Meet Liadin Stewart

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Liadin Stewart. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Liadin below.

Liadin, so good to have you with us today. We’ve got so much planned, so let’s jump right into it. We live in such a diverse world, and in many ways the world is getting better and more understanding but it’s far from perfect. There are so many times where folks find themselves in rooms or situations where they are the only ones that look like them – that might mean being the only woman of color in the room or the only person who grew up in a certain environment etc. Can you talk to us about how you’ve managed to thrive even in situations where you were the only one in the room?

Many times in my life I have been told that I am the only female director my actors have worked with, when assisting on projects I also find myself being the only female-identifying person on the directing team. This doesn’t ever stop being overwhelming to me, even when I am at my most confident there is still a part of me that feels I have to compensate for my femininity in some way, to apologize that I am me. When I have moments of self-doubt in the room I am reminded of one simple fact, I stand on the shoulders of giants. This is a phrase my mother would reassure me with when I was in my formative years as a young artist. The women in my family who came before me worked extremely hard to pave the path that I now walk. I have to believe that some of their strength lives in me. I am not the first woman in my family to pursue a career in a male-dominated field. My grandmother was the first female nurse at Princeton Hospital, she assisted with a surgery performed on Albert Einstein and helped develop a nursing program at our local state college. My mother is a cancer research scientist, she started running her own lab at 20 years old and has continued to be a leader in her department. The women I am related to show me strength, if they could be so strong and fight forward toward progress then so can I. I stand on their shoulders, they are my giants.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?

I am a theatre director based in New York City. I work with playwrights to develop their work, devise original stories, and direct revivals of plays. The stories I primarily work on are brutal and female. I am attracted to this work because I myself identify with the brutality that exists alongside the female experience. From the monthly episodes of bloody mucus to learning to shave my legs with a straight razor at 11, I have always felt myself close to brutality. Not just the brutality that our society treats women with but also the brutality we inflict upon ourselves in response to beauty standards. Women are constantly portrayed in media as 2-dimensional characters with subdued feelings and interests, these are not identifiable characters to me. That is why I want to keep creating and uplifting work that supports 3-dimensional female characters. Women with uncouth feelings and terrible histories. Women with stretchmarks and adult braces, Women with no refinement or grace. I want to be flawed. I want to be human to you.

I am currently directing a show in the New York Fringe Festival that premieres this April, the show is “MINOTAUROMACHY” written by Joanna Wiley. This show follows the wives and mistresses of Pablo Picasso with the intention of illuminating the stories of the women around him he mistreated. The description is as follows:

“Six former wives and mistresses of a certain well-known Spanish artist (okay, it’s Pablo Picasso) form a panel to tell their stories. Only instead of being a look at his artistic legacy, it gets un-academic real fast, and things are not as they seem. Hysterical, heartbreaking, and meticulously researched, MINOTAUROMACHY is a true story of the reasons good people fall in love with monsters.”

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

Three qualities that have impacted my journey the most have been perseverance, empathy, and communication, These have been things that not only assist in any development process with large teams but also help me better understand the world around me. The advice I have for those early on in their directing journey is to lead with kindness, it is in your best interest as a collaborator to approach those around you with unconditional love, what you create together has to be created with love. Love not just for the work but for each other.

How can folks who want to work with you connect?

I am always looking to expand my network of artists as I find the most inspiration from the conversations I have with my friends and collaborators about what they love or seek to change. To create a network of feminist theatre-makers is a dream of mine. I am looking to connect with those who make live performances of any kind but specifically specialize in absurd feminist work. Reach out to me through my website if you are interested in feminist work on stage, I’d love to hear from you! liadinstewart.com

Contact Info:

• Website: https://liadinstewart.com
• Instagram: @_liadin_
• Linkedin: Liadin Stewart

Image Credits

MY PERSONAL PHOTO: please make sure to credit MCP Photo for my headshot. Her Instagram is @mcpphoto.png

For the pictures of the shows the two people to credit are Amy Hecht (for the schoolgirl photos) and then the rest of the actor photos are Jonathan Morrey.