2026 Directors

CÉLINE ROSENTHAL is a Tony®-nominated producer and award-winning director whose theatre credits include Dial M for Murder (Pittsburgh Public Theater and Asolo Rep), Grand Horizons, The Lifespan of a Fact, Camelot, and The Incident at Our Lady of Perpetual Help (Asolo Rep); Jennifer Who Is Leaving (Urbanite); Queen of Wands (Union Theatre, London); Trayf (New Rep); Drowning in Cairo (National Queer Theatre); A Doll’s House, In the Next Room, When We Were Young and Unafraid, and Angel Street (Studio Theatre TDS). Upcoming: the world premiere of Jenny Stafford’s Ahoy-Hoy at Urbanite Theatre.

Céline served seven seasons as Associate Artistic Director at Asolo Rep and has developed new work with New Dramatists, MTF, South Carolina New Play Festival, Florida Rep PlayLab, Urbanite Modern Works, NYMF, and National Queer Theatre.

Film credits include directing the award-winning short Wildflower and the upcoming films Getting Off, Musings, and I Have to Get This Off My Chest. Script Supervisor credits include Operation Fast Link (starring Bill Camp and Roman Griffin Davis), Study for a Large Painting (starring Saul Rubinek), Her Longest Way Back Home, Notes from El Barrio, and All That Remains.

JESSICA KUBZANSKY (she/hers) is the Artistic Director of Boston Court Pasadena, a theatre primarily dedicated to risky, adventurous new works and significantly reenvisioned classics, and an award-winning director working nationally in theatres such as Arena Stage, Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre, The Cherry Lane, Portland Center Stage, ACT Seattle, Utah Shakespeare Festival, South Coast Rep, the Geffen Playhouse, Pasadena Playhouse, and many others. Kubzansky directs inventive work across many genres, most recently: the world premiere of Weston Gaylord’s Octopus’s Garden, Tennessee Williams’ The Night of the Iguana (Boston Court), the world premiere of Sarah Mantell’s Everything That Never Happened (Baltimore Center Stage, Oregon Shakespeare Festival [pandemic-paused], Boston Court), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Utah Shakespeare Festival), Florian Zeller’s The Father with Alfred Molina (Pasadena Playhouse), world premieres of Aditi Brennan Kapil’s Orange (South Coast Rep), her own immersive site-specific Measure STILL for Measure, Tira Palmquist’s The Body’s Midnight, Kit Steinkellner’s Ladies (Boston Court), plus the West Coast premiere of Luis Alfaro’s Mojada, A Medea in Los Angeles (Boston Court at the Getty Villa), Othello (A Noise Within), Aaron Posner’s Stupid Fucking Bird (ACT Theatre Seattle), Jeanne Sakata’s Hold These Truths (Arena Stage), and many more. Most recent new play development work with: E.M. Lewis, Jeanne Sakata, Keiko Green, Julia Lederer, and more. Kubzansky has received many awards and honors, among them the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle’s Margaret Harford Award for Sustained Excellence in Theatre.

Shelley Butler has over 50 Broadway, Off-Broadway and regional credits to date working extensively with writers on new plays and musicals at theaters across the country. Notable productions include the world premieres of Lucas Hnath’s A Doll’s House Part 2 at South Coast Repertory, Jake Brasch’s The Reservoir in a Geffen Playhouse, Alliance Theater and Denver Center co-production, along with The Reservoir’s off-Broadway premiere at the Atlantic Theater, and Kate Hamill’s The Scarlet Letter for Two River Theater. She has directed and developed over two dozen new works for theaters including: Contemporary American Theater Festival, Ars Nova, Atlantic Theater, MCC Theater, Primary Stages, E.S.T., WP Theater, La Jolla Playhouse, Geffen Playhouse, Alliance Theater, The Alley Theater, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Hartford Stage, South Coast Repertory, Denver Center Theatre Company, The Old Globe, Yale Repertory Theatre, Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, Pioneer Theatre Company, PlayMakers Repertory Company, Geva, Milwaukee Repertory Theater, New York Stage and Film, PlayPenn, New Dramatists, The Playwright’s Realm, Keen Company and the Lark.

Kimberly Senior is a freelance director whose award winning work has been seen in 15 states in over 200 productions. At CATF, Kimberly directed Enough to Let the Light In and The Niceties. Kimberly helped to develop and directed the Broadway production of the Pulitzer Prize winning, Tony nominated Disgraced by Ayad Akhtar. Kimberly directed the HBO special Chris Gethard: Career Suicide and her work in audio has ranged from Marvel’s The Wastelanders to C13’s Ghostwriter, in addition to producing dozens of other projects for Audible. Her work with solo artists includes Harvey Fierstein, Aasif Mandvi, Dan Rather and many others. Kimberly currently teaches for Yale University, recently ran the MFA Directing program at Brooklyn College and has taught for dozens of other MFA and BFA programs all over the country. Her first book, What Would a Person Do? is available on Amazon. She is a proud union member of SDC and even prouder mother of Noah (19) and Delaney (17). Kimberlysenior.com

Zi Alikhan (he/him) is a queer, first-generation South Asian-American, culturally Muslim theater director. DIRECTING CREDITS: On That Day in Amsterdam (Primary Stages, Drama Desk Nomination-Outstanding Director, Lucille Lortel Nomination-Outstanding Director), Sanctuary City (Pasadena Playhouse, LA Times-‘Best of the Year’), The Band’s Visit (Writers Theatre/TheatreSquared, Chicago Tribune-‘Best of the Year’), You Are Cordially Invited to the End of the World! (South Coast Rep and Oregon Shakespeare Festival), RENT (Paper Mill Playhouse), Snow in Midsummer (Classic Stage Company), House of India (The Old Globe), Refugee Rhapsody (CATF), Frou Frou (Boston Court Pasadena), Paldem (Edinburgh Fringe Festival), The Wizard of Oz and Somewhere (Geva Theatre Center), The Great Leap (Portland Center Stage), A Nice Indian Boy (Olney Theatre Center), and Ragtime (Playmakers Repertory Company). Zi currently serves as the Resident Director of Masquerade in NYC.