Dina Janis

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Dina Janis is the Artistic Director of the Vermont Public Theater and a lifetime member of the Actors Studio.

Biography

Most recently Janis directed the new play reading of The Complicated by Cusi Cram for the LAByrinth Theater Company Summer Intensive in NYC. She served as the former Artistic Director of the Dorset Theatre Festival from 2010 through 2023. During her time at the Dorset Theatre Festival, she directed many mainstage productions as well as developmental readings and workshops, including Scarecrow by Heidi Armbruster, and Gorgeous Nothings written and performed by actors Mary Bacon and Purva Bedi. Janis oversaw Dorset's New Play Development Programs including the acclaimed DTF Women Artists Writing Group, Pipeline Series of New Plays, and the Festival’s Commissioning and Fellowship Program. Janis's Main Stage productions at DTF include the acclaimed production of Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill by Lanie Robertson, The Whipping Man by Mathew Lopez and Out of the City by Leslie Ayvazian. As part of the Pipeline Series Janis has directed A Stage of Twilight by Sarah Schwab, starring Karen Allen, and A Life in the Theatre by David Mamet, starring Treat Williams. Janis serves as one of the contributors to the Kilroy List.

Janis trained as an actor getting her start with the Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago, then heading to NY where she studied acting with Stella Adler, Uta Hagen, Lee Strasberg, Sanford Meisner, and most importantly- Kim Stanley. She is a lifetime member of the Actors Studio. She taught acting at the School of Visual Arts for several years while developing her career as a director of new work for the theater.

Janis has been a faculty member at Bennington since 2000.

Courses