Maria Mileaf

Maria Mileaf (born c. 1965) is an American stage director.^[1] She has directed productions on and off Broadway and in the West End, as well as at regional theatres including Williamstown Theatre Festival, The Old Globe, and La Jolla Playhouse.^[2]

Mileaf directed the national tour of Yasmina Reza’s Art following its Tony Award–winning Broadway run, culminating in a month-long engagement at The Kennedy Center.^[3][4][5] She later staged Reza’s follow-up play, The Unexpected Man, at the Geffen Playhouse.^[6] In 2007, she directed the West End premiere of Glen Berger's Underneath the Lintel at the Duchess Theatre, starring Richard Schiff.^[7]

Her production of Lee Blessing’s Going to St. Ives received the Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding New Off-Broadway Play, and her direction of Tracey Scott Wilson’s The Story earned a Barrymore Award for Outstanding Direction.^[8] From 2016 to 2018, she directed three successive productions of Sharon Washington’s one-woman show Feeding the Dragon, which received nominations for the Outer Critics Circle Award and the Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Solo Show.^[9]

Mileaf was born in New York City, and primarily raised in Highland Park, New Jersey.^[10][11]

She received a B.A. in Literature from Yale University in 1986. Alongside classmates Christopher Ashley and Tony Phelan, Mileaf won the Libby Zion Fellowship, a $10,000 prize awarded by Frank Sinatra. Upon graduating, the trio used the prize money to start a summer repertory theatre in Irvington, New York^[12] Mileaf went on to earn an M.F.A. in Directing from the University of California, San Diego in 1990.^[13]

Mileaf made her professional directing debut in 1990 as Associate Director on Arthur Miller's The Crucible at the Los Angeles Theatre Center.^[14] In 1992, she directed the U.S. premiere of Ödön von Horváth's 1933 drama Faith, Hope and Charity at the San Diego Repertory Theatre.^[15] Mileaf made her Off-Broadway debut in 1993, directing the U.S. premiere of Sarah Daniels The Gut Girls with the Obie Award-winning Cucaracha Theatre Company in Tribeca. In 1994, she was awarded a Boris Sagal and Bill Foeller Fellowship from the Williamstown Theatre Festival.^[16] That same year she directed the world premiere of Scar by Caridad Svich at the Perishable Theatre in Providence, Rhode Island.^[17] In 1996 she directed the east coast premiere of a double bill of one-act comedies, Missing Marisa and Kissing Christine by John Patrick Shanley for Phoenix Theatre in Purchase, New York. That same year she directed the Off-Broadway premiere of Tomorrowland by Neena Beber with New Georges. In 1997 she directed Laugh I Thought I'd Die at PS 122.

In 1998 Mileaf directed Brighde Mullins' Fire Eater for New York Stage and Film. The same year she served as Associate Director on U.S. premiere of Yasmina Reza’s Art, which played the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre on Broadway and won the 1998 Tony Award for Best Play. Mileaf subsequently directed the play’s 1st National Tour, which ran from September 14th, 1999 to May 7th, 2000, and culminated in a month-long engagement at The Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. In 1999 Mileaf directed the Actor's Theatre of Louisville's National Ten-Minute Play Contest for their annual Humana Festival of New American Plays. That same year she directed the world premiere of Erik Ehn's MAID Off-Broadway for the Lincoln Center Theater Festival, which ran from July 7-25; she also directed the Off-Broadway premiere of Kira Obolensky's Lobster Alice at Playwrights Horizons, starring Jessica Hecht.

In 2000, Mileaf directed the Off-broadway premiere of Neena Beber's Hard Feelings at Women's Project Theater, and Lee Blessing's Going to St. Ives at the La Jolla Playhouse. In 2001, Mileaf collaborated once again with French playwright Yasmina Reza on the west coast premiere of her play The Unexpected Man at the Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles. In 2002 she directed the Off-Broadway premiere of Julia Cho's 99 Histories at the Cherry Lane Theatre. In 2003 she directed the U.S. premiere of Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt's M. Ibrahim and the Flowers of the Koran Off-Broadway at McGinn/Cazale Theatre with PlayCo. In 2004 she directed the Off-Broadway premiere of Brighde Mullins' Those Who Can, Do with Clubbed Thumb. In 2005 she directed two plays at the Williamstown Theatre Festival; Lucy Prebble's The Sugar Syndrome, starring Gaby Hoffmann, and John Belluso's A Nervous Smile, starring Amy Brenneman. That same year she directed three Off-Broadway premieres; Alexandra Gersten-Vassilaros' The Argument at Vineyard Theatre; Lee Blessing's Going to St. Ives at Primary Stages; and Vijay Tendulkar's Sakharam Binder with PlayCo at 59E59 Theaters.

In 2006 Mileaf directed Glen Berger's Underneath the Lintel at the George Street Playhouse, starring Richard Schiff.In 2007, the production transferred to the Duchess Theatre in London's West End, and was broadcast via BBC Radio 4. That same year, Mileaf returned to the Williamstown Theatre Festival to direct Nöel Coward's Blithe Spirit, starring Jessica Hecht; as well as Wendy Wasserstein's final play, Third, at the Geffen Playhouse. In 2008 she directed two plays Off-Broadway; Brooke Berman's A Perfect Couple at the Daryl Roth Theatre, and Lee Blessing's A Body of Water at Primary Stages. In 2013 Mileaf directed N. Richard Nash's The Rainmaker at The Old Globe, and Arthur Machen's The Great God Pan at The Juilliard School. In 2015 she directed Kwame Kwei-Armah's Let There Be Love at the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco, California. From 2014-2019, Mileaf directed four plays for 59E59 Theaters's Summer Shorts Series. From 2016-2018, Mileaf directed three successive productions of Sharon Washington's one-woman show Feeding the Dragon at City Theatre, Hartford Stage, and Primary Stages.

Mileaf is also a frequent collaborator with the Philadelphia Theatre Company, where she has directed eight productions, including of Paula Vogel's How I Learned to Drive in 1998; Martin McDonagh's The Beauty Queen of Leenane in 1999; Margaret Edson's Wit in 2000; Barbara Ehrenreich's Nickel and Dimed in 2004; Tracey Scott Wilson's The Story in 2005; Lynn Nottage's Ruined in 2011; Neil LaBute's Reasons to Be Pretty in 2012; and Lisa D'Amour's Detroit in 2014.

Mileaf lives in New York City. She is married to the Obie Award-winning set designer Neil Patel, with whom she has two children.^[18]

Mileaf is the recipient of the Libby Zion Fellowship from Yale University, the Jonathan Alper Directing Fellowship from Manhattan Theatre Club, and the Boris Sagal and Bill Foeller Directing Fellowship from Williamstown Theatre Festival. In 1995 she was named to the inaugural Lincoln Center Director’s Lab.^[20] In 1998 she was made Resident Director of New Dramatists.^[21]

• Maria Mileaf at the Lortel Off-Broadway database