JoAnne Akalaitis (born June 29, 1937, in Cicero, Illinois)[1][2] is an avant-garde American theatre director and writer.
She has won five Obie Awards for direction (and sustained achievement) and was a co-founder of the New York theater company Mabou Mines.
[4] In addition to the American Repertory Theater – where she has directed Endgame, The Balcony (by Jean Genet) and The Birthday Party (by Harold Pinter) – she has staged works by Euripides, Shakespeare, Strindberg, Schiller, Tennessee Williams, Philip Glass, Janáček, and her own work at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, New York City Opera, Goodman Theatre, Hartford Stage, Mark Taper Forum, Court Theatre, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, and the Guthrie Theater.
She is the former artistic director of the New York Shakespeare Festival and of the Public Theater (1991–1993),[1] and was artist-in-residence at the Court Theatre in Chicago.
She is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, National Endowment for the Arts grants, Edwin Booth Award, Rosamund Gilder Award for Outstanding Achievement in Theatre, and Pew Charitable Trusts National Theatre Artist Residency Program grant.