About Leora.

Leora Morris is a director and creator from Toronto, Canada.

She is currently based in Vancouver, British Columbia (Canada) where she is an assistant professor of directing/acting at the University of British Columbia. Prior to that, Leora lived in Atlanta, Georgia, serving as the Resident Artist in Education at the Alliance Theatre where she supported the programming, development, and producing of new work for young audiences. Recent Alliance productions include A Tale of Two Cities, A Christmas Carol, Christmas Carol: The Radio Drive-In, Ride the Cyclone (based on original direction by Rachel Rockwell), Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed: The Rock Music Experience, Hey Willy See the Pyramids, Winnie-the-Pooh, Crossing Delancey, and Dancing Granny. Other recent work in the USA include Labour of Love (U.S. Premiere at Olney Theatre Center), Spring Awakening (Connecticut College), and workshops and readings at Public Theater, Florida Studio Theatre, NYU, O’Neill Theatre Center, and others.

Leora is a graduate of the MFA Directing program at Yale School of Drama. Her Yale productions included Thomas Middleton and Howard Barker's Women Beware Women, Shakespeare’s The Troublesome Reign of King John, Riverbank: A Noh Play for Northerly Americans by Brendan Pelsue, and Amy and the Orphans by Lindsey Ferrentino. At the Yale Summer Cabaret, she created and directed an original, devised work, love holds a lamp in this little room, inspired by the life of Adah Isaacs Menken. At Yale Cabaret, where she served as co-artistic director for the 48th season, Leora directed He Left Quietly by Yaël Farber, based on the life experiences of Duma Kumalo, as well as Fassbinder's The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant.

In Canada, Leora recently directed The Sound Inside (Toronto Theatre Critic’s Award - Best Director of a Play) and Knives in Hens (Coal Mine Theatre), The Philosopher’s Wife (Dora Nomination, Best Director), Orphans (Coal Mine Theatre), and He Left Quietly (2014 SummerWorks Best Production). Before moving to the USA, Leora worked as a dramaturg and director for new works of theatre and dance across Canada, serving as Associate Dramaturg for the 2013 Banff Playwrights’ Lab; and as Apprentice in New Play Development at Tarragon Theatre. As an Associate Artist with Small Wooden Shoe, Leora co-curated and directed the Reading Difficult Plays and Singing Simple Songs series and associate directed productions of Brecht’s Galileo and Evan Webber’s Antigone Dead People. In 2012 she was honored with Toronto’s Ken MacDougall Award for Emerging Directors. 

Fellowships: Alliance Theatre’s Yale Directing Fellow (2016-2017), Manhattan Theatre Club (2017-2018), NNPN/O’Neill National Directing Fellow (2017-2018).