Artistic DirectorMichael Bloom Michael Bloom is the eighth Artistic Director of The Cleveland Play House, the oldest theatre in the country. Recently at The Play House he directed Rabbit Hole, A Streetcar Named Desire, and Well. He has directed at many of the country's major theatres, including American Repertory Theatre, Berkeley Rep, South Coast Rep, Seattle Rep, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Manhattan Theatre Club, Alley Theatre, Alliance Theatre Company, Long Wharf Theatre, and the Sundance Playwright's Institute. His productions have also been seen throughout Japan and in Tokyo at the Aoyama Theatre and Theatre Cocoon. His Off-Broadway production of Sight Unseen garnered three Obie Awards, and he, himself, received a Drama Desk nomination for direction. Other productions include the American premiere of A Young Lady From Rwanda, Gross Indecency (for which we won the Elliott Norton Award for Best Directing in 1998), the world premiere of Dinner With Friends at Actors Theatre of Louisville, the Los Angeles premieres of The Cryptogram and The Old Neighborhood at the Geffen Playhouse, Major Barbara and The Philadelphia Story at Kansas City Repertory Theatre, and the world premiere of Tennessee Williams's Spring Storm.
Among the many playwrights he's worked with are: John Robin Baitz, Anthony Clarvoe, Don DeLillo, John Guare, David Hare, William Hauptman, Arthur Kopit, Neil Labute, David Lodge, Donald Margulies, David Mamet, and Wallace Shawn.
He has been Associate Artistic Director at the Hartman Theatre Company and Associate Director at American Repertory Theatre, and co-founder of Actors Repertory of Texas. Bloom has taught at NYU, Harvard University, University of Texas and Scripps College. His articles on theatre have appeared in American Theatre Magazine and The New York Times. His book Thinking Like A Director was published by Farrar, Straus, & Giroux in 2001.