Directing
David Geffen School of Drama 2027 Directors
It is our pleasure to introduce to you three outstanding young directors who will graduate next May from our Master of Fine Arts program.
Héctor Flores Komatsu is an international theatermaker, director, and producer with roots in Mexico, Japan, and the United States. He is the Artistic Director of Makuyeika Colectivo Teatral, which he founded after a year-long journey across Mexico conducted as an inaugural recipient of The Julie Taymor World Theatre Fellowship for Directors. Their original creations include Andares, Rematch (based on the Popol Vuh), Ix-kik: Blood, moon, sister, and Canek (long ago we knew to read the stars). His company has toured extensively across Mexico, the U.S. (Chicago Shakespeare Theater, The Public Theater, Historic Asolo Theatre), China, Germany, Chile, and more. He has received various grants from Mexico’s National Fund for Culture and Arts (FONCA). Héctor has worked with Peter Brook as his apprentice in Battlefield, as an actor in The Valley of Astonishment, and most recently as co-director of the Spanish language premiere of El Traje. He is a finalist of the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Initiative with Lin-Manuel Miranda. In Japan, he has trained with the Suzuki Company of Toga and with Tatsushige Udaka of the Kongō-ryū school of Noh. He has interned with Théâtre de la Ville in Paris, and facilitated theater workshops in favelas and prisons in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil through UNIRIO. At David Geffen School of Drama, his directing credits include King Lear (la noche llegará) adapted from Shakespeare, The Ladder by Aaron Magloire, and Promoter House by Nia Akilah Robinson. Yale Cabaret: Grandmother/Bathtub by Brian Dang, associate director (2025); Herencia by El Colectivo (2025). B.F.A., theater directing, University of Michigan.
Andrew Rodriguez is a choreographer and director whose work intersects dance, fashion, and theater. Rodriguez has developed and created work with companies and institutions, including Yale School of Music, Yale Center for Collaborative Arts and Media, Mercury Store, New York Theatre Workshop, Atlantic Theater Company, the Juilliard School, Nancy Manocherian’s the cell theatre (2024 Resident Artist), NYU, The Rude Mechs, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Hidden Room Theatre, and The University of Texas at Austin.
Andrew is a former acting apprentice at Actors Theatre of Louisville, an alumnus of the Juilliard School Drama Division’s Professional Apprenticeship Program, and a former 2050 Directing Fellow at New York Theatre Workshop. Previously, Andrew served as the Artistic Director of Conservatory Productions at Atlantic Theater Company. B.F.A., University of Texas at Austin.
Amanda Whiteley is a director of theater and film based in New York City. She believes that attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity and that storytelling through theater has the potential to become one of the greatest reclamations of attention in the 21st century. To her, this work is not only soul-expanding but a necessary act of loving resistance.
After receiving her B.A. in theater and history at Middlebury College and training in classical acting at RADA, she formed a site-specific theater company, Spokehouse Productions, which specialized in building immersive experiences in unconventional spaces in NYC. Through her artistic direction, she re-envisioned places like Vanderbilt mansions on 95th Street and ambient lounges in Bushwick as charged artistic landscapes. Directorial credits with Spokehouse include William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet, Color & Light devised by the company, Stupid Fucking Bird by Aaron Posner, Karla, Sam, and Mel are Going Straight to Hell by Chris Reisig, and Tea by Marcus Shacknow.
In collaboration with UNATC in Bucharest, Romania she directed an award-winning production of Betrayal by Harold Pinter which she and the company translated from the original English into Romanian. The production has since been performed at festivals across the country including the International Festival in Sibiu (FITS). Other freelance collaborations in theater include workshops at Mercury Store, Project Y, Potomac Theatre Project, Mile Square Theatre, and Middlebury College.
As a filmmaker, Amanda directs narrative music videos and freelances as a commercial producer. Some favorite music videos include, Theatrely’s official music video for the 2022 Tony Awards, “Come Out” by Billy Reece (HuffPost feature), “Misplaced” by Niamh Collins (Rome Music Video Award winner), “Jellyfish” by Niamh Collins (Barcelona Indie Film Fest and Munich Music Video Award winner), “Day by Day” by Lily Nelson, and “Boy Like U” by Bryan Munar.
Amanda’s art also extends to photography. After years of working in wedding, newborn and artist portraiture, she opened her own headshot photography studio in 2022 which she has been running ever since.
At David Geffen School of Drama, she has directed Rest Stop by Surrey Houlker, Other People by Aaron Magloire, and Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare. She also performed at Yale Cabaret in Lovesick by Caryl Churchill, directed by Andreas Andreou and assistant directed Nikolai Gogol’s The Inspector directed by Yura Kordonsky at Yale Repertory Theatre.