Melia Bensussen directed last seasons Circle Mirror Transformation. Her directing credits include work with Merrimack Repertory Theatre, Actors' Shakespeare Project, La Jolla Playhouse, Baltimore Centerstage, Hartford Stage, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, New York Shakespeare Festival, MCC Theater, Primary Stages, Long Wharf Theatre, Actors Theatre of Louisville, and People's Light and Theatre Company, where she received a Barrymore Award nomination for Best Direction, and many others. She has received two Directing Awards from the Princess Grace Foundation, including their top honor, the Statuette Award for Sustained Excellence in Directing. Her edition of the Langston Hughes translation of Garcia Lorca's Blood Wedding is in its eighth printing by Theatre Communications Group. She is featured in Women Stage Directors Speak, by Rebecca Daniels, and also in Nancy Taylor's Women Direct Shakespeare. Her essay on The Merchant of Venice will be published this year in Jews, Theatre, Performance in an Intercultural Context. She is the recipient of an OBIE Award for Outstanding Direction. Ms. Bensussen is chair of the performing arts department at Emerson College.