Lucy Murphy (she/they) is an emerging theatre and film director originally from Honolulu, Hawai'i, now based in New York City. Lucy’s passion for directing was born out of her love for performing in the Honolulu theatre community. They started to become interested in directing in their senior year of high school, having received Anne Bogart's A Director Prepares as a bday gift. From there, Lucy attempted to get on the directing side of things as often as she could, assistant directing the school musical, directing a black-box production of Little Shop of Horrors as a 'Senior Independent Study'. After graduation, Lucy spent a gap year in Honolulu, where they (very ambitiously and very naively) wrote, produced, acted in, and directed a short play at ARTS at Marks Garage. She learned alot!

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After her gap year, Lucy was accepted into the John Wells Undergraduate Directing Program at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), where she would be given the chance to further her learning. 

At CMU, Lucy became deeply involved with the School of Drama’s Playground Festival, an annual celebration of independent student work. She immediately fell in love with the exhilarating energy of Playground, directing multiple pieces in the festival each year, as well as serving as Assistant Festival Producer and Festival Producer in their junior and senior years respectively. The shift to virtual learning during the pandemic allowed Lucy to explore her growing interest in film direction, and she pursued this further through film analysis and production courses in CMU's Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences. Lucy also completed an independent study in screenwriting and film production.

 

Virtual learning also allowed for Lucy to spend time at home during her time in school, where she actively contributed to the Honolulu theatre community. Notably, she collaborated with Diamond Head Theatre (DHT) to create a drive-in concert series during the theatre's COVID closure and served as the acting instructor for DHT's 2020 Musical Theatre Experience Summer Program.

 

In her Junior year, Lucy spent a semester in New York City through the Syracuse Department of Drama’s Tepper Semester. There, she gained invaluable industry experience as a marketing and directing intern for the York Theatre Company, contributing to archival research and observing the rehearsal process of the new musical Penelope, or How The Odyssey Was Really Written. Additionally, Lucy interned for directors Gabriel Barre and Taibi Magar, assisting with research on various theatrical projects.

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As a queer, disabled artist, Lucy is committed to creating work that challenges conventional narratives and highlights the structures of power that shape our world. Their work centers on stories of historically underrepresented groups, with a particular focus on the genre of science fiction. Lucy’s exploration of these themes at CMU included directing and co-writing sci-fi plays that examine systemic oppression, humanity’s relationship with technology, and the potential for revolution. For her Senior Capstone, Lucy directed BABEL by Jacqueline Goldfinger, creating a production that reflected her belief in science fiction’s power to mirror contemporary society while immersing audiences in new worlds.