Against

Christopher Shinn (b. 1975) is an American playwright from New York. His plays include Now or Later (shortlisted for the Evening Standard Theatre Award for Best Play), Dying City (Pulitzer Prize finalist), Where Do We Live (winner of an Obie in Playwriting), An Opening In Time, Teddy Ferrara, Picked, Four, What Didn't Happen, On the Mountain, Other People, and The Coming World. His adaptation of Hedda Gabler premiered on Broadway (American Airlines Theatre), and he has written short plays for Naked Angels (Democracy Project), the 24 Hour Plays on Broadway, the Bush Theatre (Sixty-Six Books), and Headlong (Decade). His work has been premiered by Lincoln Center Theater, Manhattan Theatre Club, Playwrights Horizons, the Vineyard Theatre, South Coast Rep, the Goodman, the Royal Court, and the Soho Theatre, and later produced around the world. Christopher Shinn’s awards include a Guggenheim Fellowship in Playwriting, a grant from the NEA/TCG Residency Program, an Obie in Playwriting and the Robert Chesley Award.

Vik received his MFA in Theatre Directing from Birkbeck, University of London and his PG Award in Teaching Shakespeare from The University of Warwick (in association with the Royal Shakespeare Company).

Vik has been associated with LAMDA since 2015 as a freelance director. In his current position, he directs and teaches across a range of LAMDA’s acting programmes. Public productions directed include Rotterdam, In Arabia We’d All Be Kings, Wild Honey, Posh, Macbeth and Romeo and Juliet. Professional directing credits include the UK premieres of The Ice Cream Boys by Gail Louw, There or Here by Jennifer Maisel, Home by Sam Art Williams and Half and Half- The Curry Musical by Tim Reilly. International directing credits include Much Ado About Nothing in NY and The Tempest at the Rio Olympics.

Contains discussions of sexual abuse including a minor, references to mental health and depression, substance abuse, racism, gun violence and cancer.