Nicholas Polonio is a Filipino-American director of plays and musicals based in New York City. His work centers difficult and complicated human behavior and reaches for horror, laughter, and entertainment alike.
He has directed and developed work with Ars Nova, New York Theatre Workshop, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Bedlam, Ma-Yi Theater Company, Normal Ave, Hangar Theatre, Sống Collective, Williamstown Theatre Festival, American Playwriting Foundation, Asian American Arts Alliance, the Movement Theatre Company, and Leviathan Lab, where he currently serves as Director-in-Residence. Recent productions include THE SELF IMPROVEMENT AND MALE PRESERVATION SOCIETY, or S.I.M.P.S. (IRT Theater), MARY STUART (The Lee Strasberg Institute), and POV: U RUN JOE BIDEN’S TIKTOK (ANTFest).
As Associate Director: SLAVE PLAY (Broadway, West End, Mark Taper Forum), PUBLIC OBSCENITIES (Soho Rep), JELLY’S LAST JAM (New York City Center Encores!), HAMLET (Mark Taper Forum), SHIT.MEET.FAN. (MCC Theater), X: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF MALCOLM X (Metropolitan Opera and Tour), A RAISIN IN THE SUN (The Public, Williamstown Theatre Festival), RICHARD III (The Delacorte Theater), A LONG DAY’S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT (Minetta Lane Theatre), A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE (Williamstown Theatre Festival), PARIS (Atlantic Theater Company), 17 BORDER CROSSINGS (New York Theater Workshop), THE WHITE DEVIL (Lucille Lortel Theatre), HENRY IV, PART I (Shakespeare’s Globe), and RICHARD II (Shakespeare’s Globe).
Alumnus of the NYTW 2050 Directing Fellowship, Drama League Director Fellowship, Ma-Yi Writer’s Lab, Mercury Store Directors Lab, Roundabout Directors Group, Williamstown Theatre Festival Directing Corps, Young Vic Genesis Directors, and the National YoungArts Award for Spoken Theater.
Nicholas received a BFA in acting from Rutgers Mason-Gross School of the Arts and is currently on faculty at the Playwrights Horizons Theater School at NYU.
Proud SDC member.