Congratulations to Columbia College Chicago Theatre alum and Tony Award-winning director Anna D. Shapiro ’90, HDR ’15 – a 1990 graduate of Columbia College’s theatre program and a 2015 recipient of an Honorary Doctorate of Arts from Columbia College – on her appointment as Richard Rodgers Dean and Director of the Drama Division at the Juilliard School in New York City. The news of Shapiro’s appointment was announced Thursday, August 6, 2026. Shapiro will meet with Juilliard students, faculty, and staff at the start of the new academic year in September 2026 and, following a period of transition, will begin her full-time tenure on July 1, 2027.
As previously reported in this blog, Shapiro graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1990 from Columbia College Chicago, where she was a protege of the college’s longtime chair of Theatre, Sheldon Patinkin, and where her mother, theatre director Joann Shapiro, was a faculty member. She received her Master of Fine Arts degree in theatre directing from the Yale School of Drama and went on to head the graduate program in theatre directing at Northwestern University in the Chicago suburb of Evanston, her hometown. She has been affiliated with Chicago’s internationally renowned Steppenwolf Theatre Company since 1995, serving as the original director of the company’s New Plays Lab, later joining the artistic staff as Resident Director and Associate Artist, and joining the company as an ensemble member in 2005. She served as Steppenwolf’s artistic director from 2015 to 2021, during which time she shepherded Steppenwolf through what she described as “a monumental moment” — the expansion of the theatre’s campus with the building of a new multi-million-dollar, 50,000-square-foot education center next to its longtime venue in the 1600 block of North Halsted Street in Chicago’s Lincoln Park neighborhood.
As previously reported in this blog, Shapiro received an Honorary Doctorate of Arts from Columbia College in 2015 when she spoke to Theatre Program graduates at the college’s commencement. And, as previously reported in this blog, she was a featured speaker at the first-ever Columbia College Theatre Reunion in October 2018, which celebrated the reopening of the renovated Getz Theater Center of Columbia College at 72 E. 11th St. in Chicago’s South Loop.
Shapiro’s Broadway directing career began with August: Osage County, for which she won the 2008 Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play and the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Director of a Play — after having won a Joseph Jefferson Award (Chicago’s top theatre prize) in 2007 for directing Steppenwolf’s world premiere of the play (which also won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama). Subsequent Broadway directing credits include the Steppenwolf transfer productions of This Is Our Youth (2014), Linda Vista (2019), and The Minutes (2020) as well as The Motherfucker with the Hat (2011); Of Mice and Men (2014), starring James Franco and Chris O’Dowd, Britain’s which National Theatre Live selected as the first American production to be broadcast to over 700 cinemas across the U.S. and Canada; Fish in the Dark (2015), written by and starring Larry David; and Straight White Men (2018). Her most recent New York directing project was an Off-Broadway staging of Eric Bentley‘s documentary theatre piece Are You Now or Have You Ever Been at New York City Center, with a cast that included her fellow Columbia College Theatre student Scott Adsit.
“One of the most acclaimed theatre artists of her generation, Shapiro will lead Juilliard’s internationally recognized actor and playwright training programs, bringing decades of professional achievement, educational leadership, and a deep commitment to cultivating emerging dramatic artists,” said the Juilliard School press release announcing Shapiro’s appointment.
“Anna is among the theater’s most respected artists,” said 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. . . 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.” Added actress Laura Linney, a Juilliard alum and member of the school’s Board of Trustees: “Along with her astute intellect and articulate mind, she brings her remarkable talent as a theater director as well as her understanding of how to unite and collaborate with students and faculty alike. The level of her professional and academic skill is rare indeed. Anna’s leadership and her infectious love of young artists and the arts will receive a warm and joyous welcome here at Juilliard.”
Founded in 1905, the Juilliard School is a world leader in performing arts education. The school’s mission is to cultivate excellence through the highest caliber of education in music, dance, and drama for gifted students from around the world, so they may achieve their fullest potential, expanding the reach and elevating the impact of the arts. Located at Lincoln Center in New York City, Juilliard offers undergraduate and graduate degrees in dance, drama (acting and playwriting), and music (classical, jazz, historical performance, and vocal arts).
