Ash Baker
Ash Baker
 

On the “Rehearsal Barge” in Sausalito, Ca, rehearsing A Midsummer Night Dream for Shakespeare On The Water, 2023

 

DIRECTOR

Ash began directing theatre in 2022. Since then, she has directed fifteen full-scale productions and performance events, averaging three processes annually in the arenas of regional and educational theater, as well as contributing in the development of new work and premiere theater projects in the Bay Area.

Within educational theatre, Ash revels in directing several student-run productions each year as part of her guest teaching practice, which she considers an irreplaceable component of her artistic life.

Ash has a fire in her belly for ensemble-minded projects, physical theater, immersive theatre, movement and circus.

Ash also co-produces staged readings and theatre events. One of her recent producing credits is a New-Work Reading Event in collaboration with The Thornton Wilder Family, exploring a 1930s Wilder novel turned stage-adaptation.

 
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Ash’s directing style is playful, inventive and inherently theatrical.

Ash illuminates and prioritizes the unique strengths of the stage as the distinct storytelling medium that it is. She explores theatrical form consciously and expansively by shaping theatre that can be experienced like a party. This is because she believes in making theatre that necessitates a live-audience’s presence as the final theatrical device to enhance drama, build tension and foster connection and engagement.

Ash has a specialty for developing and choreographing physical theater and crafts simple, smart storytelling solves to create moments of visual impact and delight!

 
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Past Productions

 

The Seagull by Anton Chekhov

 

A four act play set at a rural, Russian estate by a lake in 1896.

  • Conservatory Theater Ensemble
    Tamalpais High School Drama Department

    Caldwell Theater | Mill Valley, Ca
    March 2025

    Directed by
    Ash Baker

    Produced by
    The Tam High Foundation,
    Ben Cleveland and Peter Parish

    Student Design Team
    with support from theatre design and production mentors:
    Kate Barnett
    Sarah McKereghan
    Michelle Samuels
    Charlotte Wheeler
    Ben Cleaveland
    Peter Parish
    Hannah Dakin

  • “Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing,
    There is a field. I'll meet you there.
    When the soul lies down in that grass,
    The world is too full to talk about.
    Ideas, language, even the phrase each other
    Doesn't make any sense.”    — Rumi

    This 13th-century poem by Persian poet Rumi describes a “field” of pure presence beyond dualistic thinking. I believe Chekhov’s The Seagull offers a similar invitation to it’s audiences. Chekhov and the style of Realism asks a nearly scientific question: “What happens when these characters with these hereditary traits are in this environment together?”. Chekhov asks us simply to look. To take Chekhov’s work in for all it has to offer us I believe we must transcend human judgement, moral binaries, and ego-driven labels in order to take in the essence of singular, transient human moment in all the subtext, contradiction and truth it may hold.

    This play is a comedy. 

 

Carrie: The Musical By Michael Gore, Dean Pitchford and Lawrence D. Cohen

‘The Destruction’, closing night - Carrie massacres her Senior Prom via telekinetic powers in the gruesome “crescendo” of this cautionary tale.

Stephen King’s 1974 debut horror novel adapted for the stage, detailing the events leading up to the Chamberlain High School Senior Prom on Saturday, May 28th 1979.

  • Conservatory Theater Ensemble
    Tamalpais High School Drama Department

    Caldwell Theater | Mill Valley, Ca
    October 2025

    Directed and Choreographed by
    Ash Baker
    Musical Direction by
    Malik Charles Wade I

    Produced by
    The Tam High Foundation,
    Ben Cleveland and Peter Parish

    Student Design Team
    with support from theatre design and production mentors:
    Kate Barnett
    Sarah McKereghan
    Michelle Samuels
    Charlotte Wheeler 
    Ben Cleaveland
    Peter Parish
    Hannah Dakin

  • When I mention we are doing Carrie at the high school, I’m met with a divided audience. (And that is before I mention the musical adaptation part.) One side saying Carrie is “METAL!”, “Great for October.”. The other side, posing a responsible question: “Isn’t that one pretty dark?”. Our memories of Stephen King’s 1974 debut horror novel are of blood, violence and cruelty. Carrie explores challenging subject matter — religion, puberty and menstruation, bullying, abuse, shame, generational curses and murder. But Carrie is much more than the filmic iconography of Brian De Palma’s 1979 prom scene. It’s a sci-fi/horror genre misfit that examines the fear of the potential power of those we misuse. It’s a cautionary tale that teaches about the importance of kindness, asking the question “Can one small act of kindness truly change someone’s life for good?”. Most of all, Carrie is a tragedy. Beyond the titular character and her telekinetic powers, it’s a story about ordinary young people on the precipice of graduating high school. However, with the exit sign in view, they don’t make it out. When pondering “Is Carrie right for high schoolers?” I conclude, “Well, yes. This story is about them. And, perhaps, it’s a story made most meaningful when explored from their perspective.”

    Like many well-told stories, an unanswerable question remains: “Who is to blame when tragedy strikes?” Is it Carrie’s classmates? Carrie’s mother? Carrie? And, of course, in the end it’s broader than that. As novelist Margaret Atwood puts it “it’s the hatred of the town that channels itself through her, tips her over the edge, and transforms her into an angel of destruction.”

 

The Locker, a devised theatre work

An original 30-minute “choreopoem” with movement and text inspired by nautical lore. Written and choreographed (in just 8 days) by Ash Baker and The Summer Club, an extraordinary cohort of high school theatre students.

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.

  • Shakespare On The Water
    The Summer Club

    Ruby Scott Stage at Conservatory Theater Ensemble | Mill Valley, Ca
    June 2025

    Directed by
    Ash Baker

    Produced by
    Isabelle Ellingson, Shakespeare On The Water

    Light Design by
    Max Dolan with mentor support from Peter Parish

 

Alice: Tales of a Curious Girl by Karen Hartman

A Historically-Accurate Alice
A focus on research and dramaturgy when approaching adaption and the reimagining of a well-known tale and titular character.

On a hot spring day, Alice leaps from a stifling photographer's studio into Wonderland, a world where cakes talk, cats smoke, and little girls change size. In Part Two, she tries to repeat the adventure by stepping Through the Looking Glass. Alice's second journey is more inversion than fantasy, a place of fleeting memories and mismatched childhood dreams. An invigorating race through the brain of a curious girl, based on Lewis Carroll's Alice books.

  • Marin Academy | San Rafael, Ca
    February 2025

    Directed by
    Ash Baker
    Assistant Directed by
    Julietta Martinez

    Produced by
    David Saniko

    Technical Direction by Drew Yerys
    Costume Design by Kate Barnett
    Scenic Design by Ted Catlin
    Light Design by Charlie Mejia
    Sound Design by Laine Russell

 

Doomers by Matthew Gasda
West-Coast Premiere

A new boardroom drama by critically acclaimed writer/director Matthew Gasda — ‘Doomers’ follows the unraveling of a tech company as it’s leader clash over ambition, ethics, and the dangerous pursuit of artificial general intelligence.

  • Pallas Gallery | San Francisco, Ca

    Directed by
    Ash Baker

    Produced by
    Emily Anderson, Sophia Engelsberg, Sam Hyrkin and Elenor Irene Paul

    Brooklyn Center for Theater Research

 
 

Hamlet by William Shakespeare

Welcome to “Hotel Elsinore”

This gruesome Halloween-Hamlet indulged in classic horror film troupes, taking inspiration from The Shining, Paranormal Activity, The Twilight Zone, etc. featuring “haunting” electrical malfunctions through surges and flashes, practical explosive blood effects, flashlights in the darkness, jump-scares, a chainsaw, bolt-cutters (you don’t wanna know) and a “power outage” at the end of Act III.

The co-directors adapted the text together to create a modern, five-Hamlet take on Shakespeare’s most famous play, casting different Hamlet’s for each act to explore this well-known character from different perspectives.

  • Conservatory Theater Ensemble
    Tamalpais High School Drama Department

    Caldwell Theater | Mill Valley, Ca
    October 2024

    Co-Directed by
    Ash Baker & Jon Demegillo

    Produced by
    The Tam High Foundation,
    Ben Cleveland and Peter Parish

    Student Design Team
    with support from design mentors:
    Kate Barnett
    Sarah McKereghan
    Michelle Samuels
    Charlotte Wheeler 
    Ben Cleaveland
    Peter Parish
    Hannah Dakin

  • From Co-Directors Jon & Ash:
    A dream collaboration thirteen years in the making, we first met attending CTE as students and went on parallel educational paths through College of Marin and later earned our Bachelor of Fine Art degrees in Acting (UNCSA for Jon, Rutgers for Ash) before returning to CTE as Guest Artists.

    ‍ ‍Our Hamlet is set in a time like our own at Hotel Elsinore, a grand, premium family-owned hotel in the midst of their Winter “off-season”. We have gleefully leaned into genre for this project and had fun taking on the challenge of translating our love for the Horror genre into the medium of live theater. Staging suspense, special effects and jump-scares has been a labor of love and a highlight for all involved.

    Our cut of Hamlet prioritizes relationship and family dynamics and excludes the themes of politics and war true of the original. In omitting the themes of war and politics, we wanted to delve into the complex matters of how young people grieve today. Is there a right way to grieve and how can we support young people in times of their bereft? In casting, we’ve chosen 5 actors to play Hamlet, one to represent each act of the original text and give a different perspective on this question. In distributing the role of Hamlet to many several young actors, we hope Hamlet’s story becomes that much more universal.

    During our time at CTE, we’ve never seen a more ambitious take on a show in terms of overall design and theatrical elements all coming together and we’ve been so thankful to work with such talented and hardworking young actors, designers and crew who’ve taken on such an immense task.

    We hope you enjoy the show and may it properly send you off to your spooky Halloween festivities.

    We proudly welcome to The Hotel Elsinore and we hope you enjoy your stay.

 

The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien, adapted for the stage by Patricia Gray

“The staging was incredible - so inventive and truly effective and beautiful to experience. The students were so obviously present and having a great time. It was a joy to watch and be inside.”
— Julia M. | Author, Actor & Educator

The Dragon Smaug
from rehearsal to performance

“Here, my students and I devised a free-floating puppet face, voiced by an ensemble member, to depict the dragon Smaug in our 2023 production of The Hobbit.

The parameters I assigned to our student design team were that:

(1) Smaug’s form was to be comprised of multi-use props, already established in show, before their final reveal and function in animating Smaug’s gigantic alligator-like jaw, fierce glowing eyes and furrowed brow.

(2) All objects incorporated into our prop and scenic design were selected to reference the world of World War I — a nod to J.R.R. Tolkien's time in the service and how this experience influenced the themes of heroism, greed, trust and fellowship in his stories, a body of literary work which, despite it’s fantasy genre, explores the futility, devastation and reality of war.”

Smaug’s face: a WWI stretcher, two gas lanterns, two swords (wielded by Dwarfs) and two spears (wielded by Elves).” Smaug's wings: Two trench-camp-like canvas tents designed to mirror the famous jagged mountain range of Tolkien’s novel cover.

  • Conservatory Theater Ensemble
    Tamalpais High School Drama Department

    Caldwell Theater | Mill Valley, Ca
    December 2022

    Directed by Ash Baker

    Produced by
    The Tam High Foundation

    Student Design Team
    with support from theatre design and production mentors

  • … Together, The Hobbit, The Lord of The Rings and The Silmarillion details an expansive and seemingly never-ending universe of fictional histories, poems, tales, invented languages, lineage and culture. Middle Earth, with its own creation mythos and topography, is where this story takes place “From Underhill, through the Wilderland, to the Lonely Mountain.” Time, “Long ago in the quiet of the world.”

    Condensing this boundless story into an hour and a half adaptation for the stage was a victory. I hope those familiar with the original relish discovering what Patricia Gray has careful chosen to include. I hope those hearing this story for the first time will connect with the heart-centered theme: Bravery can be found in all of us if we simply answer the call. Take risks, leave your comfort zone, you have what it takes…

 

A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare

“Shakespeare on the Water is a Sausalito-based theater event performing live, abridged plays on the houseboat docks and shores of the historic waterfront.

Our mission is to continue the tradition of the arts and provide educational theater opportunities to both professional and rising theater artists.”

  • Shakespeare On The Water
    Created & produced by Isabelle Ellingson
    @shakespeareonthewater

    A Midsummer Night’s Dream
    Sponsored by Marin Made

    Houseboat Docks | Sausalito, Ca
    Summer 2023

    Directed by Ash Baker
    Musical Direction by Ruby Day
    Choreographed by Victoria Gusciora

  • Latitude 38 - Shakespeare on the Water Comes to the Sausalito Waterfront
    Read Full Latitude38 Article

    “She abridged the original play into a seamless one-hour production — easy to understand for younger audience members, with clear storytelling. Under her direction emerged a deeply humorous but classic story of love, mischief, and magic.

    “My students are my creative inspiration. They are a daily reminder of why I started. Regardless of what my students go off and do with their lives, I love to see how theater brings them friends, community, and safety on campus,” said Baker. “Everything makes sense coming back to this as a teacher.” 

    — Heather Breaux, Latitude 38, 2023


    Secret San Francisco - The Best Way To Watch This Shakespeare Play Is From A Kayak
    Shakespeare on the Water features two floating shows of A Midsummer Night's Dream on the bay in Sausalito.
    Read Full SecretSF Article

    “In early September, a group of kayaks and boats will gather in Sausalito to watch a uniquely Bay Area performance of one of Shakespeare’s most beloved plays. The floating show features a multi-generational cast, including students and classically trained actors who have come together to perform on the water... An abridged version of the iconic A Midsummer Night’s Dream will be performed on the water with scenic Sausalito as the backdrop.”

 

The SpongeBob Musical

SpongeBob SquarePants: An Existential Crisis

Famous children’s cartoon characters contemplate their inevitable demise and choose bravery as the doomsday clock ticks toward the end of the their world.

  • Yes! Theater
    White Hill Middle School | Ross Valley School District

    San Anselmo Playhouse | San Ansemlo, Ca
    April 2024

    Co-Directed and Choreographed by Ash Baker and Jenny Boynton

    Musical Direction by
    Malik Charles Wade

    Produced by
    Education Director, Anna Barker

 

Orlando by Sarah Ruhl, adapted from the original novel by Virginia Woolf

Orlando, composed of many selves, elapses five centuries of history, embracing adventures, lovers, and a number of poem drafts. Finally, after much yearning, Orlando arrives in the present and comes home to The Self, aging only thirty six years in the process. Oh - and somewhere along the way, our hero becomes a heroine! Like the protagonist, this story contains multitudes. It is part biography, part fabulation, all poetry.

  • Conservatory Theater Ensemble
    Tamalpais High School Drama Department

    Caldwell Theater | Mill Valley, Ca
    December 2022

    Directed by Ash Baker
    Choreographed by Iu-Hui Chua

    Produced by
    The Tam High Foundation

    Student Design Team
    with support from theatre design and production mentors

  • Adapted from the original 1928 novel by Virginia Woolf, Orlando by award-winning playwright Sarah Ruhl, transcends two great constructs: Gender and Time. Free from these, we will celebrate the appetite, fluidity, turbulence, and joy of the human spirit without limits.

       Woolf’s ‘Orlando: A Biography’, written in dedication to her love, author and aristocrat Vita Sackville-West, is considered to be one of the longest love letters in literature and was a radical novel of the time.

         Based, in essence, off the real life Vita, Orlando challenges the biographical genre, looking between fact and fiction, and asks us to consider the gray area when looking for truth. History is born of memory. Therefore, a writer’s point of view, Woolf argued, renders biography a kind of fiction, memory a kind of fact. Somewhere in the middle, amidst the interconnectedness and relativity of human experience, truth can begin to be captured.

        Challenging genre was, of course, not the only thing that made this novel notable for the time. Orlando was inspired by and about, among other things, queer love! This story’s distinctly LGBTQIA+ and feminist themes are its heartbeat and stand the test of time with today’s artists, students and audiences. Ruhl’s ‘Orlando’ for the stage is playful, poignant and prompting. Watching our cast take ownership of this piece was a daily joy.

    Thank you for joining us tonight as the cast reads Virginia’s love letter aloud!

 
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Directing Credits

 

  • DOOMERS by Matthew Gasda | West-Coast Premiere // Brooklyn Center for Theater Research // Pallas Gallery // Dir. Ash Baker // Prod. Emily Anderson, Sam Hyrkin, Sophia Englesberg

  • A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM by William Shakespeare
    Shakespeare On The Water // Dir. Ash Baker // Prod. Isabelle Ellingson

  • DOOMERS by Matthew Gasda | Developmental Play Readings
    Brooklyn Center for Theater Research // Dir. Matthew Gasda // Asst Dir. Ash Baker // Prod. Sophia Englesberg

 

for Educational Theater

 

  • THE SEAGULL by Anton Chekov
    Conservatory Theater Ensemble, Tamalpais High School // Dept. Dir. Ben Cleaveland and Peter Parish // Dir. Ash Baker

  • CARRIE: THE MUSICAL adapted by Lawrence D. Cohen and Michael Gore
    from the original debut horror novel by Stephen King
    Conservatory Theater Ensemble, Tamalpais High School // Dept. Dir. Ben Cleaveland and Peter Parish // Dir. Ash Baker

  • ALICE: TALES OF A CURIOUS GIRL by Karen Hartman
    Marin Academy // Dept Dir. David Saniko // Dir. Ash Baker // Asst. Dir. Julie Martinez

  • HAMLET by William Shakespeare
    Conservatory Theater Ensemble, Tamalpais High School // Dept Dir. Ben Cleaveland // Dir. Ash Baker & Jon Demegillo

  • ORLANDO by Sarah Ruhl, from the original novel by Virginia Woolf
    Conservatory Theater Ensemble, Tamalpais High School // Dept Dir. Ben Cleaveland // Dir. Ash Baker

  • THE HOBBIT by Patricia Gray, from the original novel by J.R.R. Tolkien
    Conservatory Theater Ensemble, Tamalpais High School // Dept Dir. Ben Cleaveland // Dir. Ash Baker

  • MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING by William Shakespeare
    Marin Shakespeare Company // Edu Dir. Elana Kepner // Dir. Ash Baker & Jon Demegillo, assisted by Will Freas

  • JULIUS CASEAR by William Shakespeare
    Marin Shakespeare Company // Edu Dir. Elana Kepner // Dir. Jon Demegillo, Shayna Howlett & Ash Baker

  • THE SPONGEBOB MUSICAL
    Yes! Theater // Prog Dir. Anna Barker // Dir. Ash Baker & Jenny Boynton

  • HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL
    Yes! Theater // Prog Dir. Anna Barker // Dir. Ash Baker // Asst Dir. Jenny Boynton

 

Devised Theater & Original Work

 

  • THE LOCKER - An original work inspired by oceanic and nautical lore
    The Summer Club, Shakespeare On The Water // Dir. Ash Baker

 
 
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Producing Credits
Theatre Events & Staged Readings

  • New-Work Reading Event: The Woman of Andros - an adaptation for the stage by Jon Baron, from the original 1930 novel by Thornton Wilder
    Produced by Ash Baker in collaboration with Tappan Wilder, The Thornton Wilder Family & Rosey Strub

  • Shakespeare On The Water, Season I (2021) & Season II (2023)

  • HORSE GIRLS by Jenny Rachel Weiner, a staged reading at Cutting Ball Theater
    Directed by Lily Marcheschi | Produced Ash Baker

 
“[Ash’s] talent and supreme attention to detail was simply amazing. Glad I could be a part of the experience.”
— Joe P. | Actor & Musician, Thornton Wilder Staged Reading Event
 

Photo from Horse Girls by Jenny Rachel Weiner, a staged reading at Cutting Ball Theater | R-L: Emily Anderson, Ruby Day

Producing Highlight

About Horse Girls
“Based in the year 2012/2013, back when Mitt Romney was running for president, Barack Obama actually was president, and when 13 year old girls actually looked like 13 year old girls.

Twelve-year-old Ashleigh rules the Lady Jean Ladies, South Florida's most exclusive horse club. News that her family's stables are being sold and their horses killed for meat throws the Ladies into crisis in this dark comedy of middle school deception and lies.”

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