Jim Knipple is the founding artistic director of the Run of the Mill Theater Co. in Baltimore, Md, where credits include Miss Julie, Icarus, The Bald Soprano, and the world premiere of 13 Christs by Erik Ehn. He is a co-creator of The Variations Project, a multiple award winning annual theatrical event that has won multiple awards including Baltimore’s Best Play of 2006. Other Baltimore/DC credits include plays at Artscape, Spotlighters, Vagabond Theater, Sliver Spring Stage, Baltimore Playwrights Festival, and Company 13, and he has thrice directed for the Maryland Young Playwrights Festival at CENTERSTAGE. He has assistant directed at CENTERSTAGE, the Utah Shakespearean Festival, and South Coast Repertory, where he worked on the world premiere of Richard Greenberg’s The Injured Party. He holds an MFA in directing from UC Irvine where he directed The Last Days of Judas Iscariot, columbinus, R.U.R., and Book of Tink. Also at UC Irvine he co-founded World Premiere Weekend, a new play festival that premiered plays by Neil LaBute (which he directed), Charles Mee, Jamie Pacino, and many others. He has studied with Robert Cohen, Bill Rauch, Mihai Maniutiu, Cornerstone Theater, the DAH Theater Research Center, and the Gaiety School of Acting in Dublin, Ireland. He has taught at Geneva College, Loyola College, Howard Community College, and the Baltimore School for the Arts.