Program: DIRECTING

Peter G. Andersen

MFA DIRECTING, 2023

A recent graduate of CMU’s MFA Directing program, Peter Andersen is an accomplished director, actor and artistic director with extensive experience of adapting classical plays for a modern audience. Peter is currently the artistic director of Oak Park Festival Theatre; previously, he worked for Steppenwolf Theatre Company as the Steppenwolf For Young Adults Apprentice and Multicultural Fellow, and as the Education Manager at Writers Theatre in Glencoe.  

Some of Peter’s directing projects include: “The Kennedy Plays”, “21”, a rock-musical adaptation of Shakespeare’s As You Like It, “The American Myth”, “At Your Own Risk”, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”, “Queer Shakespeare”, “The Cafe Collections”, “O/A: The Sophocles Project”, “As You Like It”, “Macbeth”, and “Measure for Measure.” He has also worked at TimeLine Theatre, Huntington Theatre Company, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Yale Repertory Theatre, Writers Theatre, and American Players Theatre as an assistant director.  

As an actor he has performed in several seasons at Shakespeare & Company (Lenox, MA); Actor’s Shakespeare Project (Boston, MA); and Company One (Boston, MA); he has also performed in New York City and Chicago.

Leigh Silverman

BFA DIRECTING, 1996

A graduate of both the BFA Directing and MFA Playwriting programs, Leigh Silverman has had an impressive theatrical career both on Broadway and off. At 31, Leigh became one of the youngest women to direct on Broadway with her production of “Well” by Lisa Kron. Leigh has since directed dozens of plays in NYC and around the country, frequently collaborating with theatremakers such as David Henry Hwang, Neil LaBute and Jeanine Tesori. A Drama Desk nominee and Obie winner, Leigh has been nominated twice for the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical, first in 2014 for “Violet” and most recently for “Suffs”, which won two Tony Awards at the 2024 ceremony.

Adil Mansoor

MFA DIRECTING, 2020

Adil Mansoor has had an extensive career as a theater director, centering new play development with queer, trans, and BIPOC writers, and working with notable theater companies across the United States. Adil has developed new work with Manhattan Theatre Club, New York Theatre Workshop, Baltimore Center Stage, Pittsburgh Public Theater, BAAD! The Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance, NYU Tisch, and others. Artistic residencies include The Mercury Store, Atlantic Center for the Arts, and Tofte Lake Center. He is a founding member of Pittsburgh’s Hatch Arts Collective and the former Artistic Director of Dreams of Hope, an LGBTQA+ youth arts organization. 

He has been an NYTW 2050 Directing Fellow, a Gerri Kay New Voices Fellow with Quantum Theater, an Art of Practice Fellow and Community Leader with Sundance, and received the 2024 Carol R. Brown Creative Achievement Award for Emerging Artist. He was part of the inaugural Artist Caucus gathered by Baltimore Center Stage, Long Wharf Theatre, Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, and Woolly Mammoth.

Some of Adil’s most recent work includes his solo performance “Amm(i)gone”, an adaptation of Sophocles’ “Antigone” and National Performance Network (NPN) Creative and Development Fund Project co-commissioned by Kelly Strayhorn Theater and The Theater Offensive. “Amm(i)gone” was presented at Woolly Mammoth and Long Wharf in 2024 and is heading to PlayCo in NYC and Theater Mu in Minneapolis in 2025.

Recent directing projects include “Daddies” by Paul Kruse (Audible), “Gloria” by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins (Hatch Arts Collective), “Kentucky” by Leah Nanako Winkler (Pittsburgh Playhouse), and “Plano” by Will Arbery (Quantum).

VISIT ADIL’S WEBSITE