He directs in New York every few years, but if Ivo van Hove would like to permanently abandon old Amsterdam for the new one, we'd happily dig a few canals to help him feel at home. Head of the Netherlands' Toneelgroep Amsterdam, the avant-gardist has been a regular guest director at New York Theatre Workshop over the past 10 years. Some of his productions have worked brilliantly (Hedda Gabler), some less so (Alice in Bed), but he's great at creating a conceptually engaging director's theater that still serves both the text and the actors (just ask Elizabeth Marvel, so brilliant in van Hove's Hedda and A Streetcar Named Desire). Absence of "Dutch treat" joke here intentional—van Hove is originally from Belgium.