Diane Paulus

Diane Paulus is a Tony Award–winning director and the current artistic director of the American Repertory Theater (A.R.T.) at Harvard University. Paulus directed Masquerade, an immersive and interactive reimagining of The Phantom of the Opera where guests move through a multi-level space.

“This was no question the hardest thing I’ve ever done,” Paulus told Broadway.com. “But it was also the most thrilling. You are decorating every hallway, every place the audience walks from scene to scene, because that’s part of the show. You are seeing action in a staircase. There's no such thing as, ‘Okay, now you're offstage, that's the wing.’ It's an invisible network; an extremely complex, precise Swiss watch.”

One person who nominated Paulus said: “Transforming this iconic 40-year-old musical into an immersive experience fundamentally reimagines how audiences engage with the production. Rather than remaining seated observers, guests move through the environment, encounter performers at close range and experience the story through environmental storytelling, creating a much more personal and participatory relationship with the narrative.

“The production demonstrates how a classic theatrical work can be thoughtfully adapted for immersive audiences, successfully balancing creative ambition with the practical challenges of delivering a complex, interactive live experience.”