I am committed to championing new work across form, developing new plays + the next generation of theater artists, and creating events that disrupt injustice. I am a proud Quaker serving on the Corporation of the American Friends Service Committee and a member of the Friends Relation Committee of the AFSC.

Directing 

Premieres: These Mortal Hosts by Eric Coble at Cleveland Play House, All Things Equal: The Life and Trials of Ruth Bader Ginsburg by Rupert Holmes in a National Tour, Keys Wallet Phone Dignity by Sheldon Scott, In the Middle of the Fields by Deirdre Kinahan at Solas Nua and Round House Theatre, Pure Shock Value by Matt Pelfry with Killing My Lobster, Everything Is Performance devised by the ensemble at UMBC, and Mermaid Hour by David Valdes at Actors Theater of Charlotte (a National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere).

Additional directing credits include Steppenwolf Theatre Company (Glass Menagerie), Virginia Stage Company (Grounded), foolsFURY Theater Company (Big Love), Seaside Repertory Theater (Art and Proof), and Greenbelt Arts Center (Shylock, The Jew Of Venice).

New Work Development: Paradise Play by Sheldon Scott and Laley Lippard at Woolly Mammoth and Kennedy Center; A Tempest, adaptation by company, at Brave World Theater V.I.; Caro Dubberly’s A Modern Guide To Possession; Amy Claussen’s Maybe She Dies at Kennedy Center; Alix Sobel’s Miriam at Theater J; Inda Craig-Galvná’s Welcome To Matteson! at Kitchen Dog Theater; the midwest premiere of Lucy Prebble’s The Effect at Dobama Theatre; Kira Rockwell’s Oh, To Be Pure Again and Tim J. Lord’s On Every Link a Heart Does Dangle; or, Owed at The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

Play workshop and development as a Dramaturg or Devisor with One Year Lease, Alliance Theatre, Eugene O'Neill Theater Center, The Kennedy Center, American Theatre Company, Playwright's Foundation, Magic Theatre, Z Space, Intersection for the Arts, Just Theatre, University of Maryland. I serve/d on the literary and reading committees of theaters such as Playwrights' Foundation, The Eugene O’Neill Theatre Center, Playwrights’ Center, Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts ACTF, and Steppenwolf Theatre.

As a writer, I have been published in Makeshift Chicago Stages: A Century of Theater and Performance (Northwestern University Press), have adapted several classic works for the stage, and am the co-writer of Paradise Play with Sheldon Scott currently in workshop at Woolly Mammoth.

Other artistic collaborations include with HowlRound and the American Voices New Play Institute at Arena Stage, Guthrie Theater, American Conservatory Theater, Court Theatre, Rorschach Theatre, and Intersection for the Arts.

I am a proud member of the National Directors Fellowship, a partnership between The O’Neill Theater Center, National New Plays Network, Society of Directors and Choreographers (SDC), and The Kennedy Center; the Lincoln Center Theater Directors Lab; and an member of the SDC.

Creative Direction + Producing 

I co-founded and served as executive co-producer for the Chicago Home Theater Festival (CHTF). CHTF was envisioned as a city-wide artistic network that organizes artists across form, local community leaders, change agents, youth, and other invested neighbors to celebrate neighborhood culture, share a communal meal, experience transformative art by intersectional artists, build connection across lines of difference, and hold place for direct social action. CHTF valued knowledge-sharing between hosts, tour guides, artists, and audiences that centered the histories, skills, and cultural practices of the local community. We privileged artistic producers, hosts, tour guides, and artists who identify as LGBTQ, BIPOC, women and femmes, migrants, and people with disabilities. CHTF believed in a holistic approach to accessibility with consideration to physical ability, mental health, as well as community safety. We believed in holding ourselves and each other accountable to the ways we fall short of our vision.

Currently, I am working with Brave World Theater V.I. as director and creative producer on a reimagining of The Tempest. Brave World’s vision is to rebuild the theater community on St. Thomas which was devastated in 2017. By creating intergenerational community centering ancestral Virgin Island writers and theater artists and by rooting content in local culture, language, and lived experience, Brave World Theater VI strengthens community storytelling. It allows residents to engage critically with issues such as colonial legacy, migration, environmental change, and cultural belonging. By partnering with professional artists, UVI, Reichhold, The Forum, ElevateWi, Antilles School and other high schools, developing new work and engaging local participants, BWT hopes to build artistic capacity. It also fosters dialogue about the social realities of island life while creating opportunities for mentorship and knowledge-sharing across generations, artistic disciplines, and socio-economic status.

Other producing work includes programming Z/Magic Mondays at Magic Theatre as Artistic Associate. As the inaugural season-long Artistic Directing Fellow at Cleveland Play House, I was mentored by artistic director Laura Kepley and former associate artistic director Robert Barry Flemming. In Washington DC, I served as the interim Creative Producer for The Welders, and created over 32 programs including Peace Cafes, panel discussions, and other interactive events to create platforms for necessary conversation, radical connection, and coalition building during COVID with DC artists, activists, and social justice leaders.

Education

I have an MFA in directing from Northwestern University where she studied with Michael Rohd, Jessica Thebus, Anna Shapiro, and Mary Zimmerman among others.

I have taught, workshopped, and/or directed at Stanford University, Northwestern University, Kenyon College, Hampshire College, Carnegie Mellon University, University of Maryland BC, and Case Western Reserve MFA Acting program. Lippard is a member of the National Directors Fellowship, the Lincoln Center Theater Directors Lab, a member of the Society of Directors and Choreographers, and holds an MFA in Directing from Northwestern University.

My academic service includes the following. I served on the interview committee for students applying to the Fulbright English Teaching Assistant Programs for an individually designed Study/Research Program supporting study and research. As a member of the Phi Beta Kappa faculty committee to support new inductees, I championed the PBK mission to support education in the arts and sciences, foster freedom of thought, and recognize academic excellence. I was invited to serve as facilitator of the The Center for the Study of American Democracy  MLK Day of Dialogue discussion featuring Professor Danielle Allen’s lecture "Bridging the Impasse: 21st Century Practices for a Stronger Democracy” as part of the faculty lectureship series created by the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (ODEI). I designed community engaged learning course work with CEL programs to access community knowledge and build on partnerships between institutions of higher education and surrounding communities to identify and work with public issues that have both academic and public life dimensions. As a member of the LGBTQ+ Advisory Committee, I strove to foster inclusive culture by identifying areas of importance in policy and practice, develop interdepartmental programming, and create resources that support the LGBTQ+ community across campus.