01The Public Theater · 2007
El Silencio Grande
By Suzan-Lori ParksA production created for the 365 National Festival, part of Parks’s audacious year-long theatrical experiment, 365 Days/365 Plays.
02 / Directing
Build the world.
Invite the collision.
Make it live.
I direct theatre as a meeting among text, bodies, space, history, and audience. The work begins with close reading—but it becomes fully legible only when an ensemble places it under pressure.
My process joins a clear artistic point of view with genuine collective inquiry. I want every collaborator to understand the world we are making and to possess meaningful agency within it.
01 / THE PROCESSRigorous structure.
Rigorous structure.
Living discovery.
I approach rehearsal as a disciplined form of collective investigation: dramaturgical research gives us a foundation; embodied experimentation reveals what the production can become.
I work in partnership with actors and the creative team to develop a shared, unified vision that serves the playwright’s intentions while remaining responsive to the perspectives, intelligences, and surprises collaborators bring into the room.
The goal is neither consensus nor imposed certainty. It is alignment: a company capable of making bold, specific choices because everyone understands the central questions of the work.
Look beneath the surface.
Then give the idea a body.
Selected directing
Different forms.
One restless practice.
02The American Place Theatre · 2011–2016
The Bluest Eye
From the novel by Toni MorrisonA nationally presented Literature to Life adaptation bringing Morrison’s language, history, and emotional architecture into immediate theatrical relation.
03The American Place Theatre · 2011–2016
To Kill a Mockingbird
From the novel by Harper LeeAn educational theatre production developed for sustained engagement with students and communities across the United States.
04University of Florida · 2024
Everybody
By Branden Jacobs-JenkinsA directorial and choreographic investigation of mortality, chance, and the comic terror of being human.
05University of Florida · 2025
The Conference of the Birds
Adapted by Peter Brook and Jean-Claude CarrièreEnsemble storytelling, spiritual allegory, and corporeal inquiry shaped by research into Persian literature and Sufi mysticism.
06Brooklyn College · 2022
Trailblazers, Champions, and Changemakers
Co-created and co-written by Manuel SimonsAn original performance project celebrating transformative figures while connecting historical inquiry, collaborative authorship, and theatrical storytelling.
The broader directing history includes a large body of work at venues such as The Public Theater, Nuyorican Poets Café, Provincetown Playhouse, Judson Church, Dixon Place, Brooklyn College, and other New York performance venues—from Suzan-Lori Parks’s 365 Days/365 Plays to large-scale street theatre, cabaret, musical performance, new work, and dance theatre.
What I bring to the room
A point of view
strong enough to guide.
A process open enough
to be changed.
Dramaturgical depth
Close attention to language, structure, cultural context, and the ethical demands of representation.
Actor-centered collaboration
A rehearsal culture built on specificity, trust, productive challenge, and respect for the performer’s intelligence.
Embodied imagination
Movement, spatial composition, rhythm, and theatrical form used to reveal what language alone cannot contain.
02 / IN PRACTICEFrom intimate testimony
From intimate testimony
to collective event.
“You encouraged us to look beneath the surface to truly understand the meaning of each story and character.”— Ensemble member, The Conference of the Birds
performers assembled for Action in Inaction, a large-scale street-theatre work expressing a desire to end the war in Iraq.
years directing nationally presented Literature to Life adaptations of The Bluest Eye and To Kill a Mockingbird.
Areas of collaboration
Ways we might
make the room move.
- 01New and established plays
- 02Staged readings and developmental workshops
- 03Solo and autobiographical performance
- 04Devised and ensemble-generated theatre
- 05Literary adaptation and educational theatre
- 06Queer and community-engaged performance
- 07University and conservatory productions
- 08Movement, choreography, and interdisciplinary work
Theatre becomes necessary when
everyone in the room
has something at stake.