Lileana Blain-Cruz ('12) Joins Full-Time Faculty

August 4, 2020

 

Lileana Blain-Cruz (’12), who has been teaching in the Directing program since 2018, has joined the ranks of the School of Drama’s full-time faculty as Lecturer in Directing and Resident Director at Yale Repertory Theatre.

Lileana, who earned her B.A. at Princeton, is one of the most accomplished directors working in the field today. In addition to last fall’s Girls, she previously directed War at Yale Rep; and her other credits include Fefu and her Friends at Theater for a New Audience, Henry IV, Part 1 and Much Ado About Nothing at Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Red Speedo and The House That Will Not Stand at New York Theater Workshop, as well as work at Dance New Amsterdam, Guthrie Theater, Lincoln Center Theater, Manhattan Theatre Club, Opera Omaha, Soho Rep, and Under the Radar, among others. 

Winner of both the Julian Milton Kaufman Prize and Pierre André Salim Prize upon her graduation from the School, Lileana has subsequently been honored with a Lincoln Center Emerging Artists Award, the United States Artist Award, the Josephine Abady Award from the League of Professional Theater Women, and Obie Awards for her direction of Marys Seacole at LCT3 and The Death of the Last Black Man in the Whole Entire World AKA The Negro Book of the Dead at Signature Theater.

Dean of Yale School of Drama James Bundy says, “Chair of Directing and Resident Director Liz Diamond and I are delighted that Lileana will teach in the Directing Practicum this fall, and that she will join us on the artistic staff of the Rep to co-curate season planning and helm productions regularly at the Rep. Her rigorous inquiry, vivid stagecraft, and infectious enthusiasm have been exhilarating contributions to our art form and to the life of our community, and we couldn’t be more pleased that she is willing to expand her role here at Yale.”

 

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