemporary theater scene.

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