The United States Theatre Project is a group of artists dedicated to presenting theatre that addresses issues that effect the fabric of America. Thus, it is comprised of actors, directors, designers, writers, technicians, dramaturges, managers and administrators all with the sole function of creating one piece of work with the charge of the mission statement.

USTP Artistic Staff
columbinus Company

USTP Artistic Staff

PJ Paparelli (Playwright/Director) is the Artistic Director of the United States Theatre Project and of Perseverance Theatre in Juneau, Alaska, where he recently directed A Midsummer Night's Dream. He previously served as Associate Director of The Shakespeare Theatre, where his directing credits include Much Ado About Nothing, Hamlet, Bard on Broadway (with Karen Ziemba), Love Letters (with Dixie Carter and Hal Holbrook), All's Well That Ends Well (Classical Acting Conservatory), The Two Gentlemen of Verona, and The Merchant of Venice at the Shakespeare Free For All. He also edited and directed many plays in the ReDiscovery Series and was associate director of The Oedipus Plays (starring Avery Brooks) at the Athens Festival in Greece, and of The Shakespeare Theatre's first co-production, Much Ado About Nothing with Hartford Stage. PJ served as assistant director on King Lear, Richard II, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Coriolanus, King John, A Woman of No Importance, Twelfth Night, Trojan Women, Timon of Athens and The Duchess of Malfi.

Additional Washington directing credits include the recent production of Romeo and Juliet at Folger Theatre, a collaboration with Terrence McNally on a new version of Corpus Christi at Source Theatre (2003 GLAAD Media Award), the world premiere of John Strand's The Diaries at Signature Theatre and Love's Labour's Lost at Washington Shakespeare Company.

In 2001, PJ was selected to direct the inaugural production of the Shakespeare Festival of St. Louis, Romeo and Juliet (2001 St. Louis Post-Dispatch Judy Award "In a Class By
Itself"), and was appointed to the Festival's Artistic Advisory Board. PJ founded and served as artistic director for the Pittsburgh Public Theatre's Shakespeare Intensive, where he directed A Midsummer Night's Dream and Tom Stoppard's Fifteen Minute Hamlet. Other directing credits include Action at Circle Repertory Company Lab and True West in Russian at the Moscow Art Theatre School in Moscow, Russia.

PJ is one of the youngest instructors of Shakespeare working in American conservatory training programs today. He has directed and/or taught at University of Alaska, The Juilliard School (Richard III), North Carolina School of the Arts (Split), University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Catholic University (Twelfth Night), University of Pennsylvania (Once on this Island) and Johns Hopkins (Godspell). In addition, he has taught many master classes and education programs at The Shakespeare Theatre. He has guest lectured in Shakespeare at Carnegie Mellon, American University, George Washington University, Penn State, University of Utah, Vassar, and at the American Institute for Foreign Literature in Moscow. PJ has worked with George C. Wolfe and Rosemary Tischler at the New York Shakespeare Festival/The Public Theater, and in the educational departments of the Pittsburgh Public Theatre and Circle Repertory Company.

PJ holds a BFA in directing from Carnegie Mellon University, with graduate studies in acting at the Moscow Art Theatre School in Russia. He is a member of the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers, and the Shakespeare Theatre Association of America. This summer he will direct Twelfth Night at Shakespeare Santa Cruz.