Irina Kruzhilina
Irina is an award-winning multi-hyphenate theater maker whose various hats include director, scenographer, experience designer, professor, playwright, and artistic director.
Raised in Moscow in an intercultural household with a Ukrainian mother and Georgian father, Irina creates work that grapples with social issues, exploring identity, displacement, and belonging. Her work centers on site-specific performances and socially engaged projects with community members to address issues like immigration, polarization, conflict, and peacebuilding. Irina launched SpaceBridge, a workshop and performance uniting 19 refugee and American children, most of whom had never been on stage, transforming their stories into a fully realized Off-Broadway production.
Irina is an associate professor at the New School of Drama, where she co-developed a new MFA program in Contemporary Theatre and Performance.