"Throughout high school, I would travel to Paris from Antwerp. A mandatory stop, every time, was a night at the Comédie-Française. Nestled in the heart of Paris, this playhouse stands as a beacon of theatrical eminence. Created under Louis XIV in the 17th century to host Molière and his actors, the Comédie-Française is celebrated worldwide for a long tradition of exceptional work by outstanding French actors and playwrights from all over the globe."

"In the ’70s, I participated in 350-person workshops here led by one of my mentors, Augusto Boal, founder of the Theater of the Oppressed. Originally built in the 19th century, it reopened in 1974 under the direction of Peter Brook and Micheline Rozan. The faded red patina on the walls is witness to all the life and art that has happened inside. Bouffes du Nord is a sought-after location for avant-garde productions and served as a model for the Harvey Theater at BAM (another favorite of mine)."

"When I was a child making up my own plays, I envisioned being on stage at the most perfect classic theater. I could see before me the plush red velvet seats and above me a gold-flecked ceiling. When we were looking for a theater to host night one of my first-ever U.S. multi-city tour, the Met evoked a certain excitement in me, like a memory of an imaginative moment gone by—and made real decades later. For someone who has grown up in the theater, this one feels a bit like coming home."

"I lived within walking distance of the BAM Harvey Theater building throughout the ’80s, so I got to witness its epic transformation from abandoned venue to what it is today. The renovation preserved its ambiance: part performance space, part ancient ruin. I was lucky to attend the opening of The Mahabharata, in 1987, and I am a devotee of the Next Wave Festival. I love how many lives one artistic space can have, how it can lay in disrepair and then somebody resuscitates it, giving it new life."

"My arrival to New York in the ’80s was steeped in the experimental theater scene. I got to see Larry Kramer’s The Normal Heart when it opened off-Broadway at The Public Theater. Kramer’s play, one of the first about the AIDS epidemic, left an indelible mark on me, in part because of the dynamic relationship between the set and the venue. The walls were covered in headlines, statistics, and names, which were updated between performances, increasing the death toll statistics in nearly real time."

"This UNESCO World Heritage Site was once a fortress and palace. Now, every summer, this breathtaking open-air monument is home to the Festival d’Avignon, one of the greatest theater festivals in the world. It is here where I first experienced Ariane Mnouchkine’s avant-garde stage ensemble Théâtre du Soleil. I will never forget gathering with 2,000 people in the night, all of us held within the Palais’ medieval Gothic architecture."

"The Perelman Performing Arts Center is not only a theater; it is a beacon of innovation. Perhaps the marble exterior—how it seems to glow from within—is a clue. Inside, the building is alive. Through mechanization, automation, and stagehands, the interior is capable of more than 60 stage and seating configurations. I’m told artists are finding new configurations all the time. To enter the Perelman Performing Arts Center is to immerse oneself in a whole universe of possibility."

"Built in the late 4th century BC, this is one of the most well-preserved ancient theaters in the world. This UNESCO World Heritage Site connects me to performance art in a way that transcends time and space. Designed by Polykleitos the Younger 2,500 years ago, it is an architectural masterpiece of ancient Greece, with astounding acoustics that effortlessly carry even the faintest whispers of actors to every corner of its grand expanse, defying the vastness of its 13,000-seat audience."

"I can’t help but feel sentimental about London’s Eventim Apollo theater. This is the theater I chose for my one-night-only immersive event in the fall of 2023. (Someone told me that one of Madonna’s formative early performances was here, and I welcome following in her steps.) The stage has been traversed many times over by some of the biggest rock stars of my lifetime. David Bowie, Queen, Kate Bush, Black Sabbath—they all chose the Apollo to record live albums and films of their concerts."

"It’s a dream of mine to one day lecture at Teatro Colón in Argentina, considered one of the best opera houses in the world. All of the building materials were brought from Europe: mosaics and marble from Italy, stained glass from France. In his book, acoustics expert Leo Beranek wrote that Teatro Colón has the best acoustics for opera and the second best for concerts in the whole world. That would explain why so many of the greats have performed there: Maria Callas, Plácido Domingo, and more."