Directing Artistic Statement

As a director, I strive to create performances that are relevant and engaging for modern performers, designers, collaborators and audiences. I approach directing and collaborating with other artists to tell a story with an approach that is informed greatly by my own experiences as a performer, playwright, choreographer, and designer. I direct mainly for the theatre and believe that visual storytelling needs to use contemporary narrative language, mainly derived from years of watching television and cinema, and the specific cultural expectations and world view of modern audiences and artists. Theatre should know it's audiences well enough to connect with their experiences, their frames of reference, and it should do so in a way that is primarily theatrical. One can tell stories in the theatre differently than in film and, in addition to technology that injects familiar cinematic language and rhythms into a production, my work strives to include those unique and compelling elements of live performances. I often use mime, clown techniques, improvisation, music, objects, dance, projections, bare stages, and non-traditional casting or approaches to costume as part of my range of techniques to make something theatrical.

My affinity for movement and physical storytelling permeates and drives my work, and often is the means by which I can create very theatrical performances. This preference informs my choices when selecting or developing material, rehearsing and staging performance, and collaborating with performers. I believe very strongly that images, mime, and movement can more actively engage and provoke the audience to fill in details, dialogue and story, thus involving them as collaborators in the performance. Much of my work, either during the rehearsal process or ultimately on stage in performance, incorporates masks and puppetry to explore identity, character, and human drives. As an artist, I'm drawn to themes exploring power, cultural perception, and identity, especially gender identities, with a focus on masculinities. I will often cast women in male roles in order to bring new life and perspective to male characters. I am drawn to ensemble work with many collaborators working together to develop and devise new plays, or re-imagine old stories.

Directing Training

M.F.A. in Performance, University of Tennessee
London International School of Performing Arts(UK)
Lincoln Center Theater Directors Lab (NYC)
AKT-ZENT, Protei Theatre Institute: TransARTlantica (Moscow, Berlin, Salzburg & Tuscany)