Beautiful People 2007: Yehuda Duenyas

When theater director Yehuda Duenyas was a kid, he wanted to be Groucho Marx and design rides for Disneyland. Since then, the L.A. native has brought that same sense of fun to his work as a performer (with avant-garde luminaries such as Richard Foreman and Richard Maxwell), sound designer (for the likes of burlesque queen Julie Atlas Muz), director (at 33, he's already directed nine of his own works) and all-around theater whiz. Duenyas is known for being one of the founding members of the Obie Award–winning theater company the National Theater of the United States of America (NTUSA), which since its inception in 2001 has staged six ambitious, highly entertaining and much-beloved spectacles (fans have been known to come see NTUSA shows many times in a row just to get their fix). And that's not even the half of it. Among his relentless flurry of recent projects: He adapted George Saunders's short story "Pastoralia" for the stage and directed it at P.S. 122; directed the controversial and disturbing play Purity by playwright Thomas Bradshaw; and is embarking on a new work based on Malcolm Gladwell's best-selling book Blink. As he says, "I like to surprise and be surprised, to completely immerse the audience in an experience. I like making people forget where they are."
Tom Murrin

Yehuda wears a shirt by Gilded Age, jacket by Drengas.

BACK TO THE BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE 2007 LIST >