Aili sitting, in a purple dress, on a stone bench in a garden.
Tech week for Merry Wives of Windsor at Agecroft Hall

I have been directing for over 25 years, and still have a lot to learn. I hold an MFA from Mary Baldwin College/American Shakespeare Center, so my work is heavily influenced by their focus on audience connection. I’m the co-author, with Toby Malone, of Cutting Plays for Performancefrom Routledge Press. I created Take5, a framework for developing spaces of radical welcome in theater workplaces.

My favorite directing credits include Sperm Donor Wanted (2020) with Slow Your Role Theater Co., Romeo and Juliet (2012), The Duchess of Malfi (2016), Antony and Cleopatra (2018), and Richard III (2019) with Pigeon Creek Shakespeare, A Bold Stroke for a Wife (2023) at Bridgewater College, Merry Wives of Windsor (2022) at Richmond Shakespeare Festival, and Give Us Good (2022) and Wonder of Our Stage (2023) at Silk Moth Stage. About three-quarters of my shows have toured, and I love the challenge of creating an adaptable piece that can go anywhere.

I’m the founder and artistic director of Silk Moth Stage, where we produce “new classics” in an outdoor setting, on the back corner of a dairy farm in Rockingham County, Virginia, including two world premieres and one regional premiere in our first two seasons.

I’m an associate member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society and the Shakespeare Theater Association, and a member of Directors Gathering. I’m certified in Mental Health First Aid.