Shira Milikowsky

About Shira

as of 2/2010: Shira Milikowsky is a free-lance theater director who specializes in dark comedies and radical re-imaginings of musicals and classic plays. She also develops original work, bringing together outstanding groups of actors and designers to create collectively devised projects. She received a BA in theater studies from Yale, and an MFA in directing from Columbia. Her MFA thesis project,  The Golem , was an original play based on the Jewish folktale that she created collaboratively with the company. Her graduate work also includeddirecting Tennessee Williams’ little-known avant-garde play,  The Gnädiges Fräulein , as wellas her own deconstruction of Chekhov’s  Cherry Orchard  called  Still Life.  Since Columbia, Shira has directed at the Williamstown Theatre Festival ( Big Money , written by Kyle Jarrow and Nathan Leigh), The New York International Fringe Festival ( Mourn The Living Hector,  by Paul Cohen, winner of a 2008 Fringe Excellence Award) and extensively at Ars Nova, where she was named the first-ever Director-in-Residence. Shira is a Drama League directing fellow, and the recipient of the Boris Sagal Directing Fellowship, and Manhattan TheatreClub’s Jonathan Alper Directing Fellowship. She is currently a resident artist with famed avant-garde company Mabou Mines, where she is developing a new play based on the life and work of Joe Orton. Shira assistant directed the Tony-award winning revival of  Hair , and will be collaborating with  Hair  director Diane Paulus once again this spring, when she serves as the associate director on the world premiere of  Johnny Baseball  at the American Repertory Theater.