Gina Kaufmann
Professor of Performance and Directing
B.A. University of Iowa in Iowa City
M.F.A. University of Texas at Austin
Gina Kaufmann is a professional theater director and a member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Association (SDC), as well as a professor in the Department of Theater at UMass Amherst. Gina has worked as a director and acting coach in numerous prestigious regional venues, including The Williamstown Theatre Festival and Shakespeare & Company (Lenox). In New York, she has directed for SoHo Rep, Home for Contemporary Theatre and Art, Wings Theatre, and Dixon Place.
Most recently, Gina directed Tanya Barfield’s Bright Half Life for both Silverthorne Theater and WAM Theater (at MASS MoCA) as well as The Cake (Bekah Brunstetter) and the New England premiere of The Broken Machine (Liz Duffy Adams) for Silverthorne. At UMass, her most recent production was The Hatmaker’s Wife by Lauren Yee.
During the pandemic, Gina directed a play by Harley Erdman, written for Zoom, titled Lullaby of Zoomland, produced by Rise Up as a fundraiser for The Pioneer Valley Worker’s Center, and developed an outdoor musical titled Imagining a Future Together. Prior to 2020, Gina directed Lauren Gunderson’s The Revolutionists for Silverthorne Theater, her own three-woman adaptation of John Gay’s The Beggar’s Opera (titled The Beggar’s Opera Cabaret), The Last Five Years at The Majestic Theater, a musical version of Tartuffe at Shakespeare & Company, Luna Gale and Yankee Tavern for New Century Theater, Street Scene for Five College Opera and Wild Thing (a new translation of la serrana del la vera) at both UMass and the 43rd Annual Siglo de Oro Festival at El Chamizal in El Paso.
She has worked extensively on new play development, including three years as a guest director with Paula Vogel and the New Play Festival at Brown University, directing a production of Vogel's own play, Hot'n'Throbbing at Wellfleet Harbor Actors' Theatre, and four years as the Artistic Director of The Unusual Cabaret in Maine.