Directing philosophy

Classic. Smart. Provocative. Truthful.

I have long experience facilitating radical acceptance; I have written and taught inclusive and anti-racist practices. I have held spaces that foster the feeling of being not merely accepted, but sought out, connected, useful, celebrated as one’s authentic self without fear of judgment. I look to leverage my strategic planning, curriculum design, research, analysis, writing, critical and collaborative skills to fight for justice, equity, and access. The ways that we have made theatre for generations have got to change to facilitate that equity and access; to that end, I have trained as an intimacy director and, in spring 2023, I was certified as an Artistic Mental Health Practitioner.

Also to that end, I went back for a second bite of the grad school apple in early 2020, just before the world skidded into the pandemic, to get an MFA in Directing with an emphasis on Social Justice. I have focused my research on trauma-informed and anti-racist directing practice, pedagogy, and also how the gears of systemic racism turn within both theatre and the criminal justice system. I am looking to be of service and trying to discern the path forward amidst all the dislocations — global, national, theatrical, and personal — during this time of endemic COVID and long overdue racial reckoning. I take the demands of the WeSeeYouWAT cohort seriously; I am committed to learning publicly, to holding myself accountable, and to working for an antiracist and antisexist American theatre.

I direct kick-ass Shakespeare. I make smart, thoughtful, entertaining, socially aware theatre. I love Shakespeare and Stoppard and Suzan-Lori Parks and really great words. In addition to my classical experience, I have regularly worked on contemporary plays that explore issues of social justice and politics. I am dramaturgically prepared; my tablework is thorough; my productions are powerful. I have directed plays from every century between the 16th and the 21st, both intense drama and raucous comedy; I like it best when they are combined in the same script.

I want to tell each story as clearly as possible, with clarity, wonder, humor and textual precision. I work to create a play-ful rehearsal environment, where the actors and I can explore the action of the play and the lives of the characters with safety but also with tenacity. I bring a trauma-informed and consent-based approach to a collaborative process where I perceive that I am the lead facilitator. Asking the question, encouraging the exploration of several possible choices, is at the epicenter of my directorial style. I seek out and value true collaboration, real exchange, with my actors.

I want every element of production to help tell the story; I want to exhaust the space. Does the set serve the story? What extra information does it give me about the universe of the play? What do the costumes tell me about who these people are and the world they inhabit?

I have worked at theatres off- and off-off-Broadway and throughout the American regional theatre circuit. I have directed a national tour for Britain’s Royal National Theatre (2003).

I am looking to build longitudinal relationships with theatres, with community, that focus on both classics and social justice.

To learn more about my work to date, go to my online résumé, or click here to download a PDF version.