Nicholas Polonio is a Filipino-American director of plays and musicals based in New York City. His work features detailed performances of complicated human behavior.
Nicholas 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, and the Movement Theatre Company. Currently, he serves as Director-in-Residence for Leviathan Lab. 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).
Nicholas is a former New York Theatre Workshop 2050 Directing Fellow and Drama League Directing Fellow. He has been a member of the Ma-Yi Writer’s Lab, Mercury Store Directors Lab, Roundabout Directors Group, Williamstown Theatre Festival Directing Corps, and the Young Vic Genesis Directors. As a child actor, he won a National YoungArts Award for Spoken Theater.
Nicholas received a BFA in Acting from Rutgers Mason-Gross School of the Arts and is currently on directing faculty for the Playwrights Horizons Theater School at NYU Tisch.
Proud member of SDC.