Milwaukee Repertory Theater’s Associate Artistic Director May Adrales Receives the 2018 Alan Schneider Director Award

June 15, 2018- [Milwaukee, WI] Milwaukee Repertory Theater’s Associate Artistic Director May Adrales is the recipient of this year’s Alan Schneider Director Award. The award was presented late yesterday at Theatre Communications Group‘s national conference in St. Louis, MS.  The award is designed to identify and assist exceptional directors whose talent has been demonstrated through work in specific regions, but who may not be well known nationally.   With it comes a cash prize of $7,500, which may be used for travel, research or other activities specifically focused on the directing craft or related career opportunities.

May Adrales joined Milwaukee Rep as Associate Artistic Director in 2016 directing past season’s The Who & The What and Animal Farm. This fall she is directing the much-anticipated musical In The Heights which is a co-production with Seattle Repertory Theater and Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park.  Adrales has worked nationally, primarily directing new plays including Qui Nguyen’s award-winning Vietgone (Manhattan Theatre Club, South Coast Rep, Oregon Shakespeare Festival and Seattle Rep), JC Lee’s Luce (LCT3), Katori Hall’s Whaddabloodclot!!! (Williamstown Theatre Festival), A. Rey Pamatmat’s Edith Can Shoot Things and Hit Them (Actors Theatre of Louisville), Thomas Bradshaw’s Mary (The Goodman Theatre), The Bereaved (Partial Comfort Productions), In This House (Two River Theater Company), Richard Dresser’s Trouble Cometh (SF Playhouse), Qui Nguyen’s Five Days ‘Til Saturday (NYU Tisch) and Tommy Smith’s The Wife (Access Theater). She is currently at Oregon Shakespeare Festival directing Idris Goodwin’s The Way the Mountain Moved.

The Alan Schneider Director Award was established in honor of Alan Schneider’s significant contribution to the American theatre and his lifelong concern for the development of career opportunities for freelance directors. A prolific director and mentor, Alan Schneider was responsible for over one hundred productions in the American theatre, introducing American audiences to playwrights such as Samuel Beckett (Schneider directed the 1956 American premiere of Waiting for Godot); Edward Albee (Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?); Michael Weller (Moonchildren and Loose Ends); Harold Pinter (The Birthday Party, The Dumb Waiter and The Collection); and Bertolt Brecht (The Caucasian Chalk Circle). Schneider taught at Catholic University, the Juilliard School, and the University of California at San Diego; was associated with Arena Stage for thirty years; was the co-artistic director of the Acting Company; and at the time of his death was the president of the Board of Directors for Theatre Communications Group.  Following his death in a 1984 London traffic accident, the Alan Schneider Memorial Fund was established by TCG, the Acting Company and the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers. Proceeds from the Fund go to the Alan Schneider Director Award, which provides national visibility to the recipient as well as a grant to support activities specifically tied to the development of the craft of directing.

For more information about Milwaukee Repertory Theater, please visit www.MilwaukeeRep.com

About Milwaukee Repertory Theater

Milwaukee Rep is the largest performing arts organization in Wisconsin in terms of audiences served and one of the largest professional theaters in the country. Each year, The Rep welcomes up to 275,000 people at nearly 700 performances of 15 productions ranging from compelling dramas, powerful classics, new plays and full-scale musicals in its three unique performance venues – the Quadracci Powerhouse, Stiemke Studio and Stackner Cabaret. Now in its 65^th Season, The Rep has gained a national reputation as an incubator of new work, an agent of community change and a forward-thinking provider of vital arts education programs. Under the leadership of Artistic Director Mark Clements and Managing Director Chad Bauman, Milwaukee Repertory Theater ignites positive change in the cultural, social, and economic vitality of its community by creating world-class theater experiences that entertain, provoke, and inspire meaningful dialogue among an audience representative of Milwaukee’s rich diversity.

NOTE: This press release was submitted to Urban Milwaukee and was not written by an Urban Milwaukee writer. While it is believed to be reliable, Urban Milwaukee does not guarantee its accuracy or completeness.