Director | Designer | Theatre Maker

SHIRA HELENA GITLIN

ABOUT

Shira Helena Gitlin is a director, deviser, designer, and theatre maker. Shira's primary goal as an artist is to create and participate in collaborative, positive environments that emphasize identity, intersectionality, and creativity. As a director, Shira has experience working with musical theatre, devising, and straight plays. Shira's work often includes elements of immersion and audience interaction.  

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Shira’s directorial debut was a production of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee at Hampshire College—the school’s first musical in 10 years! The show was well-received and paved the way for future musical theatre studies within the college. Following this, Shira was hired to direct Shrek the Musical at Mohawk Trails Regional School, a combined middle and high school located in rural Massachusetts. Shira has also directed several smaller shows, including Body Talk, a series of monologues, and Follow, a devised play about grief and memory.

In addition to musical theatre and directing, Shira has experience as a sound designer and musician. Shira has worked on traditional sound designs as well as devised shows. While in college, Shira acted as the assistant director and sound designer for a devised piece entitled 48 North. The show had no live actors and instead involved audio recorded on cassette tapes for the audience to find and explore. Shira worked with the show from its inception to ensure that the sound design was holistic and fully realized. 

In the summer of 2017, Shira worked with Honest Accomplice Theatre as an assistant director and stage manager for ReconFIGURED, a devised production focusing on the narratives of women and transgender individuals. The play is based on personal experiences of those involved, and focuses on bodies that are invisible or conversely, too visible, to the public eye. 

Currently, Shira works as an Arden Professional Apprentice at the Arden Theatre Company, doing everything from casting to development to production. Shira has had specialized assistantships in the Artistic and Education departments. 

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Shira is currently based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and uses they/them/theirs pronouns.

BA in Directing with an emphasis on Musical Theatre, Hampshire College

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Full Résumé available upon request.