BLANKA ZIZKA (Director) has been the co-Artistic Director of The Wilma Theater in Philadelphia since 1981. She has directed over 50 plays and musicals for the theater. Blanka recently directed the world premiere of Raw Boys by Dael Orlandersmith, Jesus Hopped the 'A' Train by Stephen Adly Guirgis, (Barrymore Winner, Best Overall Production and Best Director), the World Premiere of Embarrassments by Laurence Klavan and Polly Pen, the Philadelphia premieres of Lillian Groag's The Magic Fire and Chay Yew's Red. In 2002, she directed the world premiere of Dael Orlandersmith's Yellowman at the Manhattan Theatre Club, McCarter Theatre Center, Long Wharf Theatre, ACT in Seattle, and at The Wilma Theater. She was awarded the first Barrymore Award for Best Direction of a Play for Cartwright's Road. She directed Jiler and Leslee's Avenue X (Barrymore Winner, Best Overall Production of a Musical and Best Direction of a Musical), Wright's Quills (Barrymore Winner, Best Overall Production of a Play), and the East Coast premiere of The Invention of Love by Tom Stoppard (Barrymore Winner, Best Overall Production of a Play and Best Direction of a Play). Her other favorite productions include Orwell's Animal Farm, O'Neill's The Hairy Ape, Ionesco's Macbett, Fugard's Statements After an Arrest Under the Immorality Act and Playland, Dulack's Incommunicado, Sherman's When She Danced, Stoppard's Travesties, Brecht's The Threepenny Opera, Freed's The Psychic Life of Savages, Klavan and Pen's Bed and Sofa, Sherwood's Spin, Thompson's Perfect Pie, Carr's Portia Coughlan, and Sherman's Patience.