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Maggie Allesee

Theatre and Dance

Theatre - Guest artists

Janice L Blixt

Janice L Blixt (Director) has been a director, adapter, actor, and teacher of theatre for the past 25 years. As the Artistic Director of the Michigan Shakespeare Festival for 13 years, she has directed 25 MainStage productions including Hamlet, Henry IV (combined 1 & 2), Julius Caesar, King Lear, Macbeth, Measure for Measure, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Much Ado About Nothing, Richard II, Richard III, Romeo & Juliet, Twelfth Night, and A Winter’s Tale in addition to The Importance of Being Earnest, Charley’s Aunt, Pygmalion, The Rover, and The Killer Angels, and her original translations of Chekhov’s The Seagull (available on Amazon) and Feydeau’s A Flea In Her Ear (soon available). Her productions have won 12 Best Production Wilde Awards and play to audience and critical acclaim. She has also directed for First Folio Shakespeare, WildClaw, BWBTC, and The Factory Theatre. As an actor, she has played many of the great Shakespeare women: Kate (Shrew), Olivia, Dionyzia, Isabella, Titania/Hipplyta, Queen Elizabeth (R3), Beatrice, Lady Capulet, and Portia (Caesar), after her years in Detroit on the Hilberry Stage when she earned her MFA. She is married to novelist and fight director David Blixt and they live mostly in Chicago with their children, Dashiell and Evelyn, and their adorable but very dumb cats. 

Photo of Janice L Blixt

Past guest artists

  • Headshot of guest director Frannie Shepherd-Bates
    Frannie Shepherd-Bates

    Guest Director for "I Hate Hamlet" by Paul Rudnick, in the STUDIO at the Hilberry Gateway Oct. 4-13

  • Sherrine Azab
    Sherrine Azab

    Guest director of "The Wolves"

  • Joe Bailey Smiling in front of a brown backdrop
    Joe Bailey

    Guest Director for The Rocky Horror Show

  • Photo of James Kuhl
    James Kuhl

    Guest director of "Silent Sky" by Lauren Gunderson

  • Ruben Santiago smiling and standing in front of a Tribeca Film Institute backdrop
    Ruben Santiago-Hudson

    2022 Apple Award recipient

  • Photo of Jeffery Seller
    Jeffrey Seller

    2019 Apple Award recipient

  • S. Epatha Merkerson
  • Deborah Joy Winans
  • George Abud
  • Natasha Katz
  • Thorsten Kaye
  • Michael Boudewyns
  • Allegra Libonati
  • David DiChiera
  • Dominique Morriseau
  • David Ramsey
  • Lenny Banovez
  • Mandy Patinkin
  • Patti LuPone
  • Shelley Butler
  • Syd Mead
  • Tim Rhoze
  • Tom Skerritt
  • Valerie Pettiford