Katherine Wilkinson is a director and theatremaker based in Brooklyn. She is reimagining the classics and creating new worlds for queer futures.

Katherine Wilkinson (she/they) makes physically daring, site-responsive, ensemble-driven theater that moves between classical texts and new work, including scripted plays, devised performance, and immersive projects.

Drawn to work that demands stamina, rigor, and presence, she builds performances through deep collaboration with ensembles. Her work is driven by a love of poetry, endurance, and transformation, and a fascination with the tender space where the everyday erupts into spectacle and metaphor.

She is a Columbia University MFA School of the Arts Faculty member and the 2024-2026 Leader of the WP Directors Lab (20-22 Lab Alum). She is also a 2023 New Georges Audrey Resident, a 2022-2023 Orchard Project Greenhouse Lab member, and a recent winner of the Opera America Tobin Director-Designer Prize. She is a Visiting Professor and the current Interim Head of Directing at Texas Tech University’s School of Theatre and Dance.

Katherine has developed work with WP, Ars Nova, HERE arts, La Jolla Playhouse (WOW Fest), The New Ohio (Ice Factory), New Georges, Columbia Stages, MCC, Clubbed Thumb, Classical Theatre of Harlem, The Mercury Story, The Brick, Signature Theatre, ZAZ10TS Gallery, The Tank, Playmakers Rep, The Magic Theatre, Fusebox Festival, The Watermill Center, The VORTEX, Theater Mu, Miami New Drama, The Oklahoma Contemporary, Corkscrew Festival, NOLA Fringe, Houston Fringe, among others. 

Katherine has served as Associate/Assistant Director for Anne Bogart, Sam Gold, Whitney White, JoAnne Akalaitis, Oliver Butler, and Andy Blankenbuehler. 

Katherine has directed and taught at universities nationwide, including Columbia University, Harvard, Bates College, Juilliard, Bard College, UNC-Chapel Hill, Rutgers University, Arcadia University, Duke, SUNY Purchase, NYU, The University of Queensland (Australia), Texas Tech, and St. Edward’s.

Since 2023, Katherine has served as Co-Artistic Director of the Marfa Intensive, a two-week training program that convenes students and professional artists from around the world to study Viewpoints, Composition, and cross-cultural exchange. Set in the artistic hub and vast desert landscape of Marfa, Texas, the program has welcomed participants from universities across the United States as well as from Turkey and other international institutions.

From 2011-2013, Katherine lived in Brisbane, Australia, and worked as a resident director and teaching artist for Zen Zen Zo. During that time, Katherine taught Viewpoints, Suzuki, Butoh, and Devising to students and professional artists all over Queensland. After leaving Australia, Katherine moved to Austin, TX, where she founded Gale Theatre Company. Gale presented new ensemble-driven works that toured the Southwest from 2013-2018. During this time Katherine also directed, produced, and art directed music videos for the band MOBLEY that premiered on Vice, Billboard, and Afropunk.

In 2023, Katherine co-founded DOUBLE FEATURE, a project dedicated to staging reimagined classics in intimate locations all over New York City.

MFA, Directing, Columbia University 
BA, Performance Studies, UNC-Chapel Hill