Lee Mikeska Gardner*
Lee Mikeska Gardner*, she/her (Artistic Director) continues her mission of creating access and opportunity for underserved artists. For eight years with The Nora Lee focused on the feminine voice. In this, her ninth year, Central Square Theater builds on the history of both The Nora and Underground Railway with stories and artists across a spectrum of our community. Previous projects include the web series of The Washington Post columnist Alexandra Petri’s Inherit the Windbag at Mosaic Theater in Washington, DC, the Elliot Norton Award winning Cloud 9 (outstanding Direction and Production), Flat Earth’s hybrid event 7 Rooms: The Masque of the Red Death, Amy Merrill’s 10 minute short Shoe Leather Epidemiology for CST’s virtual Women In Science Theater Festival, the world premiere of The Midvale High School Fiftieth Reunion (with Gordon Clapp), Saving Kitty (with Jennifer Coolidge), the epic Journey to the West, the musical Her Aching Heart, Grounded, and Arcadia. Favorite productions include Doug Wright’s Watbanaland, the Helen Hayes nominated After Ashley, Life During Wartime, and Goodnight, Desdemona, Good Morning Juliet, at Woolly Mammoth, Oklahoma! with Wheatland Theater Co., the Washington Shakespeare Co. world premiere of Caesar and Dada; the world premiere of Julie Jensen’s Across the Wide and Lonesome Prairie at The Kennedy Center; Angels in America and Perestroika at Signature Theatre in WDC and Machinal at The American Century Theater. Lee is an award-winning actor with a Helen Hayes award (Charter Theater’s world premiere of A House in the Country) and an Elliot Norton award for her performance as the title role in Lauren Gunderson’s Emilie: La Marquise du Châtelet Defends Her Life Tonight. Favorite roles include Marie Curie in The Half Life of Marie Curie, Olympe de Gouges in The Revolutionists, Terry in Sideman (Helen Hayes Nomination;) Florence Foster Jenkins in Souvenir at 1st Stage; Claire in The Two-Character Play at Spooky Action; and originating the role of Hettie in Julie Jenson’s Two-Headed. Lee has earned an additional four Helen Hayes nominations for performance. As an educator, Lee has taught or served as a guest artist at Colleges and Universities across the nation including Emerson; University of Nevada, Las Vegas; University of Virginia, Charlottesville; University of Maryland, College Park; and Middlebury College.