Leah C. Gardiner is an Obie Award-winning director known for the “incisive clarity” (The New York Times) of her work with physicality and text. She has directed in the U.S. and internationally, including the premieres of two Pulitzer Prize finalists, Eisa Davis’ Bulrusher and Tanya Barfield’s Blue Door, and countless other new plays by writers including debbie tucker green, Dan Deitz, Anna Deveare Smith, Penelope Skinner, Regina Taylor and Roy Williams. Recent work: If Pretty Hurts… by Tori Sampson (Premiere, Playwrights Horizons) and Kevin Artigue’s Sheepdog (Premiere, South Coast Rep). Upcoming: Ntozake Shange’s For Colored Girls… at The Public Theater. She is currently working with New York Times best-selling “Instapoet” Rupi Kaur adapting her work for the theatre, and developing two commercial musicals: an adaptation of Alexander McCall Smith’s No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series, co-writing the book with the author; and an original musical with book by Robert O’Hara for producers George C. Wolfe and Warner Bros. Theatre Ventures. Other credits include: the national tour of Wit with Judith Light; Oregon Shakespeare Festival; Manhattan Theatre Club; Atlantic Theater Company; Soho Rep; NYSAF; Arena Stage; ACT; Berkeley Rep; Alliance; Baltimore Center Stage; Studio Theatre; CATF; Houston Shakespeare Festival; Barrington Stage; Philadelphia Theatre Company. Education: B.A., University of Pennsylvania; M.F.A., Yale School of Drama. www.LeahCGardiner.com