Anna Davida Shapiro (born March 10, 1966) is an American

theater director A theatre director or stage director is a professional in the theatre field who oversees and orchestrates the mounting of a theatre production such as a play, opera, dance, drama, musical theatre performance, etc. by unifying various endeavors a ...

, was the artistic director of the Steppenwolf Theater Company, and a professor at

Northwestern University Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern is the oldest chartered university in Illinois and is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in the world. Charte ...

. Throughout her career, she has directed both the Steppenwolf Theater Company production of '' August: Osage County'' (2007) along with its

Broadway Broadway may refer to: Theatre * Broadway Theatre (disambiguation) * Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S. ** Broadway (Manhattan), the street **Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...

debut (2008-2009), the Broadway debuts of ''

The Motherfucker with the Hat ''The Motherfucker with the Hat'' (sometimes censored as ''The Motherf**ker with the Hat'' and ''The Mother with the Hat'') is a 2011 play by Stephen Adly Guirgis. The show is described as "a high-octane verbal cage match about love, fidelity and ...

'' (2011) and '' Fish in the Dark'' (2014), and Broadway revivals of ''

This Is Our Youth ''This Is Our Youth'' is a play by American dramatist and screenwriter Kenneth Lonergan. It premiered Off-Broadway in 1996 and since been produced all over the world, including the West End, Broadway Sydney and Toronto. Plot The play takes pla ...

'' and ''Of Mice and Men'', both in 2014. She won the

Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play The Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play has been given since 1960. Before 1960 there was only one award for both play direction and musical direction, then in 1960 the award was split into two categories: ''Dramatic'' and ''Musical''. In 1976 ...

for her direction of ''August: Osage County''.

Early years

Shapiro was born in

Evanston, Illinois Evanston ( ) is a city, suburb of Chicago. Located in Cook County, Illinois, United States, it is situated on the North Shore along Lake Michigan. Evanston is north of Downtown Chicago, bordered by Chicago to the south, Skokie to the west, Wil ...

, the youngest of four children. She attended

Evanston Township High School Evanston Township High School (ETHS) District 202, is a four-year public high school occupying a campus in Evanston, Illinois, a north suburb of Chicago along the Lake Michigan shore. ETHS was established in 1883 and serves the city of Evanston ...

and graduated in 1983. She later went on to receive a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

in theater direction from

Columbia College Chicago Columbia College Chicago is a Private college, private art college in Chicago, Illinois. Founded in 1890, it has 5,928https://about.colum.edu/effectiveness/pdf/spring-2021-student-profile.pdf students pursuing degrees in more than 60 undergra ...

in 1990. She then attended graduate school and received a

Master of Fine Arts A Master of Fine Arts (MFA or M.F.A.) is a terminal degree in fine arts, including visual arts, creative writing, graphic design, photography, filmmaking, dance, theatre, other performing arts and in some cases, theatre management or arts admini ...

at the

Yale School of Drama The David Geffen School of Drama at Yale University is a graduate professional school of Yale University, located in New Haven, Connecticut. Founded in 1924 as the Department of Drama in the School of Fine Arts, the school provides training in e ...

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

, and was the recipient of a 1996

Princess Grace Award The Princess Grace Foundation – USA is a charity organization named after Princess Grace of Monaco, which supports emerging performers in theater, dance, and film in the form of awards, grants, scholarships, and fellowships. The Foundation hol ...

Career

Her credits include the premieres of ''Until We Find Each Other'', ''The Pain and the Itch'', ''Purple Heart'', ''

Three Days of Rain ''Three Days of Rain'' is a play by Richard Greenberg that was commissioned and produced by South Coast Repertory in 1997. The title comes from a line from W. S. Merwin's poem, "For the Anniversary of My Death" (1967). The play has often been cal ...

'', ''Drawer Boy'', ''I Never Sang for my Father'', ''A Fair Country'', ''Iron'' and '' Man from Nebraska''. She also directed Edwin Sanchez's ''Trafficking in Broken Hearts'' for the

Atlantic Theater Company Atlantic Theater Company is an Off-Broadway non-profit theater, whose mission is to produce great plays "simply and truthfully utilizing an artistic ensemble." The company was founded in 1985 by David Mamet, William H. Macy, and 30 of their act ...

. She directed the world premieres of ''The Ordinary Yearning of Miriam Buddwing'' by

Alexandra Gersten-Vassilaros Alexandra I. Gersten-Vassilaros (born 1960) is an American playwright and actress. She is the co-author, with Theresa Rebeck, of Omnium Gatherum which was a finalist for the 2004 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Gersten-Vassilaros is a graduate of NYU's ...

at Steppenwolf in 2001, and Bruce Norris's ''The Infidel'' at both Steppenwolf and the

Philadelphia Theatre Company The Philadelphia Theatre Company (PTC) is a theater company located Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1974 as The Philadelphia Company by Robert Hedley and Jean Harrison. Since October 2007, PTC's home has been the new Suzanne Rober ...

. After directing

Tracy Letts Tracy S. Letts (born July 4, 1965) is an American actor, playwright, and screenwriter. He started his career at the Steppenwolf Theatre before making his Broadway debut as a playwright for '' August: Osage County'' (2007), for which he received ...

' '' August: Osage County'' at Steppenwolf and winning the Jefferson Award for Best Director, she directed the play on Broadway, with all but two of the original cast, and won the 2008

Tony Award The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Broadway Theatre, more commonly known as the Tony Award, recognizes excellence in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual cer ...

for Best Director of a Play, as well as the

Drama Desk Award The Drama Desk Award is an annual prize recognizing excellence in New York theatre. First bestowed in 1955 as the Vernon Rice Award, the prize initially honored Off-Broadway productions, as well as Off-off-Broadway, and those in the vicinity. Fo ...

and the

Outer Critics Circle Award The Outer Critics Circle Awards are presented annually for theatrical achievements both on Broadway and Off-Broadway. They are presented by the Outer Critics Circle (OCC), the official organization of New York theater writers for out-of-town newspa ...

for Outstanding Director of a Play. ''August: Osage County'' was named by ''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...

'' magazine as its number one theater production for 2007. On Broadway, Shapiro also directed ''

Of Mice and Men ''Of Mice and Men'' is a novella written by John Steinbeck. Published in 1937, it narrates the experiences of George Milton and Lennie Small, two displaced migrant ranch workers, who move from place to place in California in search of new job o ...

'' and ''

'' (2014). She directed the

Larry David Lawrence Gene David (born July 2, 1947) is an American comedian, writer, actor, and television producer. He and Jerry Seinfeld created the television sitcom ''Seinfeld'', on which David was head writer and executive producer for the first seve ...

play, '' Fish in the Dark'' on Broadway at the

Cort Theatre The James Earl Jones Theatre, originally the Cort Theatre, is a Broadway theater at 138 West 48th Street, between Seventh Avenue and Sixth Avenue, in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States. It was built in ...

, which opened in February 2015. Shapiro has been on the faculty of

as head of the Graduate Directing Program in Theatre since 2002. She has been affiliated with Steppenwolf Theatre since 1995, serving as the original director of the New Plays Lab and later joining the artistic staff as resident director. Shapiro is an artistic associate and became a member of the ensemble in 2005. She was named the artistic director of Steppenwolf in September 2015.Hetrick, Adam
"Steppenwolf Names Tony Winner Anna D. Shapiro as New Artistic Director"
Playbill, October 2, 2014Borelli, Christopher

''Chicago Tribune'', August 21, 2015

Personal life

She is married to actor

Ian Barford Ian Barford is an American stage and television actor. He has appeared on Broadway in '' August: Osage County'' and ''The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time''. He was nominated for best actor in a play at the 74th Tony Awards for his ...

, and they have two children.

References

External links

* *
archive
*
Anna Shapiro
at

Anna D. Shapiro
at

Steppenwolf Theatre Company Steppenwolf Theatre Company is a Chicago theatre company founded in 1974 by Terry Kinney, Jeff Perry, and Gary Sinise in the Unitarian church on Half Day Road in Deerfield, Illinois and is now located in Chicago's Lincoln Park neighborhood on ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shapiro, Anna D. Yale School of Drama alumni Northwestern University faculty American theatre directors Drama Desk Award winners Artists from Evanston, Illinois Tony Award winners 1967 births Living people Princess Grace Awards winners Women theatre directors Steppenwolf Theatre Company players