Michael Barakiva

Michael Barakiva is an Armenian/Israeli American theatre director and writer who currently serves as Artistic Director of Cleveland Play House. His work has been seen at Primary Stages, Ensemble Studio Theater, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Shakespeare Santa Cruz, Syracuse Stage, and TheatreWorks Silicon Valley, as well as the Hangar Theatre, where he served as Artistic Director. Michael is also an award-winning Young Adult novelist whose third book, Keepers of the Stones and Stars, a multi-POV queer protagonist contemporary epic fantasy, will be on bookshelves in May 2024 (FSG, Macmillan). His first novel, One Man Guy (2014) was named to the Rainbow List and has been released in Brazil. It was followed by a standalone sequel, Hold My Hand (2019). His plays include The Nature of Things (Sloan/EST Commission), String Theory (Connotations Press) and a two-part adaptation of Milton’s Paradise Lost (Red Bull Commission). He has spoken at the Iowa Governor’s Conference for LGBTQ Youth, Brooklyn Book Fair, Spring Writes! Literary Festival, Pennsylvania Library Leadership Conference, Unbound Book Festival, the McNally Jackson Books LGBTQ YA Series and New York Book Expo. Michael is the founder of the Leadership Initiative Project (LIP), which equips historically excluded artists with the tools to succeed in leadership positions. He has presented at the International University Theatre Festival at UNAM, Mexico City and led workshops at the International Puppet Theatre Sofia, Bulgaria. He is the recipient of three Drama League Fellowships, the Killian Directing Fellowship at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, the Granada Artist-in-Residence at UC Davis and was the primary coach on an episode of MTV’s Made. Education: The Juilliard School, Vassar College.