Ian Gallanar

Ian Gallanar is the Founder and Artistic Director of the Chesapeake Shakespeare Company in Baltimore, Maryland and is the President of the Shakespeare Theatre Association, the international organization for professional Shakespeare theaters.

Ian founded the Chesapeake Shakespeare Company in 2002, directed its first production Twelfth Night, and has directed over 40 productions for the company over its 18 year history. His original adaptation of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol has run six consecutive years at the Chesapeake Shakespeare Company and is one of Baltimore’s best-selling resident productions of the last 20 years.

Since 1980, Ian has worked in professional theaters across the United States as an Actor, Playwright and Director. He has served as Artistic Director for the Repertory Theatre of America, National Theatre for Children, Minnesota Shakespeare in the Park and the Small Change Original Theater.

He wrote and created the national live theater tours of Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? and Newton’s Apple amongst many others. Ian’s scripts have been seen by more than a million people across the country.

Ian is a Distinguished Alumni of the Indiana University of Pennsylvania, a Telly Award Winner, a Howie Award Winner – Howard County, Maryland’s Lifetime Achievement Award for Outstanding Artist and a Helen Hayes Tribute Award winner. In 2015, he was invited to become a member of the prestigious National Theatre Conference. Ian is also a member of the Dramatists Guild and is the host of CSC’s podcast Planet Shakespeare, a series of interviews and conversations with Shakespeare practitioners from around the globe.