Guest Director, Romeo & Juliet
Manna-Symone is a Chicago-based director, producer, and artistic leader specializing in new plays and reimagined classics. Her work is centered around emergence, identity, belonging, & healing.
Her recent directing credits include The Tempest by William Shakespeare, sandblasted by Charly Evon Simpson, Big Love by Charles Mee, Precious Little by Madeline George, Letters from London by Salwa Meghjee, The Revenger's Tragedy by Thomas Middleton, and The Death of the Last Black Man in the World Entire World by Suzan-Lori Parks (Northwestern University); Self Portrait with Dirty Hair by Jordan Ealy (Keegan Theatre), A Nightingale's Pet Icarus by Andrew Reid (Rorschach Theatre, Klexography); Saturn's Return by Clayton Pelham Jr and The Client by Justin Weaks (PostShift Theatre Co.).
Associate director credits include Jaja’s African Hair Braiding (Manhattan Theatre Club, Broadway); JaJa's African Hair Braiding (Arena Stage/Berkley Rep/Chicago Shakespeare); The Most Spectacularly Lamentable Trial of Miz Martha Washington (Steppenwolf Theatre Company); The Amen Corner (Shakespeare Theater Company). Assistant credits: All’s Well That Ends Well (Chicago Shakespeare Theatre); Amadeus, Henry IV, Part I (The Folger Theatre); BLKS (Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company); Indecent, Turn Me Loose (Arena Stage); The Remains, Translations, The Wolves, Curve of Departure, Skeleton Crew (Studio Theatre); Broken Glass (Theatre J).