Tina Landau (born May 21, 1962) is an American playwright and theatre director.
Born in New York City to film and television producers Edie and Ely Landau, Landau moved with her family to Beverly Hills, California, where she graduated from Beverly Hills High School before attending Yale University, where she directed fellow freshman Jodie Foster in a play; Landau directed numerous student production plays while she was an undergraduate. She later attended the American Repertory Theater Institute for Advanced Theater Training at Harvard University.
Landau's early work included site specific productions with New York City's En Garde Arts, including Orestes and The Trojan Women: A Love Story, both by Charles L. Mee, as well as her original play "Stonewall: Night Variations." Floyd Collins, with a book by Landau and a score by Adam Guettel, opened off-Broadway at Playwrights Horizons in 1996. Landau was nominated for the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Book of a Musical and the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Director of a Musical, and the production won the Lucille Lortel Award for Best Musical. A later version of the show played at San Diego's Old Globe Theater, The Goodman Theater in Chicago, and The Prince Music Theater in Philadelphia (where it was originally commissioned and produced.)
In 1997, she became a member of the Steppenwolf Theatre Company, where she has directed numerous productions including Tarell Alvin McCraney's The Brother/Sister Plays, The Tempest, The Time of Your Life (which later moved to Seattle Rep and A.C.T.), The Diary of Anne Frank, The Cherry Orchard, Theatrical Essays, Time to Burn, Berlin Circle, and The Ballad of Little Jo.
She made her Broadway debut directing the 2001 revival of Bells Are Ringing with Faith Prince, and in 2009 she returned to Broadway with the Steppenwolf production of Tracy Letts' Superior Donuts. Other New York City directing credits include Charles L. Mee’s Iphigenia 2.0 at the Signature Theater, Dream True, Mary Rose, Miracle Brothers and Wig Out!, all at the Vineyard Theater, as well as In the Red and Brown Water, Space, and Saturn Returns all at The Public Theater.
Landau's many other regional credits include Antony and Cleopatra at Hartford Stage, A Midsummer Night's Dream at the McCarter Theater and Papermill Playhouse, Of Thee I Sing at Papermill, and The Cure at Troy at Seattle Rep.
Landau's writing includes book and lyrics for Dream True and States of Independence, both with scores by Ricky Ian Gordon, the plays Beauty at La Jolla Playhouse (San Diego Critics Best Play), Space at Steppenwolf, the Public, and the Mark Taper Forum (TIME magazine Top Ten), Stonewall: Night Variations, and 1969 (or Howie Takes a Trip). She is currently at work on the book for a new musical version of her play Beauty with music by Regina Spektor and lyrics by Michael Korie. With Anne Bogart, Landau has co-authored The Viewpoints Book: A Practical Guide to Viewpoints and Composition. She works with and teaches the Viewpoints technique regularly at theaters and schools across the country.
Landau has shared in interviews that she is a lesbian. She was named one of the "Out 100 of 2009" by OUT Magazine. Her long-time partner is Niki Cunningham, an Advising Dean at Columbia University.
Landau was named a 2007 USA Ford Fellow and granted $50,000 by United States Artists, an arts advocacy foundation dedicated to the support and promotion of America's top living artists.[1] She has taught at various schools, including Yale University and the Yale School of Drama, and Tisch School of the Arts at New York University.[2]