Cole Lewis is a director, writer, and performer from St Catharines, Ontario, Canada with a MFA in Directing from Yale School of Drama. She is a graduate of Brock University’s Theatre Program and attended the National Theatre School of Canada, where she studied playwriting. She is a recipient of the 1989 Ecole Polytechnique Commemorative Award for 2013-2014, theJ.B.C. Watkins Award for 2011 and has had her work with Suitcase In Point featured in Canadian Theatre Review, Issue 143.
She is a founding member of St Catharines’ award-winning Suitcase In Point Theatre Company (SIP), a group of like-minded artists who strive to engage and excite through collaborative play development. As an Artistic Associate of SIP for ten years, Cole worked on 23 original cabarets and directed 6 original productions. These include BeWearing Wolf, at Harbourfront Hatch Festival in Toronto, as well as Emily Chesley, at SummerWorks Festival in Toronto and the Dora Award nominated Keith Richards: A One Woman Show at Fixt Point in Toronto.
Other projects and productions in Canada include Ministry of Love, an original adaptation by Cole and the ensemble of George Orwell’s 1984 for Theatre Rien Pantoute in Edmonton, Alberta. In Calgary she worked as a resident company artist at Theatre Junction where she performed in Archaeology and assisted Artistic Director, Mark Lawes, throughout the season. She assistant directed Pablo Felices on Peg And The Yeti for Carousel Players and directed Snail and the Whale for Castlemoon Productions. At the National Arts Centre of Canada in Ottawa, she assistant directed the new play, And All For Love.
At Yale Rep, Cole has served as Assistant Director to Sam Gold on the world premiere production of Will Eno’s The Realistic Joneses. For Yale Cabaret Cole devised both AGMI and Deriviatives, and directed both Carole Frechette's The Small Room At The Top Of The Stairs and the sold-out production of Marius Von Mayenburg’s The Ugly One. Her Yale School of Drama productions include Mexico Play by Kate Tarker, Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet and Dürrenmatt's The Visit. Upcoming in 2014, Cole will direct Hansol Jung's Cardboard Piano for Carlotta Festival, AGMI and Anne Carson's Antigonick in Toronto. She has also launched a new company, Guilty By Association, and their first devised piece, AGMI, will continue development at ArsNova's AntFest in New York City.