Lavinia Hart

Founding Artistic Director

Lavinia Hart recently retired from her position as Associate Professor of Theatre and Head of MFA Acting for Wayne State University. Prior to her 20 plus years as a teacher of acting and directing for Wayne State University and St. Olaf College, she was the Artistic Director of the Attic Theatre in Detroit for 19 years.  Building Detroit’s foremost small professional theatre (AEA) included acting, directing and producing more than 100 plays. It was a time of ensemble theatre companies and the Attic family included the most exciting theatre artists in Southeast Michigan. She is a founding member of the Great Lakes Michael Chekhov Consortium.

Lavinia Hart has relocated from Detroit to the Seattle-Tacoma area. During Winter Semester of 2021 she taught acting online with Florida International University.  In the fall of 2020 she directed an online performance of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time for Oakland University/Rochester, Michigan. Her recent Wayne State University directing credits include The Winter’s Tale, As You Like It, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Cloud Nine.  Other favorite plays directed at Wayne State’s Hilberry Theatre include The Cripple of Inishmaan, The Cider House Rules,  (co-directed with Blair Anderson); A Servant of Two Masters, Translations, Antony and Cleopatra and The Kentucky Cycle (co-directed with Pat Ansuini).  Bonstelle Theatre credits include To Kill a Mockingbird, A Christmas Carol, The Crucible and Ten November.  Lavinia’s professional credits outside the Attic include direction of Murder on the Nile at The Meadowbrook Theatre, playing the title role in Kim Carney’s world premiere comedy Maggie Rose at the Performance Network, and Terry in The Lady House Blues at the Birmingham Theatre. A high point in her career as a director was An Act of God featuring her daughter Jaime Moyer for Jewish EnsembleTheatre.  Her all-time favorite acting role was Violet Weston in August: Osage County for the Hilberry Theatre. Favorite teaching gig: “Acting with Shakespeare and Commedia dell Arte” in Siena, Italy for two summers with Michael Chekhov Technique colleague Kiara Pipino.