about me

Alexandru Mihail is a NY based director, originally from Bucharest, Romania. His work, both in Romania and the US, varied in style and genre, is always fueled by the dialogue with the community and unabashedly challenging its fears. Selected theatre credits include: the European Premiere of Doll’s House Part 2 by Lucas Hnath, (Metropolis Theatre, Bucharest), the World Premiere’s of Jen Shyu’s works Nine Doors and Zero Grasses (National Sawdust, NYC), Aliens with Extraordinary Skills* by Saviana Stanescu (Odeon Theatre, Bucharest – European Premiere); The Underpants* by Carl Sternheim (National Theatre, Bucharest); Zoyka’s Apartment by Mikhail Bulgakov and Sophocle’s Elektra (Princeton University); The Last Days of Mankind by Karl Kraus (Bard Center for Performing Arts – American Premiere); The Stronger by August Strindberg (TBG Theatre/ Drama League NY); Master Harlod and the Boys by Athol Fugard and Enemy of the People by H. Ibsen (NYU/Atlantic Acting School); Tlicked* by Gabriel Pintilei (Odeon Theatre, Bucharest –Premiere); Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night (The New School); Chekhov’s The Seagull (Yale School of Drama); the friendship of her thighs by Martyna Majok (Yale School of Drama); The Bachelors by Caroline McGraw (Yale, Carlotta Festival). Alex has won the prestigious UNITER Prize for his direction of Peter Shaffer's Black Comedy. For MediaPro Pictures, Romania, he directed the television series Poor Man, Rich Man. 2016 New York Theatre Workshop Directing Fellow; Drama League Directing Fellow; Fulbright Fellow; MFA, Yale School of Drama.

about my work

There is this story I read once in a book about kitsch. It is said that in the beginning of the last century a theatre troupe was touring the Wild West. In that troupe there was an actor who was always playing the part of villain and he was so convincing, so real in his representation that one evening in a small town, a spectator with a strong sense of justice and a hot blooded temperament stood up and shot him dead. The spectator was put on trial and hanged. The story says that the two are buried next to each other and the traveller can still read today the inscriptions on their funeral stones: “here lies the worst spectator in the world” and “here lies the worst actor in the world”.

This story keeps reminding me: theatre, maybe more than any other (legal) human occupation allows us to investigate our outmost fears, desires and dreams, but in the end, it is just our flirtation with reality... and nothing more... and don't you forget that.