Devin Brain

Director  |  Adapter  |  Educator

My name is Devin Brain and I am honored to serve as the Producing Artistic Director of The Acting Company as it moves into its 54th season, as well as a freelance Director based in NYC.  A graduate of the Yale School of Drama, my work has been seen across the country as part of the Acting Company's National tours and featured in spaces in Chicago, NYC, and China.  

My work is evenly split between contemporary adaptations of classical texts (with a particular focus on Shakespeare) and new work (often ensemble-generated). I strive to craft theatre where the audience is a vital part of the event: neither ignored nor assaulted but invited into work that walks the line between the intimate and epic.  In pursuit of that, I am drawn to heightened and theatrical work where poetry is expressed in language and image. Yet the key to theater is, in the end, entertainment, as our work must draw an audience into its grasp, beguile and amuse them, even as it attempts to expand their perspectives on themselves and their world.  

Faith is central to my work:  faith in the vitality of language - that a word can change the world; faith in an image's ability to open up new vistas inside each audience member; and faith that the communal experience of theatre can be revelatory.