Bridget Leak is a New York City based director and has directed in France, DC, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Maryland, and Ohio. She was Timothy Douglas’ assistant director on the African American production of The Trip to Bountiful at Cleveland Playhouse and Round House Theatre, as well as the assistant director on Mr. Douglas’ Bronte: A Solo Portrait in New York City. She was also the assistant director to Lynne Meadow in the World Premiere of Alfred Uhry’s Apples and Oranges at the Alliance Theatre. Select NYC directing credits include Bash: Three Plays, Theatre Row; A Piece of my Heart, The Living Theatre, The Adventures of Jesus Jackson, The Abingdon Theatre; The River Valeo, New York International Fringe Festival; and a Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints interpretation of The Taming of the Shrew, The Secret Theatre.
She received her MFA in Directing from the Actors Studio Drama School at Pace University and is fluent in German and French. She is a recipient of the SDC Directing Observership, member of the Lincoln Center Directors Lab, finalist for the Gielgud Fellowship, and an associate member of SDC.
Rhapsodies on a National Tragedy is a full-length play dealing with violent eruptions on school campuses. It starts with the 2006 Alabama Church Arsons and works its way out, thru Virginia Tech, pass Columbine, ends in the river just underneath the George Washington Bridge and goes beyond the familiar story of maladjusted youths, unbridled hatred, unchecked homophobia and racism, and tries to examine aggressor, victim and community. It asks, ‘where is the line in the sand where actions become irreversible? What constitutes a victim? When do we forgive ourselves for failing to understand?’
Rhapsodies is a theatrical motley of devised theater, improvisation, opera, dance and monologue all entwined around a loose, evolving narrative structure. Sculpted by Lincoln Center Directors Lab alum Bridget Leak, and created in conjunction with four people closely associated with the Alabama Church Arsons, friends, classmates, a college student national spokesman, “Rhapsodies” starts with destruction and attempts to wind its way towards a deeper understanding of the collateral damage that these events have on a community.