photo

Alice Reagan

Professor of Professional Practice; Director of Undergraduate Studies, Drama and Theatre Arts, Columbia

Department

Theatre

Office

333E Milbank Hall

Office Hours

Office Hours, Fall 2024: Tuesdays, 2:30-4:30 in person

Contact

Alice Reagan teaches and directs plays at Barnard; she also directs professionally.  Recent directing credits: Evelyn Brown (A Diary) by María Irene Fornés at La MaMa and the Princeton Atelier/Lewis Center for the Arts, Cherry Orchard with Portland Experimental Theatre Ensemble, and Measure for Measure with Shakespeare & Company.  Pre-pandemic credits include No Good Things Dwell in the Flesh by Christina Masciotti at Yocum Institute in Reading, PA; Hir by Taylor Mac at Shakespeare & Company (two Berkshire Theatre Award nominations); Grounded by George Brant at Dobama Theatre (Cleveland Critics Circle Superior Production, Superior Direction, and Best Actress); Elliot, A Soldier’s Fugue by Quiara Alegría Hudes at Profile Theatre in Portland, Oregon; Jackie by Elfriede Jelinek at Boom Arts; Or, by Liz Duffy Adams at Shakespeare & Company (seven Berkshire Theatre Award nominations including Best Director); Phaeton (a diggle of a fragment) by Mac Wellman at Classic Stage Company; The Miser by Molière with Brave New World Rep; Nomads by Julia Jarcho at Incubator Arts Project; I Came to Look for You on Tuesday by Chiori Miyagawa at La MaMa; The Verge by Susan Glaspell at Incubator Arts Project; and Caucasian Chalk Circle at the Chocolate Factory.  She has directed many plays by María Irene Fornés, including: Promenade, Enter THE NIGHT, What of the Night?, Drowning, Abingdon Square, and The Office.

Upon arriving at Barnard in 2010, Alice founded a commissioning program that brings women-identified writers to the college.  Through New Plays at Barnard, she has premiered work by LM Feldman, Dipika Guha, Gab Reisman, and Charly Evon Simpson.

She has workshopped and directed readings of new plays at Page 73, Soho Rep, Partial Comfort Productions, Women’s Project, New Georges, Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, New Dramatists, Lark Play Development Center, hotINK, and New Voices Play Festival.

Upcoming: The Thanksgiving Play by Larissa FastHorse, OKCRep, November 2024; Fox Toss by Zuzanna Szadkowski, New Plays at Barnard, March 2025.

  • B.A. Bates College
  • M.A. Tisch School of the Arts, New York University
  • M.F.A. Columbia University, School of the Arts

  • Directing
  • Collaboration
  • Classics
  • New plays
  • Adaptations
  • Ensemble-based work

  • Directing I
  • Directing II
  • Advanced Directing
  • Collaboration: Directing and Design
  • Practicum Performance
  • Critical Performances
  • Zora Neale Hurston & Black Performance
  • Art & Performance in the Time of AIDS
  • First Year Seminar: Classics Over Time
  • First Year Seminar: Art, AIDS, Activism

  • Named to Kilroys List, 2023
  • Individual Artist Grant, New York State Council on the Arts, 2023
  • Portland Monthly Best Theatre of 2022, Cherry Orchard
  • Teaching Excellence Award, 2022
  • 9 Berkshire Theatre Award nominations, including Best Director, for Or, and Hir
  • Cleveland Critics Circle Superior Production, Superior Direction, and Best Actress for Grounded
  • Drama League Directing Fellow             
  • Mabou Mines Resident Artist Program/SUITE
  • Princess Grace Award
  • Princess Grace Special Project Award
  • chashama AREA (Accessing Space for the Arts) Award
  • Shubert Foundation Stipend, Columbia University
  • Amankulor Award, NYU/Tisch
  • Mellon Learning Associate, Bates College

  • Wingspace Design
  • New Georges Affiliated Artist
  • Stage Directors and Choreographers Society
  • Mabou Mines/SUITE
  • Soho Rep Writer/Director Lab
  • Women's Project Directors Lab
  • Lincoln Center Directors Lab

In The News

The College launches its theatre season with a Shakespeare comedy that challenges notions of love and gender.

October 16, 2023

Over the past decade, the Barnard curriculum has expanded its global influence by increasing opportunities for faculty and students to gain educational, work, and volunteer experience.

September 1, 2017