Sammy Zeisel is a theater director and filmmaker who recently completed his MFA at Yale where he was awarded the Julian Milton Kaufman Memorial Prize in directing. At Yale, Sammy developed and directed new plays The Figs by Doug Robinson and rent free by Danielle Stagger, as well as his own adaptation of Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale and Annie Baker's translation of Chekhov's Uncle Vanya. Past credits include the Chicago premieres of The Late Wedding and Home Invasion by Christopher Chen; Meatball Séance, and other participatory solo work of performance artist John Michael; and new plays by playwrights Beth Hyland, Laura Winters, and others. Sammy has assisted directors Les Waters, Lee Sunday Evans, Jessica Thebus, Meredith McDonough, Michael Patrick Thornton, Devon DeMayo, and Marti Lyons, and worked at institutions including Steppenwolf Theatre, Lookingglass Theatre, Woolly Mammoth Theatre, The Denver Center for the Performing Arts, and The Actors Theatre of Louisville. He is an alumnus of the Actors Theatre of Louisville Directing Apprenticeship and Northwestern University. Upcoming projects include a puppet-centric eco-fable entitled The Undercity which will perform at Culture Lab LIC this fall and his own translation of The Seagull at Quinnipiac University in the winter.  

www.sammyzeisel.com