Personal Information

Degree:  B.A., Residential College at the University of Michigan
M.F.A., Northwestern University

Ms. Ann Shanahan teaches Theatre History, Directing, and performance classes and is the Faculty Advisor for Director's Forum, a seminar in advanced directing which supports student directors in Loyola's Studio Season. She also mentors directors in the collaborative process with designers for Studio productions. In the Fall 2006 Semester, she will direct the first Studio production of HEDDA GABLER, which opens on October 4, 2006.

Ms. Shanahan's areas of interest and teaching specialties include director training, women and theatre, and theatre as a means for social change.

Ms. Shanahan assisted in developing Loyola?s unique Studio Program, supporting a yearly season of student directed and designed plays, and has mentored numerous student directed productions since joining the Loyola faculty in 2000, including the Dead Man Walking Project. She was faculty coordinator for the Fall Platform Reading Series 2005. Ann currently serves as representative from Theatre to the Academic Council of the College of Arts and Sciences.

Prior to joining the Theatre Department full time, Ann worked for 10 years as a professional actor and director, and as a guest artist at several colleges and universities. She was an ensemble member of the Brecht Company in Ann Arbor, MI, and performed internationally in Stockholm and Prague with the American Drama Group and British Festival Theatre Company. Her professional directing credits include: THE VAGABOND and THE TURN OF THE SCREW for City Lit Theatre, LIES AND LEGENDS, WASP, WARRIOR, and THE LIVING for Buffalo Theatre Ensemble, DRUMS IN THE NIGHT for the Brecht Company, and TALK TO ME LIKE THE RAIN for The Drama League Director?s Project in New York. In addition, she has directed numerous productions at the university and college level in the Chicago area. Favorites include Ibsen's GHOSTS and A DOLL'S HOUSE, Brecht's MOTHER COURAGE, an original adaptation of Charlotte Perkins Gilman's THE YELLOW WALLPAPER, LOVES LABOURS LOST and THE LARAMIE PROJECT, and Maria Irene Fornes' FEFU AND HER FRIENDS and ABINGDON SQUARE. In 2006, Ms. Shanahan was the recipient of a Summer Research Grant from Loyola to initiate research toward a book on Chicago Theatre Directors.

Recipient:

• 1996 Drama League of New York Directing Fellowship
• 1995 Chicago Drama League Travel Grant to the Royal Court Theatre, London

Member:

• Association for Theatre in Higher Education