Quick Facts
Biography
Kate Whoriskey (born 1970) is a freelance theatre director.
Personal life
Whoriskey grew up in Acton, Massachusetts. She majored in theater at New York University (Experimental Theater Wing) (graduating in 1992) and in 1998 she completed a post-graduate program in directing from the American Repertory Theater's (A.R.T.) Institute for Advanced Theater Training at Harvard University. Whoriskey is married to actor Daniel Breaker who has played Donkey in Shrek the Musical on Broadway.Whoriskey and Breaker have a son, named Rory, born in 2008.
Professional career
After completing her graduate program at ART, she immediately worked on directing a play there, The Master Builder by Ibsen. She has been a visiting lecturer at Princeton University and an associate artist at South Coast Repertory in Orange County, California.She was briefly associated with Intiman Theatre in Seattle, in 2010 to 2011, prior to its closure due to cash flow problems.
Directing credits
A partial list of Whoriskey's directing credits is in the table below.
Sources: Internet Off-Broadway Database Internet Broadway Database American Theatre Wing
| Play | Author | Theater | Year and Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ruined | Lynn Nottage | Goodman Theatre and Manhattan Theatre Club | 2008 |
| Fabulation, or the Re-Education of Undine | Lynn Nottage | Playwrights Horizons | 2004 (world premiere) |
| Intimate Apparel | Lynn Nottage | South Coast Repertory | 2003 (world premiere) |
| The Piano Teacher | Julia Cho | Vineyard Theatre | 2007 (world premiere) |
| Last Tree in Antarctica | Julia Cho | Ensemble Studio Theatre | 2007 |
| Massacre | Jose Rivera (playwright) | LAByrinth Theater Company | 2005 (world premiere) |
| The Tempest | William Shakespeare | Shakespeare Theatre Company | 2005 |
| Vigils | Noah Haidle | Goodman Theatre | 2006 (world premiere) |
| The Rose Tattoo | Tennessee Williams | Goodman Theatre | 2002 |
| Heartbreak House | George Bernard Shaw | Goodman Theatre | 2004 |
| The Master Builder | Henrik Ibsen | American Repertory Theatre (ART) | 1999 |
| Blue/Orange | Joe Penhall | Intiman Theatre | 2003 |
| Lady from the Sea | Henrik Ibsen | Intiman Theatre | 2001 |
| Macbeth | William Shakespeare | California Shakespeare Theater | 2002 |
| Inked Baby | Christina Anderson | Playwrights Horizons | 2009 |
| The Chairs | Eugène Ionesco | Intiman Theatre | 2000 |
| Drowning Crow | Regina Taylor | Goodman Theatre | 2002 (world premiere) |
| Life Is a Dream | Pedro Calderón de la Barca | South Coast Repertory | 2007 |
| Caucasian Chalk Circle | Bertolt Brecht | South Coast Repertory | 2005 |
| Antigone | Sophocles | South Coast Repertory | 2004 |
| The Clean House | Sarah Ruhl | South Coast Repertory | 2005 |
| The Miracle Worker | William Gibson (playwright) | Circle in the Square Theatre | 2010 - Opening: Mar. 3. |
| Ruined | Lynn Nottage | Intiman Theatre | 2010 |
| How I Learned to Drive | Paula Vogel | Second Stage Theatre | 2012 |
| Sweat | Lynn Nottage | Oregon Shakespeare Festival | 2015 - World Premiere / 2016 - Public Theater / 2017 - Studio 54, Broadway |
| Tales From Red Vienna | David Grimm | Manhattan Theatre Club | 2014 |
| Good People | David Lindsay-Abaire | Huntington Theatre Company | 2012 |
Other work
Other theatres where she has directed include:
- Theatre for a New Audience (New York), Oroonoko, 2008
- Center Stage (theater) (Baltimore, MD) (2003)
- Perseverance Theatre (Alaska) (2000)
- Actors Theatre of Louisville
- Sundance Theatre Lab at the Sundance Institute, (Park City, UT), 2005
- Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts, (Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY) (2006)
- The Eugene O'Neill Theater Center (Waterford, CT)
- Geva Theatre Center (Rochester, NY).
In her career, she has also worked with writers Nilo Cruz, Michael Ondaatje, and Saïd Sayrafiezadeh.