About
Who?
Peter Andersen is currently pursuing his MFA in directing at Carnegie Mellon. He is also a graduate of Emerson College where he obtained his BFA in Acting. Since then he has gone on to work for Steppenwolf Theatre Company as the Steppenwolf For Young Adults Apprentice and Multicultural Fellow. Directing projects include: Queer Shakespeare, The Cafe Collections, O/A: The Sophocles Project, As You Like it, Macbeth, Measure for Measure. He has also worked at TimeLine Theatre, Huntington Theatre Company, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Yale Repertory Theatre, Writers Theatre, and American Players Theatre as an assistant director. He is currently pursuing an MFA in Directing at Carnegie Mellon.
What's next?
He is currently in rehearsal for a new play titled 21 about legendary baseball player Roberto Clemente.
In March he will be working "The MLK Project" for Writers theatre. He will also be directing an all Black reading of Medea for the Actor's Co-Op.
Artistic Statement
As a director I believe that as societal ideas and mores inevitably develop—often complicating and contradicting one another— audiences look to theatre for understanding. While it is vital to produce new works that speak to this moment, I also firmly believe we cannot alter our future until we begin to remember our past differently. As such I turn my attention to works rooted in our collective past. Whether this be canonical plays such as Shakespeare or seminal writings such as James Baldwin, I bring contemporary voices to these works with the intention of bursting them open. By directing and adapting classic plays with contemporary POC and Queer artists, I ask audiences to reexamine the current moment and look towards a different future. A director’s voice is inseparable from the zeitgeist in which they find themselves, and this current moment has more complex, nuanced, and diverse voices than ever before. If I want to make work of integrity, I must do the hard work of finding space for these voices to be in conversation with one another.
Macbeth
Measure for Measure
As You Like It
O/A: The Sophocles Project
The Cafe Collections