Aradhana Tiwari Named New Resident Director of Mad Cow Theatre

Mad Cow Theatre has announced that Aradhana Tiwari will join the company as Resident Director, beginning with the 2014 - 2015 season. Tiwari is a Central Florida-based artist who has guest-directed at Mad Cow since 2012. Her production of The Road to Mecca in 2012 was the first in Mad Cow's Zehngebot-Stonerock Theatre, one of two spaces in the company's new location in downtown Orlando.

Tiwari has directed some of MCT's most successful productions, including Other Desert Cities, Enchanted April and The Light in the Piazza. For the 2014-15 season, she will direct Tribes by Nina Raine, The Philadelphia Story by Philip Barry and another play to be announced. She currently is directing c*ckby Mike Bartlett, which opens June 20.

As Resident Director, she will teach classes and workshops and will work closely with Executive Director Mitzi Maxwell in play selection and programming. In July, Tiwari will teach a three-day intensive workshop, Viewpoints and Creative Composition.

"Aradhana's deep connection with a playwright's intention makes her a wonderful voice in our collaborative process at Mad Cow Theatre. Her ability to create a fertile environment for artists and embrace new technologies as part of her artistic palate will deepen the theatre's creative process," Maxwell said. "I especially love her passion for people and their stories, which will be remarkable gifts to our artists, our community and our audiences."

Tiwari has an M.A. in theater from the University of Central Florida and has directed in and around Orlando since 2004. Her credits include Words We Wear, Driving Miss Daisy, The Diviners, Crimes Of The Heart,Steel Magnolias, The Way Of The Cards, Connected, Bombs Babes & Bingo, The Singing Christmas Trees 2008-2009, X: The Rise & Fall of an Asylum Star, War Of The Worlds, Julius Caesar, The Little Foxes, Peter Pan, The Goat, Or Who is Sylvia?, It's A Wonderful Life, Little Women, The Pink Ribbon Project and most recently BMP's, 33 Variations.

She teaches acting and script analysis at Valencia College and recently directed The Clean House at Rollins College's Annie Russell Theatre.

Photo by Tom Hurst