I’ve contributed to some really special productions in the role of Assistant Director.
When I’m assisting, my task is to adopt the vision of the director as if it were my own in order to support, clarify, and elevate the storytelling through that unique lens. That might mean working one-on-one with an actor on a specific scene or sequence, running rehearsal for the day, or tackling any of the myriad asks and surprises that emerge while creating live theater. In every situation, from open call to closing night, my priority is earning and keeping the trust of my collaborators and doing whatever I can to set them up for success.
I was the assistant director to Kim Weild on the world premiere of Charles Mee’s soot and spit at the New Ohio Theater, a New York Times Critic's Pick celebrating the life and work of the prolific outsider artist James Castle. I assisted Pirronne Yousefzadeh on Caryl Churchill’s Vinegar Tom with the Atlantic Acting School at NYU Tisch and supported Markus Potter on Graham Russell’s A Wall Apart and David Don Miller’s The Numbening with New York Rep. I traveled to Prague to assist Bill Buddendorf (and perform in) the Czech premiere of Finegan Kruckemeyer’s This Girl Laughs, This Girl Cries, This Girl Does Nothing at A Studio Rubín as part of the Prague Fringe Festival.
Even while studying at Philadelphia’s University of the Arts, I had fulfilling experiences as an AD, like supporting director Maureen Sweeney on Jacqueline Goldfinger’s Little Women, presented in a unique partnership with Philadelphia Theatre Company’s in-school education program; and assisting Bill Buddendorf (for the first time) on a production of Suzan-Lori Parks’ In the Blood for the Philadelphia Fringe Festival.