Andrei Şerban is a major name in the twentieth^-century theatre, renowned for his innovative and iconoclastic interpretations and stagings. Born and educated in communist Romania, he fled to the USA in 1969 with the help of La MaMa’s founder, Ellen Stewart, after receiving a grant from the Ford Foundation. His immediate success brought him an invitation to study at Peter Brook's International Centre for Theatre Research in Paris. Şerban directed and staged theatre shows in 39 countries. For more than two decades, he has been associated with the American Repertory Theatre in Cambridge, Massachusetts. As a director, Şerban has also worked at the Circle in the Square Theatre, the Yale Repertory Theater, the American Conservatory Theatre, the Metropolitan Opera, the New York City, Seattle and Los Angeles Operas, at the Paris, Geneva, Vienna, and Bologna Opera Houses, the Welsh National Opera, Covent Garden, Théâtre de la Ville, the Comédie Française, Helsinki's Lilla Teatern, and with the Shiki Theatre Company in Tokyo. From 1990 to 1993, he headed the National Theatre of Bucharest. Since 1992, he is Professor of Theatre at the Columbia University School of the Arts. He has also taught at Yale University, Harvard University, Carnegie Mellon University, Sarah Lawrence College, University of California, San Diego, the Paris Conservatoire d'Art Dramatique and the American Repertory Theatre's Institute for Advanced Theatre Training. He has returned regularly to Romania in the past few years to conduct workshops and to stage various classical and contemporary theatre plays.