Lydia FortAssistant Professor, Theater StudiesResident Director, Theater Emory

Lydia Fort has directed at Cygnet Theatre, Diversionary Theatre, Perseverance Theatre, Women’s Project Theatre, Women Center Stage, Urban Stages, McCarter Theatre YouthInk! Festival, New Federal Theatre, Ensemble Studio Theater, Classical Theatre of Harlem, freeFall Theatre, Hangar Theatre, Planet Connections Festivity (where she was honored with the 2103 Best Director and Greener Planet Awards) as well as other festivals including the New Black Fest, 48 Hours in Harlem and the Fire This Time Festival. Lydia is the co-founder and artistic director of Akadēmeia Theatre Company; and has penned two performance pieces, Welcome to My Body and S/HE, which explore identity, culture, the body and illness. She was a member of the US delegation to the International Theatre Institute’s World Congress in China in 2011. Lydia was a Time Warner Foundation Fellow of the 2012-2014 Lab at Women’s Project Theatre, New York Theatre Workshop Directing Fellow, Drama League Fellow and a Theatre Communications Group (TCG) New Generations Future Leader grantee. Ms. Fort is a member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Union, the League of Professional Theatre Women, the International Drama/Theatre and Education Association and the artEquity 2017 cohort. Ms. Fort holds a BA from New York University and received both a Certificate in Arts Management for the Performing Arts and an MFA in Directing from the University of Washington.