About Holly L. Derr

Holly L. Derr is a director, writer, and professor of theater. She directs new plays and gender-flipped classics, such as Romeo and Juliet at Opera House Arts at the Stonington Opera House and Harry and the Thief, by Sigrid Gilmer, at The Know Theatre in Cincinnati.

Originally from Dallas, TX, she holds an MFA in Directing from Columbia University and a BA in Dramatic Arts from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She was the founding Artistic Director of SKT, Inc., a New York-based non-profit theater, and has directed new plays for the Know Theatre, Ashland New Plays Festival, and the PlayPenn New Play Development Festival. She has served on the faculties of Marlboro, Smith, and Skidmore Colleges, and has taught and directed at the American Repertory Theater Institute for Advanced Theater Training at Harvard, The Brown University/Trinity Repertory Company Consortium, CalArts, the University of California at Riverside, and Chapman University. She was the 2017 Producing Fellow at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.

Holly is also a feminist media critic who writes about theater, film, television, and pop culture, using the theoretical and analytical tools of the theater to reflect upon broader issues of gender and race.

Education

MFA in Directing from Columbia University and a BA in Dramatic Arts from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Honors and Awards
Memphis Ostrander  (Best Direction of a College Production and Best College Production, The Wolves)

Producing Fellow at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, 2017

Research and Scholarly Activities

2021 What Happened While Hero Was Dead, Ashland New Plays Festival, director
2021 “Performing the Peace: Police and Former Prisoners Use PlayBack Theatre”, Southern Theatre Magazine
2019 “MeToo and the Method”, HowlRound
2019 Red Bike, The Know Theatre of Cincinnati, director
2017 Supertrue, The Know Theatre of Cincinnati, director

Research Interests

Teaching Interests: Directing, Acting, Collaboration, Theory, Style

Research Interests: Gender-Flipped Shakespeare and New Play Development