About

Hi!

I’m Erica Zippel Schnitzer (she/her) and I’m a Brooklyn-based director, lighting designer, and theatrical manager.
Welcome to the party!

WHAT I DO IN THE THEATRE:

As a director, I’m especially drawn to projects that involve developing new work and adapting classical works for the modern era. Most recently, I’ve started to explore the ways in which big, bold spectacle can still tell emotional, impactful, and authentic stories. How does a stage full of color and objects and maximalist aesthetics still manage to speak to the heart of the story?
I have the most fun with magical realism, surrealism, and absurdism, and aim to tell the stories of my community while centering women, trans, and non-binary performers. My rehearsal rooms prioritize collaboration and collective creative discovery. My favorite kind of collaboration involves travels with a playwright through the creative process  – I love nothing more than reading every single draft of a new work and offering support and feedback to help the work grow.

Since moving to NYC, I’ve worked on projects of all kinds in theater and entertainment. Favorite directing projects include The Great Hunger by Kallan Dana, Playdate by Kallan Dana, Two Man Show by RashDash, Things We Both Like and Why (Creator & Director), and Property/Talk— a combination of two works written by Tennessee Williams. I am also a founding member of and former resident artist at 3DaysPrior, a Brooklyn-based theater company whose mission was to commission new works from up-and-coming playwrights and employ its members in workshop-based, collaborative discovery.

Other favorite non-directing projects include Particular Matter(s) by Tomas Saraceno, Fandango for Butterflies and Coyotes by Andrea Thome, Plastic Bag Store by Robin Frohardt (PomArts & Times Square Arts Alliance), What The Constitution Means to Me by Heidi Schreck (NYTW), Black Light by Daniel Alexander Jones (Greenwich House Theater), and Mile Long Opera (The Office Arts). I've worked in a variety of roles with a variety of theater / production companies including New York Theatre Workshop, The Shed, The Bushwick Starr, HERE Arts Center, Pomegranate Arts, En Garde Arts, Dixon Place, SOCIETY, THE OFFICE Arts, Two Headed Rep, The Tank, The Momentary, BRIC Arts Media, New York Musical Festival, The New Ohio Theatre, Theater For a New City, The New Museum, and the 14th St. YMCA Theater.

I graduated from Skidmore College with a degree in Theater and minors in Political Science and Arts Administration. I grew up in Montclair, NJ – home of the infamous New Jersey Jackals (a minor league baseball team located at Yogi Berra Stadium) (Technically, the Jackals might be located in Little Falls) (Don’t @ me.)

In my free time, I cook needlessly elaborate meals, explore new breweries around Brooklyn with my roommates, go to concerts, support my friends’ blossoming comedy / acting / food service careers, and obsessively follow the New York Yankees. Year-round. Seriously. If you’d like to talk to me about baseball, reach out – any time, day or night.