Shira Piven

Shira Piven was the child of theatre people and established herself as an actress and then stage director in Chicago and later in New York, where she was the founder and artistic director of Water Theatre Company between 1999 and 2003. Their hit show Pilgrims was and adapted and directed by Ms. Piven, produced by Mike Nichols and based on 3 short stories from the collection Pilgrims in collaboration with the author Elizabeth Gilbert (Eat Pray Love.)

Her first feature film Fully Loaded recently won the audience Favorite Feature award at Palm Beach International Film Festival as well as best Feature at both The River's Edge International and Carmel Art and Film Festivals. It also was featured at the Boston, San Luis Obispo, Talking Pictures and Newport Beach film festivals. It was released by Starz. She recently directed a short documentary on the life of guitar legend Wayne Kramer produced by the award winning filmmaker/producers Gita Pullapilly and Aron Gaudet soon to air on PBS.

Shira has directed over 20 stage productions, many of them original adaptations, in New York, Chicago, LA, and directed three critically acclaimed productions (by Odets, Mamet. And Arthur Miller) for Washington D.C.'s Theatre J. She was also director and a founding member of burn Manhattan spontaneous theatre, a groundbreaking group performing entirely improvised physical theatre throughout New York City. In Los Angeles Shira developed and directed the plays Little and All Cake No File at the Actors Gang Theatre and Fully Loaded at UCB Theatre. She directed Ed Asner in the new play Number of People at the Pasadena Playhouse, and at Hartford Stage. She was invited by Nora Ephron to workshop and develop the book Love, Loss, and What I Wore for the stage, which later went on to its current Off- Broadway run. She wrote and directed several programs of original short plays at the Ontological-Hysteric theatre in New York and also in LA, and directed writer/performer Cindy Caponera in Ms. Caponera's A Debutante's Ball, both in New York at LaMama and in Chicago at Victory Gardens Theatre.

Film and digital credits include Fully Loaded, which she directed and co-wrote. Wrote and directed the short That's Not Racist. Developed and directed the following shorts through improvisation: The Dog Park, Self Help Group and the short trilogy I Human. She also directed and was a contributing writer for 12 episodes of the political web series Tastes Like Home. Other film work includes sequences for the stage productions Death of a Judge and The Shoemakers, sequences for Tastes Like Home, and preliminary filming on an original feature length film/ documentary The Perfect Conversation, in collaboration with Jeremy Piven and Tarvis Watson.

Ms. Piven has also taught acting for stage and film, from coaching the sons in Talladega Nights to her current work with the Actors Gang prison project, teaching commedia dell'Arte to inmates at the CRC prison, and at Homeboys industries to former LA Gang members.