MICHAEL RAU is a New York based director and adapter, specializing in new plays, re-imagined classics, and opera. His New York credits include: The Ted Haggard Monologues (a New York Magazine Critic's Pick) at Collective: Unconscious Theater, The Italian Songbook, a chamber opera with the NYU Steinhardt School of Music, and an adaptation of Chekhov's The Seagull, (developed in Papingo, Greece and presented at the Bushwick Starr). His show, the games we used to play, which he co-created with Max Goldblatt, took first place at Les Fêtes théâtrales du Suroît in 2005, and his production of Four Saints in Three Acts was selected as a noteworthy production of the 2008 Opera America Director/Designer Showcase. His productions have been remounted in Germany, Greece, and Montreal. He has directed readings of new plays at New York Theater Workshop, Primary Stages and Lincoln Center. Columbia University credits include: Vaclav Havel’s The Memorandum and O'Neill's The Great God Brown. Michael Rau is a recipient of the Willard Fellowship, a 2006 Kennedy Center Directing Fellowship, a 2007 New Play Network Directing Fellowship and a 2008 TCG National Conference Grant. He has served as an assistant for John Turturro at Classic Stage Company, Les Waters at A.R.T., Anne Bogart at Glimmerglass Opera, and Robert Woodruff at San Francisco Opera. He graduated from Wesleyan University in 2005, with honors in American Studies and Theater and has recently completed his MFA in theater directing at Columbia University. He is currently an Artist in Residence at the Tribeca Performing Arts Center.