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:

Directing Credits:

Check out each theater to see images and video!

2024:

Bridgewater College Theatre, Bridgewater, VA
Glassheart
Gin Mummy

Pigeon Creek Shakespeare Company, Grand Rapids, MI
Measure for Measure (remount)

Silk Moth Stage, Dayton, VA
Underneath the Lintel

Wayne Theatre, Waynesboro, VA
As You Like It

2023:

Bridgewater College Theatre, Bridgewater, VA
A Bold Stroke for a Wife

Pigeon Creek Shakespeare Company, Grand Rapids, MI
Richard III (remount)—Cancelled for COVID
Measure for Measure

Silk Moth Stage, Dayton, VA
Wonder of Our Stage

2022:

Silk Moth Stage, Dayton, VA
Give Us Good

Quill Theatre, RIchmond, VA
Merry Wives of Windsor

2021:
The Tragedy of Queen Katherine (virtual reading, independent production)

2020:
Harrisonburg High School, Harrisonburg VA
As You Like It (cancelled mid-process due to COVID)

Slow Your Role Theater Co.
Sperm Donor Wanted (virtual production)

Pigeon Creek Shakespeare, Grand Rapids, MI
Measure for Measure (virtual reading)

2019:
Pigeon Creek Shakespeare, Grand Rapids, MI
Richard III (toured in Michigan)
Antony and Cleopatra (remount)

York College Theater, York, PA
On the Verge

2018:
Pigeon Creek Shakespeare, Grand Rapids, MI
Antony and Cleopatra (toured in Michigan)
Much Ado About Nothing (remount)

2017:
Pigeon Creek Shakespeare, Grand Rapids, MI
Much Ado About Nothing (toured in Michigan)

Community Mennonite Church, Harrisonburg, VA
Abundant Joy: A Sermon with Shakespeare Scenes

Singers Glen Community, Singers Glen, VA
Singers Glen

2016
Pigeon Creek Shakespeare, Grand Rapids, MI
The Duchess of Malfi (toured in Michigan)

American Shakespeare Center Theater Camp, Staunton, VA
Much Ado About Nothing

Eastern Mennonite University Theater, Harrisonburg, VA
The Brothers Grimm Spectaculathon

2015
CrossRoads Heritage Center, Harrisonburg, VA
Jordan’s Stormy Banks

Eastern Mennonite High School Theater, Harrisonburg, VA
Harvey

2014
John Kline Homestead Foundation, Broadway, VA
Under the Shadow of the Almighty

Pigeon Creek Shakespeare, Grand Rapids, MI
Romeo and Juliet (remount)

Eastern Mennonite High School Theater, Harrisonburg, VA
Cinderella
Noye’s Fludde
All In The Timing

2013
Bridgewater College Theater, Bridgewater, VA
Winter’s Tale

2012
Pigeon Creek Shakespeare, Grand Rapids, MI
Romeo and Juliet (toured in Michigan)

The Great American Theater Company, Harrisonburg, VA
Give Us Good (staged reading)

2011
The Great American Theater Company, Harrisonburg, VA
Washed (toured to the Capital Fringe Festival, Washington, DC)

Eastern Mennonite University Theater, Harrisonburg, VA
JB

American Shakespeare Center, Staunton, VA
A Game at Chess (assistant director, staged reading)

2010
The Great American Theater Company, Harrisonburg, VA
Washed (staged reading)

Eastern Mennonite University Theater, Harrisonburg, VA
Love’s Labor’s Lost (toured in Virginia)

2009
Pigeon Creek Shakespeare, Grand Rapids, MI
Julius Caesar (toured in Michigan and New York City)

Mary Baldwin College/American Shakespeare Center, Staunton, VA
Drummond: His Masque

2006
Mary Baldwin College/American Shakespeare Center, Staunton, VA
Toil And Trouble
Masters thesis presentation for M.Litt. candidate Anna Christiansen

2005
Mary Baldwin College/American Shakespeare Center, Staunton, VA
Shakespeare’s Mariners
Masters thesis presentation for M.Litt Candidate Jesse Manson

Sound, Trumpets!
My masters thesis presentation

2004
Hiram College Theater, Hiram, OH
A Play Of Poems (toured in Ohio)
Copenhagen (concert reading)
W;T (concert reading)
Krapp’s Last Tape

2003
Hiram College Theater, Hiram, OH
Arabian Nights
Antony And Cleopatra

2002
Hiram College Theater, Hiram, OH
Degas, C’est Moi
Eleemosynary

2000
Robert C. Byrd High School Theater, Clarksburg, WV
Something Over the Rainbow (toured in WV)

1999
Robert C. Byrd High School Theater, Clarksburg, WV
Words, Words, Words
The Universal Language

Athens Shakespeare Festival, Athens, WV
As You Like It (assistant director)

1998
Robert C. Byrd High School Theater, Clarksburg, WV
Sorry, Wrong Number
What Button to Press?

1992
Harden Elementary School, Salem, WV
Elf Hardware