Stage Director

I make theatre.

My work is imaginative, inclusive, and playfully experimental, coming from a robust background in physical theatre and a deep commitment to collaboration. My theatre lives and breathes with its audience. More about me…

Co-Artistic Director at TUTA Theatre Chicago | Creative Producer of Writing is Live at Brown University

"Pushes the form forward"

Akira Kurosawa Explains His Movies And Yogurt (With live and active cultures!) by Julia Izumi

"I was mesmerized, challenged, awestruck, and thoroughly amused"

Sense and Sensibility adapted by Kate Hamil

"the highly skilled avant-guardist, Aileen Wen McGroddy"

Attempts On Her Life by Martin Crimp

"a show that brings me back to my original thought that nothing is better than theater"

The Late Wedding by Christopher Chen

"a bold staging of an intimate script"

Sisters by Matthew Libby

"blazes forth from the stage in director Aileen Wen McGroddy's incandescent production"

The Chinese Lady by Lloyd Suh

"there is none you have seen like this one"

A Christmas Carol adapted by Aileen Wen McGroddy

"this play ranks up there with the best they’ve ever produced"

Or, by Liz Duffy Adams

"an on-stage party"

Airness by Chelsea Marcantel

"expert direction by Aileen Wen McGroddy"

Attempts On Her Life by Martin Crimp

"director Aileen Wen McGroddy threw out the rule book"

A Christmas Carol adapted by Aileen Wen McGroddy

"humor, emotional depth, and bold theatricality"

Senes and Sensibility adapted by Kate Hamil

"theatre artists unafraid of using everything in their toolbox"

Wake: A Folk Opera by Jessica Wright Buha and Jenn Romero

"we knew we were in for a rich and unusual theater experience"

The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams

"McGroddy navigates with care"

Sisters by Matthew Libby

"left me marveling in the ordinary that is extraordinary of my own life"

Ulysses 101 adapted from James Joyce by Jessica Wright Buha and Aileen Wen McGroddy

"parents may find themselves just as inspired by the show’s spirit as their kids"

Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Musical by Mo Willems and Michael Silversher

"breathing new life into narrative"

A Hero’s Journey by the Forks & Hope Ensemble and Christian Stokes

"you try hard to compare it to anything else you have ever seen but can’t, not by a long shot"

The Late Wedding by Christopher Chen

"director Aileen McGroddy evokes the unsettling atmosphere of certain folk tales"

Sign of Rain by Jessica Wright Buha

"artfully balances serious and silly in a highly entertaining way"

Or, by Liz Duffy-Adams

Currently Running:

Tom & Eliza by Celine Song

“This thoughtful, provoking piece left me with a feeling of awe of what theater can do.”

— Chicago Theater Review

Extended through September 28th at TUTA Theatre Chicago

Tom & Eliza is a dual meditation on the choices we make (and those we don't) in a world that spins relentlessly into the future. Performed in one long breath by two virtuosic actors, TUTA Co-Artistic director Aileen Wen McGroddy directs the Chicago premiere of this idiosyncratic work by Celine Song, writer of Oscar-nominated film Past Lives and the just released rom-com Materialists.

Featuring: Clifton Frei and Seoyoung Park. Design by: Tatiana Kahvegian, Keith Parham, Alex Trinh.

Tickets and Information

Coming Up:

Cold War Choir Practice by Ro Reddick

September 4th - October 5th at Trinity Repertory Company

It’s twilight in Ronald Reagan’s America and the specter of nuclear war hangs over the country—but rent is still due on the 1st. When a prominent Black conservative brings his mysteriously ill wife home for the holidays, the unplanned reunion sets long-simmering tensions within the family to boil—and throws each member into a bizarre maze of Reaganomics, Cold War espionage, capitalist cult predation, and… choir practice. Featuring original music and set in the mesmerizing ambiance of a retro roller-skating rink, Cold War Choir Practice celebrates the lengths we go to for those we love.

Tickets and Information

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