About

I run the Shakespeare Theatre Company Academy in Washington, D.C., which is an intensive twelve-month MFA acting program focused on work of a mythical scale. I sometimes liken it to going to a mountain monastery for a year to study one thing, very deeply. We focus almost entirely on Shakespeare (although we tackle other kinds of work too), and I think it's one of the most exciting places to study in the country. The students, staff, and world-class faculty make it that way. I'm proud to be a part of it.

I teach acting, text analysis, and laboratory classes, produce a five-play season for the Academy, and lead a fourteen-member team of artists, instructors, and staff. We've trained nearly 400 actors since the Academy's founding in 2000, many of whom went on to work on Broadway, in film and television, and at regional theaters across the country.

Before D.C., I spent a lot of time starting things. In 1991, I founded Folio Theatre Company, a storefront theater in the heart of Chicago dedicated to Shakespeare and new works. In 2004, I co-founded the Great River Shakespeare Festival in Winona, Minnesota, and served as its Producing Director for seven years; building it from scratch into something that (I'm happy to say) is still going strong. I also served as Artistic Director of the Illinois Shakespeare Festival.

I've directed over a hundred productions at theaters across the country, from those early storefront days in Chicago through guest work at Milwaukee Shakespeare, Chautauqua Theatre Company, the Shakespeare Festival of St. Louis, and others. In recent years, I've been drawn increasingly toward devised work and adaptation; pieces like The Odyssey, Tales from Ovid, and East of the Sun, West of the Moon, where the writing and directing go together, and where imagination can really flourish. I've also directed two award-winning short 48-hour films, which was a totally different kind of storytelling.

I hold an MFA in Directing from the Yale School of Drama and a BFA in Acting from DePaul University's Goodman School of Drama. Early on, I was lucky enough to receive a Fox Foundation Research Fellowship to study in St. Petersburg, Russia, and a Drama League Directing Fellowship. I've also taught at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Illinois State University, and Webster Conservatory.