[1][2] She directed Three Pianos which ran off-off-Broadway at the Ontological-Hysteric Theater in March 2010[5] and then at the New York Theatre Workshop in December 2010 to January 2011.

[14] Chavkin directed the folk opera Hadestown, written by Anaïs Mitchell, which opened officially at the off-Broadway New York Theatre Workshop on May 23, 2016.

[19] Chavkin directed the world premiere of Dave Malloy's Moby-Dick, which opened at Harvard's American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, Massachusetts on December 11, 2019.

[22] On February 22, 2023, it was announced that Chavkin would be directing the Broadway-aimed Gatsby musical adaptation,[23] which premiered on June 5, 2024 at the American Repertory Theater.

'She can squeeze a lot into a small space, and yet it feels epic and sprawling,' said Ars Nova artistic director Jason Eagan.

"[25] Her collaborator Bess Wohl said, "I so often see women directors’ work being compared to the theatrical equivalent of needlepoint—small and delicate....[Chavkin] favors the brash and huge and messy.