Anna Zheng (she/they) loves making beautiful, visceral messes onstage. She is a director, deviser, and writer whose work centers Asian American narratives, physical theatre, and devising adaptations of plays. With a background rooted in devising, their creative process relies on playful ensemble collaboration to build community and create direct, intimate, unexpected theatre. They are interested in exploring theatre that is not only transformative in its storytelling, but in its process—theatre that is sustainable, creative, silly, and rigorous in the rehearsal room as well.

Lately, she has been focusing on narrative physical theatre and what it means to have a body onstage—most recently, a dance theatre interpretation of Constellations by Nick Payne that explored ways erase the onstage distinctions between dancers and actors. Their current project is a devised, movement-centric adaptation of Three Sisters about climate migration.

She is a former Artistic Director for the Stanford Asian American Theater Project (AATP), where she helmed a 4-show season and new works festival. She created a developmental stage series to support experimental projects, developing new student works, and giving more underrepresented artists access to the organization’s resources.

Anna is currently a senior majoring in Theatre and Performance Studies at Stanford.