Juilliard Hires Director Anna D. Shapiro to Lead Drama Division

Tony Award-winning director and former Steppenwolf Theatre head Anna D. Shapiro has been tapped to guide Juilliard’s performing program. 

Shapiro has been named the following Richard Rodgers dean and director of the drama division on the prestigious faculty, taking up beginning in July 2027. She succeeds Evan Yionoulis, who ended her tenure on the finish of the 2026 tutorial 12 months to develop into the brand new dean of the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale.

Shapiro involves the function after serving on the school of Northwestern University since 2002, the place she leads the graduate directing program. 

She additionally served because the inventive director of Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago from 2015 to 2021. She has directed a number of Broadway productions, together with successful the 2008 Tony Award for August: Osage County, and incomes a Tony nomination for The Motherf**ker with the Hat. Her Broadway directing credit additionally embrace final season’s Eureka Day, Of Mice and Men, Fish within the Dark, The Minutes and This Is Our Youth.

Shapiro is a graduate of the Yale School of Drama and Columbia College. She most not too long ago directed Eric Bentley’s Are You Now or Have You Ever Been, which ended its run at New York City Center earlier this month. 

“Anna is among the theater’s most respected artists,” mentioned Juilliard President Damian Woetzel. “She brings exceptional creative leadership, clarity of educational purpose, and an unwavering belief in the power of artists to shape culture. We are thrilled to welcome Anna as the next Richard Rodgers Dean and Director of Juilliard Drama. She is a singular presence in the field, deeply respected by her peers, connected to the most vital creative work, and passionate about preparing the next generation to lead with imagination and purpose.”

“It is such an honor to join the incredible community of faculty, staff, and students at Juilliard,” Shapiro mentioned. “To be asked to add my voice to the leadership of this storied American institution, in a moment where the cultivation of our next major cultural voices is so critical, is a responsibility I do not enter into lightly. I am thrilled and humbled and ready, I cannot wait to begin.”

Shapiro will start assembly with college students, school, and workers in September. Her full-time tenure will formally start July 1, 2027.

In the interim, Ara Guzelimian, who was provost at Juilliard from 2007 to 2020, will function Richard Rodgers Dean and Director of the Drama Division for the upcoming 12 months, alongside different school and alum together with Laura Linney, who will function an inventive advisor to the drama division.