Stephen Earnhart

Throughout his professional experience, Stephen has traversed both the film and theatre worlds. A graduate of New York University’s film school, Stephen worked several seasons on Saturday Night Live before becoming Director of Production for Miramax Films. Stephen was an internal Miramax producer internationally and in the US for such films as Madonna: Truth or Dare, Neil Jordan’s The Miracle, A Rage in Harlem and Hardware. He produced music videos for David Byrne and internet programs for IBM, American Express and Kenneth Cole as well as musical artists Santana, KD Lang, The Who, Seal, Sammy Hagar, Bare Naked Ladies, Sheryl Crowe, Limp Bizkit, and The Wallflowers.

As a film director, his critically acclaimed documentary, Mule Skinner Blues, was distributed nationally by Sundance Channel in theatres, on cable television and home video. In addition to developing The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, he is currently in post-production for his documentary Source of Pride, which chronicles the journey of actors Ed Norton, Colin Farrell, and Jon Voight through the making the feature film Pride & Glory.

As an actor, Earnhart was trained at Shakespeare & Company in Lennox, Massachusetts and performed at the Folger Shakespeare Theatre in Washington, D.C. He was cast in several films, including Clive Barker’s Lord of Illusions, after which he adapted Barker’s play, Colossus, for the screen. As a director, Stephen has directed several plays including Pinter’s The Lover, Pirandello’s I’m Dreaming, but am I? and an original play entitled A Nest of Saws, all in New York City. He created and performed in several multimedia shows, including Behind the Door at the IN TONE jazz festival in upper Austria, Bone to be Wild at Mannes College, New York and Trialog at Hangar 7, commissioned by Dietrich Mateschitz, president of Red Bull, performed in Red Bull’s airplane museum in Salzberg, Austria.

After traveling to Japan to meet Murakami-san and secure the rights to his novel in spring of 2004, Earnhart lived in Kamakura, Japan for eleven months writing and shooting materials for the play and fostering relationships with producers, actors and artists in the Tokyo theatre world. He was accepted into the Edward Albee playwright fellowship in August where he performed a 40-minute performance attended by Mr. Albee and members of the community. He has worked for more than three years developing The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle and will perform the show in New York in the winter of 2010.