“Usually in theater, the visual repeats the verbal. The visual dwindles into decoration. But I think with my eyes. For me, the visual is not an afterthought, not an illustration of the text. If it says the same thing as the words, why look? The visual must be so compelling that a deaf man would sit though the performance fascinated.”

American experimental theater director and playwright

Robert Wilson was an American experimental theater director and playwright. He worked across several disciplines, including choreography, performance, painting, sculpture, video art, and sound and lighting design. He is best known for Einstein on the Beach, created with Philip Glass and Lucinda Childs, and for his frequent collaborations with Tom Waits. In 1991, he founded The Watermill Center on Long Island, New York, as a place for performance work, and he continued to work with opera and theater companies and with cultural festivals.