Kimille Howard is a New York based director, deviser, writer and filmmaker. Currently, she leads as the appointed Artistic Director of the Lucille Lortel Theatre’s NYC Public High School Playwriting Fellowship, a co-founder of the Black Classical Music Archive, and the new co-captain of Programming and Production for The Fled Collective. Kimille was awarded Best Director at the 2016 Thespis Festival for It’s All About Lorrie by Joseph Krawczyk (Hudson Theater) which received a commercial run at The American Theater of Actors in 2017. She is a current member of The New Georges’ Jam, a participant in New York Stage and Film’s inaugural NYSAF NEXUS project, and a former Resident Director at the Flea Theater. She was the Series Producer for American Opera Project’s first season of “Music As the Message.”
This season is shaping up to be Howard’s most rigorous and exciting year yet. Engagements include heading the New Works Collective over multiple periods with the Opera Theatre of St. Louis, Sanctuary Road with Virginia Opera, The Passion of Mary Cardwell Dawson with Pittsburgh Opera, and the world premiere of Two Corners, a new opera from composer B.E. Boykin, commissioned and presented by Finger Lakes Opera. Future engagements include a world premiere in 2025 for Cincinnati Opera.
Howard assisted with the workshop of Two Corners last season, in addition to directing L’italiana in Algeri with Tulsa Opera, the revival of The Passion of Mary Cardwell Dawson with the Washington National Opera, Plantation Black with Playwright’s Horizon, Honey and Leon at Theatre Row, Songs in Flight at the Met Museum with Sparks & Wiry Cries, and On the Town for Montclair St. University as well as returning as Assistant Director at the Metropolitan Opera for both Champion and Die Zauberflöte.
Previously, Ms. Howard’s opera engagements included a return to the Metropolitan Opera as Assistant Stage Director for Porgy and Bess and Tosca. In addition, she directed productions of William Grant Still and Verna Arvey‘s Highway 1, USA for Indiana University, the World Premiere of Errollyn Wallen and Deborak Brevoort’s Quamino’s Map commissioned by Chicago Opera Theater, Carlos Simon and Sandra Seaton’s Night Trip for Opera NexGen, reprised The Passion of Mary Cardwell Dawson for the Glimmerglass Festival, Damien Geter and Lila Palmer’s American Apollo for Des Moines Metro Opera, and directed a workshop of a new modern opera called Echos of the Great Migration by Vince Di Mura for Catapult Opera Company. Theatre engagements included B.R.O.K.E.N Code B.I.R.D Switching for the Berkshire Theatre Group, as well as readings of Ghost Story for New Jersey Repertory Theatre, Pelican Bar for The Gural Theatre produced by Theatre Now, and a concert presentation of select excerpts from Making Micheaux, a new musical produced by Prospect Theater Company at 59E59. She also directed an 8-part film series adapting BIPOC classic pieces for New Camerata Opera called Refractions.
Kimille first joined the Metropolitan Opera in 2019 as the Assistant Stage Director in the “Splendid” (New York Times), and “Exhilarating” (Washington Post) new James Robinson production of Porgy and Bess. She also made her Broadway début as Assistant Director on the 2019 Tony Award winning musical Ain’t Too Proud: The Life and Times of The Temptations.
Recent operatic engagements have included L’amant anonyme for Wolf Trap Opera, Death By Life: a virtual opera for White Snake Projects, and The Passion of Mary Cardwell Dawson, a new play with music, celebrating the founder of the historic and groundbreaking National Negro Opera Company with original music composed by Carlos Simon for the Glimmerglass Opera.
Theatre credits include Skeleton Crew by Dominique Morisseau for TheatreSquared, TRIGGERED by Gabriel Jason Dean for Cherry Lane Theatre, Soil Beneath by Chesney Snow for Primary Stages/59E59, $#!thole Country Clapback by Pascale Armand for the Loading Dock Theatre, A Light Staggering by Jeesun Choi and Low Power by Jon Kern for the Ensemble Studio Theatre, BLACK GIRLS ARE FROM OUTER SPACE by Emana Rachelle for the National Black Theatre, The Visit for East Carolina University, In The Open by Mona Monsour for Western Connecticut State University, and Tidwell: or the Plantation Play by Rodney Witherspoon II, winner of the Samuel French OOB Short Play Festival.
Her work has also been seen at MultiStages, The Circle in the Square Theatre Circle Series, The Queens Theatre, Juilliard, The Flea, The Lark, JAGFest, NYU, Sea Dog Theater, and Atlantic Acting School, CLASSIX/The Lewis Center, among others. She has worked with Des McAnuff, Rebecca Frecknall, Ruben Santiago Hudson, Emily Mann, Stephen Wadsworth, Lorca Peress and more. Recent Fellowships include New York Theatre Workshop 2050 Fellowship and the Manhattan Theatre Club Jonathan Alper Directing Fellowship. She has produced shows at the HERE Arts Center, FIAF, and more.