Lisa Rothe

Lisa Rothe

Lisa Rothe is a NYC based freelance theater director, acting coach and educator. She was nominated for SDC's Joe A. Callaway Award for Direction for Hold These Truths by Jeanne Sakata, produced by Epic Theatre Ensemble in NYC. The play was also nominated for a Drama Desk award for Best Solo Performance by actor Joel de la Fuente and recently won three Theatre Bay Area Awards for Outstanding Direction, Outstanding Performer and Outstanding Production. Other productions were at The Guthrie Theater, ACT in Seattle, Playmakers Repertory Theatre, the Honolulu Theatre for Youth, the SoloNova Festival in NYC, and was most recently produced by Hang A Tale at the Sheen Center in NYC.

Lisa is member and recent co-President of the League of Professional Theatre Women; on the Artistic Advisory Council of Epic Theatre Ensemble; Advisory Board of the Detroit Public Theatre; Usual Suspect with New York Theatre Workshop; Artistic Affiliate and Audrey Fellow with New Georges; Drama League alum; Fox Fellow alum; member of the National Theater Conference. Lisa received her MFA from NYU's Graduate Acting Program and was invited by mentor teacher Zelda Fichandler to be part of the inaugural year of NYU's Directing program for alumni of the MFA Acting program.

Lisa has workshopped, developed, and directed hundreds of new works with multiple award winning writers. In New York, she has developed and presented work at HERE, NYTW, New Georges, The Lark, The Culture Project, The Foundry, Ensemble Studio Theater, The 52nd Street Project, Naked Angels, Epic Theater Ensemble, Summer Play Festival, among others. As the Director of Global Exchange at The Lark in NYC for over five years, she provided expanded opportunities for playwrights, aimed at advancing new work to production, both nationally and globally.

Favorite recent directing work: Wild Abandon, written and performed by Leenya Rideout at the Irish Repertory Theatre, Sooner/Later by Allyson Currin at Cincinnati Playhouse, Confederates by Suzanne Bradbeer at Theatreworks (nominated for 8 Bay Area Critics Circle Awards), Ropes by Mexican playwright Barbara Colio at Two River Theater, The Harassment of Iris Malloy by Zak Berkman and Dear Elizabeth by Sarah Ruhl for People’s Light (starring Rinde Eckert & Ellen McLaughlin, and with music composed by Rinde Eckert), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof for Chautauqua Theater Company (starring Candy Buckley & Harris Yulin), Penelope by Ellen McLaughlin & composer Sarah Kirkland Snider and Detroit '67 by Dominique Morriseau, for Playmakers Repertory Theatre.