Heidi Stillman

  • Artistic Director, Lookingglass Theatre

Heidi Stillman is an actor, writer, director, Ensemble Member and Artistic Director of Lookingglass. She has both written and directed at Lookingglass: Cascabel (with Tony Hernandez and Rick Bayless,) The North China Lover, Hephaestus (with Tony Hernandez), The Brothers Karamazov (2009 Raven Award for Excellence in Arts and Entertainment), Hard Times (five Jeff Awards; also produced at Arden Theatre Company in Philadelphia), and The Master and Margarita (Jeff Nominated). Directing work with Lookingglass includes: Death Tax, Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, Trust, The Wooden Breeks, and Hillbilly Antigone. Additional writing credits with Lookingglass include: The Last Act of Lilka Kadison with Nicola Behrman, David Kersnar, Abbie Phillips and Andrew White, The Old Curiosity Shop with Laura Eason and Raymond Fox (Jeff Award for New Adaptation), and The Baron in the Trees with Lawrence E. DiStasi (Jeff Nominated).

Heidi’s adaptation of The Book Thief premiered at Steppenwolf Theatre Company in 2012. She directed Minita Gandhi’s Muthaland for Silk Road Rising Solos and Victory Gardens Theater’s Ignition Festival in 2015, Consortium of Asian American Theaters & Artists (CAATA) ConFest in 2016, and at 16th Street Theater in 2017. Most recently, she wrote (with Caroline Macon) and directed The Year I Didn’t Go to School at Chicago Children’s Theatre. She looks forward to revisiting Hard Times in the 30th Anniversary Season at Lookingglass. She lives in Evanston with her husband and her 14 year-olds, Sadie and Jude.

Bio as of 2017

Heidi Stillman…has crafted a show of tremendous grace and heart, darkness and light. She has brought to life a Victorian-era epic that bursts with wit and whimsy, and all the outrage, hope, severity, and sentimentality of the novel.
– Chicago Sun-Times