Ash Baker

Theatre Director | San Francisco, Ca

About Ash

Ash Baker is a theatre artist based in San Francisco, Ca with over fifteen years of experience and study in ensemble-building and storytelling.

Ash is an active theatre director, classically trained actor and a proud teaching artist who has served several award-winning theater education programs in the Bay Area.

Additionally, Ash has worked as a research assistant within the literary and dramatic estate of a great American novelist and playwright.

In a previous chapter, Ash was a working portrait and production photographer and still enjoys getting to know herself and others through that medium.

Outside of the arts, Ash is as deckhand on a beautiful 80ft gaff-rigged coastal schooner docked in Sausalito, Ca.

Rehearsal footage from ‘The Locker’, a devised theatre “choreopoem” Ash directed in 2025 about nautical lore. This original story follows a shipwrecked sailor named Jonah as he encounters myths and legends of the deep (sirens, sea creatures, Davy Jones and The Flying Dutchman) on a metaphorical journey through grief.

EXPLORE |15+ Years of Theatre Making

Past Productions

Educational Theatre Practice

Performance Background

ON NEXT | In Production Now

Alice by Heart by Steven Sater, Jessie Nelson, and Duncan Sheik
October 2026
Alice by Heart is a poignant musical by Spring Awakening creators Steven Sater and Duncan Sheik, exploring grief, love, and loss during the 1941 London Blitz. Young Alice Spencer escapes the horrors of war by retreating into her favorite book, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, in an underground tube station with her dying best friend, Alfred.

Clue: On Stage by Sandy Rustin
March 2027

Clue: On Stage is a fast-paced, comedic murder-mystery farce adapted from the 1985 cult film and Hasbro board game. Six guests—Scarlet, Plum, White, Green, Peacock, and Mustard—are blackmailed into a dinner party at Boddy Manor, where they must solve the murder of their host before the police arrive.

Production Photo from Alice Tales of a Curious Girl - Marin Academy.png

CONTACT

EDUCATION

Bachelor of Fine Art Degree in Acting
Rutgers University Class of 2020
Mason Gross School of The Arts
Rutgers Conservatory at Shakespeare’s Globe

ALUMNI & GUEST ARTIST

Conservatory Theater Ensemble
Tamalpais High School | TUHSD
Drama Department

Conservatory Theatre Ensemble (CTE) is an award-winning theatre education program. Since its founding in 1976 as a student-run theatre company, CTE's mission has been to provide a comprehensive, sequential theatre arts program which takes full advantage of the educational value of theatre for the benefit of all interested students. Serving roughly 250 students, annually, enrolled in the program's 10 different drama classes. Each school year, CTE produces 55 nights of live theater on campus!

STAY CONNECTED | Social Media & Newsletter

“The Destruction” on closing night of Carrie, which I greatly enjoyed directing this past Fall 2025. The incredible commitment from this student team on stage and behind the scenes still gives me chills !! These driven students pulled off the storytelling and design of this tense and compelling multi-disciplinary theatrical sequence with impactful mentorship from professional artists Malik Charles Wade I, Kate Barnett, Michelle Samuels, Sarah McKereghan, Charolette Wheeler, Hannah Dakin and @ctetamdrama co-directors Peter Parish and Ben Cleaveland.

Had the opportunity to be on the @ctetamdrama chaperone team last month that took 31 high school students on a theater trip to NYC. Epic trip programming by @bencleaveland: four museums, five shows, four days. Connected with so many alumni and friends - generations of CTE, from the 1970s to the 2020s. Working theater makers, conservatory students and our sophomores all spent the week together walking up and down Manhattan talking all things theatre. I’ll be back (sans 31 students) in NYC for a few days this month! One night free. What should I see?

third season aboard the schooner Freda B ❤️

Got to work on a little movement for Great Expectations @ctetamdrama, directed by @bencleaveland, opening tonight 7pm on the reawakened Ruby Scott Stage (the birth place of the department). Extra special invitation to visit on this project because my first ever play at CTE when I was a student was Ben’s Great Expectations. Returning to this story again, hearing old lines spoken and lessons offered over a decade later made for some familiar and meaningful rehearsal moments. A grand, circular motion. Happy opening Great Expectations, thanks for having me! Final photo is a young Ash playing a young Havisham, likely fourteen or fifteen years old. Video featuring wonderful Stu, my partner for all things including waltzing while choreographing at home. We call those “swan hands” !

happy birthday to my creative, compassionate, elegant, deep and funny mom 🌷

really good ones

dining room disco ball

My haunt! A few days until my fourth guest teaching year at @ctetamdrama is closed out. 🎭 Ever grateful to this community of students, colleagues, mentors and families for another year of joy and alchemy. Ensemble-minded work, the sacred fun of organized chaos and the collective strength of these hearts and spirits of all ages accomplishes so much of what I’d hoped art could create when I first started. What a beacon. As usual, not so much about the thing itself as what it furthers. 3 courses: Two Devising Physical Theater sections resulting in four original works. One intro to Meisner scene study featuring ten favorite contemporary plays. 2 productions: Directed 1980s bloody musical Carrie in the Fall and 1890s Chekhov in the Spring. Working two extremes of my directing spectrum back to back was a gift!! 1 upcoming nyc trip with 30+ theater students! See you in April, nyc

Tonight is the closing performance of Chekhov’s The Seagull, 7:00pm @ctetamdrama 🪶 Come support student-run theater! Excellent student work onstage and behind the scenes.

Come support student-run theater! Chekhov’s The Seagull opens tomorrow at @ctetamdrama Playing March 13th-16th, 7:00pm Tickets available at the door, free for students Thank you to all students and mentors involved in building this beautiful show! 🪶

29 !!

Chekhov’s The Seagull is running at @ctetamdrama for four nights only, March 13-16 🪶 Pictured: drop-testing one of our dead seagull props by student Lazlo and mentor artist Kate during one of our final late-night work calls at the theater for student design teams before tech begins tomorrow

all dolled up for Jackie & Danny’s joyful wedding!! & photo booth strip of the gorgeous Ulloa girls and I from years ago 💘

other valentines of mine on 35mm

Valentine took me to my first trapeze class as a romantic gesture. I’m right where I’m supposed to be

For the Stu fan club 🤩🤩 Happy birthday to a real life supermodel and movie star