Erin Murray

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Erin Murray

West Coast theatre director, educator, and playwright with a passion for femme, queer, and intergenerational stories

Erin Murray is a director, educator, and playwright based in Seattle/Chicago. She has directed projects across the US and western Europe including Steppenwolf Garage, Intiman Theatre, Seattle Shakespeare Company, Edinburgh International Festival Fringe, Project Arts Centre, Opera Theatre Company, and Witness Immersive. Erin co-created the video podcast "Teacakes & Tarot: Conversations with Queer Futurists" with Will Wilhelm, co-produced by HowlRound TV and Island Shakespeare Festival. Her queertopia-aspiring adaptation of Cyrano de Bergerac: A Heroic Comedy with Many Acts (Kilroys List 2020) premiered in 2022. MFA: Northwestern University, Theatre Directing; BA: Trinity College Dublin, Drama and Theatre Studies. ErinMurrayDirects.com

Essay

Island Shakespeare Festival’s Sustainability in Action

18 February 2025

In 2024, the Island Shakespeare Festival in Whidbey Island, Washington, set a goal of producing “zero-waste.” They partnered with local sustainability organizations to confront their waste issue and transform the front-of-house experience for theatregoers.

Essay

Consent, Courtship, and Comedy in Keiko Green’s The Bed Trick

21 May 2024

In Keiko Green’s The Bed Trick, a new adaptation of All’s Well That Ends Well, issues of consent in both the bedroom and the theatre classroom are explored in the modern context of college. Erin Murray explains how the show creates a theatrically slippery and inquisitive space which prompts audience members to examine their own role in a society that fosters rape culture.

Essay

Dragon Lady

One Mother of a Musical

19 October 2017

Dragon Lady, written and performed by Sara Porkalob, brings bring race, female stories, and intersectionality into the American theatre conversation.

Essay

Gender Bending Power

Bring Down the House

2 May 2017

Erin Murray discusses the echo of history in upstart crow collective’s Bring Down the House.

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