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ABOUT TANYA

John R Smith Jnr as Katurian and Mat Young as Michal in The Pillowman
John R Smith Jnr as Katurian and Mat Young as Michal in The Pillowman
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John R Smith Jnr as Harding and Geoffrey Gilbert as McMurphy in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Tanya is Director, Producer, Designer, Acting Coach, and Actor who looks at life and theatre through a lens of empathy. She is the Co-Founder and Co-Artistic Director of Vagabond Theatre Company. She has also served as an Artistic Consultant at The Bijou Theatre in Bridgeport and Co-Producer of The Bijou Actors Guild, where she also directed and produced their acclaimed productions of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and Take Me Out, respectively. 

She studied theatre and film at Bowling Green State University, and Shakespearean technique in workshops with Louis Burke, where she became involved with his campaign to reopen the (now sadly destroyed) Shakespeare Theatre in her native Stratford. Through this work, she was invited to participate in Playing Shakespeare USA, a weekend intensive workshop with RSC Co-Founder, John Barton.

In addition to producing and designing VTC's 2016/17 Season, she directed VTC's inaugural show, The Scarlet Letter , also taking on the role of Mistress Hibbins. She also designed light and sound for VTC's production of The Exonerated  and their 2017 Holiday Homecoming Special: It's a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play at The Bijou. She also directed and designed the 2018 editions of IAWL at The Bijou and The Stony Creek Museum, with VTC partnering with Legacy Theatre at the latter. 

Other directing credits include Much Ado About Nothing for Algonkuin Theater Company in New Haven, Radium Girls at Westport Community Theater, Neighborhood Watch  for the 2018 East/West Playfest in Westport and Milford, and the history making, sold out run of Four Weddings and an Elvis at Milford Art Council's Eastbound Theatre.

Additional design credits include: Lights for London Suite at WCT, and Sound for These Shining Lives and Wait Until Dark, and Set and Sound for Four Weddings and an Elvis at EBT, and Radium Girls at WCT.

Her previous acting credits include the Gravedigger in Hamlet and Joan Devereaux in Murder in Green Meadows for Algonkuin Theater Company, and Laura in The Psychic for Clockwork Rep in Oakville.

She has been nominated for 2 individual OnStage Critics Awards and 11 BroadwayWorld.com Awards for her directing and design work, and including her work as a producer, her shows have garnered nominations for 12 OnStage Critics Awards and 53 BroadwayWorld.com Awards.

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