Julie Taymor was doing “backyard theatre” at the age of 7, was a member of the Boston Children’s Theatre Company by the age of 11, 해적게임 and traveled in Sri Lanka as a teenager. She says her parents gave her the freedom to be herself, and to follow her interests no matter how far away those interests took her. Taymor also told Moriarty that she was so emotionally close to her parents that she never really felt far from home.

From her travels — especially the four years she spent as a young woman in Indonesia — Taymor got insights and skills that informed all of her later work, including “The Lion King.” This show has been widely praised as an innovative stage work unlike anything that came before.

What she proposed to Disney as her best idea, while admitting others would also work, was the most original and therefore the riskiest. Taymor created what she calls “the double event” which enables the audience to see the characters as animal and human at the same time. Taymor believed in this concept and Disney believed in her. So Taymor’s best artistic vision is what “Lion King” audiences see.

This past spring “The Lion King” opened in Johannesburg. Taymor says for her and those she worked with to create the show, that was “the most thrilling, moving experience of our lives — to bring it back to where the inspiration comes from … South Africa.” Taymor said that subsidies have been created enabling some 30,000 school children in and around Johannesburg to see the show so far.

Taymor is also looking forward to this Sunday’s gala Broadway performance of “The Lion King” and a reunion with former cast and crew members at a celebratory party afterwards. And she’s got several projects in the works, including a Broadway version of “Spiderman” in collaboration with Bono.

For now, besides “The Lion King,” Taymor fans can see her film, “Across the Universe.” It’s a love story rooted in the turbulent ’60s with the main characters singing the music of the Beatles. And this month the Metropolitan Opera is presenting Taymor’s staging of “The Magic Flute.”By Erin Moriarty