About Ellie.

Teacher.

Ellie came to teaching through directing. She started in Chicago with Big Theater, a site-specific company she co-founded. From the beginning, she cared about one thing above all: alive, truthful performance. She kept asking the same question. How do you help an actor get out of their own way and release into instinct?

To answer it, she sought out actor-centric directors including Anne Bogart (SITI), Tina Landau and Amy Morton (Steppenwolf), and master acting teachers including Joanna Merlin, who trained with Michael Chekhov himself and founded MICHA. Ellie eventually taught alongside Joanna in the last workshop Merlin ever gave. That makes Ellie one teacher removed from Michael Chekhov.

Ellie brought body-based acting techniques into her rehearsals, weaving in aspects of Meisner, Michael Chekhov, Linklater, Fitzmaurice voice work, Feldenkrais, Alexander, Grotowski, and clown. Scene by scene, she helped actors get out of their own way, and a whole way of training took shape.

The result was electric, and actors who saw the shows asked her to train them. That's how Ellie's teaching began.

Ellie's coached privately since 2008. She's also taught at Boston University, Brown, Northwestern, Michael Howard Studios, and Franklin & Marshall College. Her students work on Broadway, in film, and in television. She lives in Brooklyn with her wife and their dog.

Director.

Ellie Heyman is an award-winning director of film and theater. She won the Drama League Award for Outstanding Production in 2021, and her work has been nominated for Drama Desk, Lortel, Bessie, and PGA Awards.

Her piece, The Great Work Begins, featuring Glenn Close, Laura Linney, and Brian Tyree Henry, was named "Best of 2020" by the New York Times and New York Magazine.

She directed The Traveling Imaginary, a theatrical rock show, rated in the "top five shows of the year" by NPR and a Time Out "Critic's Pick" on two continents, with long-term collaborator Julian Koster (Neutral Milk Hotel).

Ellie co-directed and developed the narrative podcast The Orbiting Human Circus (of the Air), presented by Night Vale and WNYC. It's been downloaded over 5 million times, rated #1 in Apple Podcasts, and features John Cameron Mitchell, Tim Robbins, Mandy Patinkin, and Charlie Day. She directed the cult-classic music-fiction podcast Dreamboy (Night Vale Presents).

Ellie has directed extensively, nationally and internationally. New York credits include The Public Theater, Lincoln Center, MCC, and La MaMa. She was the Director in Residence at Joe's Pub at The Public Theater for four years.

Ellie is a graduate of Northwestern University (BS) and Boston University (MFA), a Drama League Directing Fellow, and a Time Warner Directing Fellow at the WP Theatre.

For more, visit Ellie's directing website.