I’m a director with a long history of creating text-driven, actor-focused, audience-connected productions.
My work is deeply collaborative. I see my work as shaping what the actors bring, rather than imposing my own Big Concept on them. We pick the lock of the play together.
My work is heavily influenced by my training in Elizabethan theater, but I’m more interested in using what I have learned from theater history to provide inspiration for my work than in recreating the theater of the past.
Although my primary training is an MFA from the American Shakespeare Center, I’ve directed a wide range of plays, from early modern comedies to dramas hot off the playwright’s presses. My plays have toured in Michigan, Ohio, and New York City. I have a particular passion for verse dramas, but I enjoy all sorts of directing. I excel at creating ensemble pieces and empowering actors to work alongside me as artists, rather than, as E. Gordon Craig demanded, “ubermarionettes.”
I’ve been lucky enough to work with many fantastic companies, including Pigeon Creek Shakespeare, The American Shakespeare Company’s Education Division, Eastern Mennonite University Theater, and The Great American Theater Company. I am grateful to have had wonderful collaborations with both educational and professional theaters. I am also the founder of Silk Moth Stage, where we produce “new classics” in a place-based, audience-connected, imagination-driven style.
I’ve written a few blog things over the years that give a pretty good idea of what I’m like in rehearsal. Here are some of my favorites:
- What (This) Director Does
- Guiding Principles
- Magical Realism Shakespeare
- Juliet in a Box
- Why “Thank You for Your Work”
- When I Muse Thus
Directing Credits:
Check out each theater to see images and video!
2023:
Bridgewater College Theatre
A Bold Stroke for a Wife
Pigeon Creek Shakespeare Company
Richard III (remount)
Measure for Measure
Silk Moth Stage
Wonder of Our Stage
2022:
Quill Theatre
Merry Wives of Windsor
2021:
The Tragedy of Queen Katherine (virtual reading, independent production)
2020:
Harrisonburg High School
As You Like It (cancelled mid-process due to corona virus)
Slow Your Role Theater Co.
Sperm Donor Wanted (virtual production)
Pigeon Creek Shakespeare
Measure for Measure (virtual reading)
2019:
Pigeon Creek Shakespeare
Richard III
Antony and Cleopatra (remount)
York College Theater
On the Verge
2018:
Pigeon Creek Shakespeare
Antony and Cleopatra
Much Ado About Nothing (remount)
2017:
Pigeon Creek Shakespeare
Much Ado About Nothing
Community Mennonite Church
Abundant Joy: A Sermon with Shakespeare Scenes
Singers Glen Community
Singers Glen
2016
Pigeon Creek Shakespeare
The Duchess of Malfi
American Shakespeare Center Theater Camp
Much Ado About Nothing
Eastern Mennonite University Theater
The Brothers Grimm Spectaculathon
2015
CrossRoads Heritage Center
Jordan’s Stormy Banks
Eastern Mennonite High School Theater
Harvey
2014
John Kline Homestead Foundation
Under the Shadow of the Almighty
Pigeon Creek Shakespeare
Romeo and Juliet (remount)
Eastern Mennonite High School Theater
Cinderella
Noye’s Fludde
All In The Timing
2013
Bridgewater College Theater
Winter’s Tale
2012
Pigeon Creek Shakespeare
Romeo and Juliet
The Great American Theater Company
Give Us Good
2011
The Great American Theater Company
Washed (touring to the Capital Fringe Festival, in Washington, DC)
Eastern Mennonite University Theater
JB
American Shakespeare Center
A Game at Chess (assistant director, staged reading)
2010
The Great American Theater Company
Washed (staged reading)
Eastern Mennonite University Theater
Love’s Labor’s Lost
2009
Pigeon Creek Shakespeare
Julius Caesar (toured in Michigan and New York City)
Mary Baldwin College/American Shakespeare Center
Ben Jonson: His Masque
2006
Mary Baldwin College/American Shakespeare Center
Toil And Trouble
Masters thesis presentation for M.Litt. candidate Anna Christiansen
2005
Mary Baldwin College/American Shakespeare Center
Shakespeare’s Mariners
Masters thesis presentation for M.Litt Candidate Jesse Manson
Sound, Trumpets!
My masters thesis presentation
2004
Hiram College Theater
A Play Of Poems
Copenhagen (concert reading)
W;T (concert reading)
Krapp’s Last Tape
2003
Hiram College Theater
Arabian Nights
Antony And Cleopatra
2002
Hiram College Theater
Degas, C’est Moi
Eleemosynary
2000
Robert C. Byrd High School Theater
Something Over the Rainbow
1999
Robert C. Byrd High School Theater
Words, Words, Words
The Universal Language
Athens Shakespeare Festival
As You Like It (assistant director)
1998
Robert C. Byrd High School Theater
Sorry, Wrong Number
What Button to Press?
1992
Harden Elementary School
Elf Hardware