“ We need stories of belonging that move us towards each other, not from each other; ways of being human that open up the possibilities of being alive together; ways of navigating our differences that deepen our curiosity, that deepen our friendship, that deepen our capacity to disagree, that deepen the argument of being alive. This is what we need. This is what will save us.
This is the work of peace. This is the work of imagination.”
Image description: A white woman with light brown chin length hair smiles and looks straight into the camera. She is wearing a tailored beige loden jacket with a mandarin collar embroidered with red flowers and green stems. Photo by Xanthe Elbrick
Kim Weild is a multi-hyphenated director and creative-generator who is also a disability and arts advocate. Based in New York on the traditional lands of the Munsee Lenape People, and Pittsburgh, traditional lands of the Shawandasee Tula and Osage People. She pays her respects to elders both past and present, as well as future generations.
An award-winning director working with the global classical canon and contemporary works, her practice intentionally centers stories of marginalized people.
She is known for directing and creating visually stunning, physically fluid, ensemble-based plays and musicals - ranging from intimate chamber pieces to grand spectacles. Her work squarely places the human condition front and center and has been called "powerful,” “masterful," "wildly imaginative," "thought provoking," "entertaining," "beautiful," and "heartbreaking". The scope of her work has been compared to that of Ariane Mnouchkine’s and Baz Lurhman’s.
She is renowned for her seamless collaboration with d/Deaf and Disabled artists, leading to the creation of groundbreaking, inclusive bi-lingual performances that integrate American Sign Language and spoken languages. Weild’s investment in Deaf artistry is driven both by personal experience and professional expertise. Within her family, she is the primary interpreter for her Deaf brother.
In 2023, building upon her decades-long expertise as Artistic Director of Our Voices, she became Co-Creator of The Apothetae Residency at The Public Theater in New York (with Gregg Mozgala, Artistic Director, The Apothetae and Katherine Williams, Dramaturg and leading Shakespeare and Disability scholar-University of Toronto) a company dedicated to the exploration and innovation of Access Aesthetics and Disability Performance through Shakespeare.
The recipient of a Drama Desk Award nomination for Unique Theatrical Experience (Fêtes de la Nuit), the NY Innovative Theatre Foundation’s award for Outstanding Performance Art Production (soot and spit), and eight additional NY Innovative Theatre Award nominations (winning three), her production of soot and spit was also a NY Times Critic’s Pick. She is a 2022 finalist for the prestigious Alan Schneider Directing Award from TCG.
American Moor, developed in collaboration with Keith Hamilton Cobb and helmed by Weild, has been recognized with multiple awards, including the Elliot Norton Award for Outstanding Solo Performance, two AUDELCO awards, and two IRNE awards, including Outstanding Visiting Production. In 2019, it was the opening event at Shakespeare's Globe London for their inaugural festival on Shakespeare and Race. Published by Methuen Bloomsbury, American Moor is part of the permanent collection at the Folger Shakespeare Library, was filmed for Lincoln Center, and is taught in high schools and universities worldwide, usually alongside Shakespeare’s Othello.
Image description: A white woman with brown chin length shair wearing a purple and white ikat print blouse, and small gold hoop earrings, smiles looking straight into the camera. Photo by Peter Konerko
Possessing an extensive knowledge of the Western and global classical canons, contemporary new play and musical development, her work has been seen at: Shakespeare’s Globe London, Lincoln Center Theater, Carnegie Hall, Teatro alla Scala, The New York Theater Workshop, Off Broadway’s Cherry Lane Theatre, Beckett Theater, Goodspeed Musicals, Tanglewood Music Center, Pittsburgh City Theatre, Primary Stages, New York Live Arts, The Mark Taper Forum, Williamstown Theater Festival, City Theatre Company, Playwrights’ Center, the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, The Beall Center for Art and Technology, The Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts, The New Ohio Theater (NYC) and Wolf Trap Performing Arts Center. Her production of Uncle Vanya was an official selection at the Prague Quadrennial, and in Greece she directed The Bacchae and The Birds for OneYear Lease Theater.
Kim Weild and producing partner Jamie Forshaw
Image description: Standing in front of a backdrop that says 55th Drama Desk Awards, a white woman with brown chin length straight hair wears a three-quarter sleeved black dress. She is broadly smiling as she holds a nomination certificate in her hands. A tall white male with blue eyes and blond short hair is standing to her left. He is wearing a light blue blazer, white button down shirt and medium blue tie. He is broadly smiling and also holds up a nomination certificate.
On Broadway, Kim worked as Associate Director to multiple TONY Award-winning director Michael Blakemore on the world premiere of Deuce by Terrence McNally with Dame Angela Lansbury and Marian Seldes; the world premiere of Mark Twain and David Ives’ Is He Dead? starring Norbert Leo Butz; and Noel Coward’s Blithe Spirit with Dame Angela Lansbury, Rupert Everett, Jayne Atkinson and Christine Ebersole. She was Associate Director for the world premiere of Amazing Grace, the musical which played at Broadway's Nederlander Theater.
Directing Way of The World at Vassar College
Image description: Two women stand closely together speaking. The young woman on the left has brown hair pulled up into a bun. She wears a white rehearsal corset and skirt. She speaks to the other woman who is older, and leaning slightly toward the young woman as she closely listens. She wears a long black sweater and black pants, eyeglasses are perched on the top of her head. Behind them are a variety of stage props and furniture.
Her numerous fellowships and residencies include The Park Avenue Armory, The Kennedy Center, The Schubert Organization, Williamstown Theater Festival – Foeller Fellowship, Luna Stage, The Archive Residency - New Ohio Theatre, Annandale Center for Writing, IRT and the Obie Award-winning New Georges. She is the recipient of two commissions from NYC’s High Line and the first recipient of SDC Foundation’s Guest Artist Initiative. A proud Women's Project Theater Lab alumna, an affiliated artist with the OBIE Award winning New Georges and an Associate Artist with The Adaptations Project.
Weild and Mee
Image description: Kim Weild, a woman with shoulder length hair, sits in an audience seat with arms crossed in her lap. She is wearing a black dress with metal design elements embellishing the shoulders and sleeves. On the right in a motorized wheelchair, sits the a male, the playwright Charles Mee. He is wearing a blue v-neck pullover sweater over a white t-shirt and black rimmed glasses. His left leg is openly crossed over his right leg.
A longtime collaborator of acclaimed playwright Charles L. Mee she has directed five of his plays: Soot and Spit (World Premiere), Fêtes de la Nuit (NY Premiere), First Love (First NY Revival), Summertime and Big Love.
In 2019, Weild was named the Chair of Directing for the John Wells Directing Program at Carnegie Mellon University, where she supervises and guides the training of MFA and BFA directing candidates.
With over twenty-five years of teaching experience, she has taught nationwide at leading undergraduate, graduate, and conservatory programs and trained leading theater ensembles.
Proud Member of SDC
She received her MFA from Columbia University School of the Arts and her BFA with Honors from New York University Tisch School of the Arts.
Weild is the Founding Artistic Director of Our Voices Theater a company dedicated to diversity, inclusion, and innovation. Their world premiere of Charles Mee's soot and spit was hailed by the NY Times as, a “beautifully designed, dreamily evocative production" and was a NY Times Critic’s Pick. As a leading advocate for diversity and inclusion in the arts, she has been sought out by significant arts organizations, including the NEA, to speak on panels, participate in roundtables, and lead workshops in collaboration with Deaf and Disabled artists.
Working with students at PS 347 The ASL and English Lower School
Image Description: A woman sits at a low round table smiling at a first grade student who is speaking. To her left and right are two other students.
Directing on NYC's High Line
Image Description: Three people are sitting looking at a woman who is pointing diagonally to her left with her left hand and her right hand is closed in a fist and bent at the elbow. Her eyes are lifter to wear she is pointing. She is wearing a long black sweater over a black dress which is cinched at the waist with a large silver belt buckle.
Working with actor Taylor Ray on Charles Mee’s Soot and Spit
Image Description: A young man in a white t-shirt and jeans, wearing glasses, stands with his arms outstretched from his body taking in a direction, while a woman dressed in black, hunches over and in towards the young man, helping to guide him, She is wearing glasses, has her left hand gently on his back and her right arm and hand are extended out in front of her as she gives him direction.