Jemma Alix Levy

Jemma Alix Levy is a director, educator, and member of the American Shakespeare Center’s Board of Trustees. She is an Associate Professor of Acting and Directing at Washington and Lee University, and she was the founding Artistic Director of the Muse of Fire Theatre Company, which she ran for ten years.

Her connection to the ASC began with her own training: after receiving her BA from Amherst College, Levy graduated from The Juilliard School’s graduate directing program, earned an MA in Humanities from the University of Chicago, and then earned an MFA in Shakespeare and Performance from Mary Baldwin University’s program in association with the American Shakespeare Center. She has served as co-chair of both the Artistic Committee and the Education Committee for the Shakespeare Theatre Association.

For the American Shakespeare Center, Levy has directed The Two Gentlemen of Verona on the Hungry Hearts Tour, The Taming of the Shrew, and Sense and Sensibility. Elsewhere, she has won critical acclaim for directing professional productions across the US, including in New York, New Jersey, Texas, and Illinois, among them eight Shakespeare productions for Muse of Fire and Macbeth for Quill Theatre in Richmond.

In 2019, she made her international debut for Prague Shakespeare Company with a production of Molière’s Tartuffe. Levy has also written and directed adaptations based on Shakespeare, Lope de Vega, and two-time National Book Award nominee Howard Norman, including Queen Margaret, drawn from the Henry VI tetralogy and Richard III, and Believe None of Us, drawn from Hamlet.

Before she arrived at Washington and Lee University, Jemma taught theatre and directed at Webster University’s Conservatory of Theater Arts (MO), Wabash College (IN), Roosevelt University Chicago College for the Performing Arts (IL), Mary Baldwin University (VA), and The Brearley School (NY).