Barbara Vann (December 12, 1938 - August 26, 2015) was an American theatre director and actor, best known for co-founding the Off-Off-Broadway company the Medicine Show Theater Ensemble, one of the longest continually running experimental theater companies in New York City.
She also contributed reworkings of Alfred Jarry's Ubu plays; a stage adaption of James Joyce's Finnegans Wake; a translation of Jean Genet's The Balcony; and the original vaudeville piece, "Mr. Shakespeare and Mr. Porter", which incorporated Cole Porter songs into Shakespearean tragedies.
She published a series of workshop videos demonstrating the experimental techniques developed for the Medicine Show Theatre Ensemble.
[3] Vann directed a 1991 production of E. E. Cummings' play Him starring John McIlveen, Cori Thomas, and Norton Banks.
[5] Barbara Vann was the recipient of the 1985 Obie Award for Direction,[6] which she received for her work on the production, Bound to Rise, based on the Horatio Alger story.