Joanie Schultz
Joanie is a director, educator, and arts leader of theatre and opera. She calls home Chicago, but makes homes wherever she is.
In 2017 & 2018, Joanie served as Artistic Director of WaterTower Theatre in Dallas-Fort Worth, where she oversaw two years of diverse, exciting, and award-winning work. From 2014-16, Joanie served as Associate Artistic Producer at Victory Gardens Theater, as part of the Leadership U One-on-One Fellowship funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and administered by TCG.
Joanie’s work includes directing for The Goodman Theatre, Steppenwolf Theatre, Victory Gardens Theater, The Cleveland Play House, Kansas City Repertory Theatre, Studio Theatre in Washington DC, and at least 30 other theatre and opera companies throughout Chicago and the US.
Select notable work has included directing the smash hit and long-extended immersive production of Hand to God (Studio Theatre & WaterTower Theatre); her own new adaptation of Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House (WaterTower Theatre); the visually stunning world premiere of Frida…A Self Portrait (Kansas City Repertory Theatre, Cleveland Play House, Portland Center Stage); the world premieres of Sarah Gubbins’ Cocked (Victory Gardens Theater), fml: how Carson McCullers saved my life (Steppenwolf Theatre), and The Kid Thing (About Face Theatre/Chicago Dramatists); the critically lauded The Whale and Rest by Samuel D. Hunter (Victory Gardens Theater); the Jeff Award winning productions of In Arabia We’d All be Kings and The Brief History of Helen of Troy (Steep Theatre); site-specific performances of the operas Acis and Galatea (Chicago Cultural Center) and Bluebeard’s Castle (New Millennium Orchestra); and co-creating and directing a 6-hour theatrical adaptation of Wagner’s Ring Cycle (The Building Stage).
Joanie holds an MFA in directing from Northwestern University and a BA in directing from Columbia College Chicago. She was a Drama League Fellow; The Goodman Theatre's Michael Maggio Directing Fellow; the SDCF Denham Fellow; a Lincoln Center Theater Directors Lab participant; and was 2013 Co-Artistic Curator for Theater on the Lake. Joanie was co-Artistic Director of Estrogen Fest; Associate Artistic Director of The Building Stage; and co-Founder/Artistic Director of Flush Puppy Productions.
Along with being an ensemble member at Steep Theatre, she is an artistic associate with Victory Gardens Theater; and an artistic cabinet member at Studio Theatre in DC. She has been on theater faculty of Columbia College Chicago and University of Chicago, the opera faculty of Roosevelt University, and has taught for the School at Steppenwolf, the Audition Studio, and Italian Operatic Experience.
Steep Productions
The Cheats
Martyr
A Small Fire
Luther
The Receptionist
A Brief History of Helen of Troy
In Arabia We'd All Be Kings
