Shoshanah Tarkow (she/her) is a New York based theatre director, educator, and multimedia artist. Shoshanah received her BFA in Theatre Studies from Adelphi University and her MA in Performance Studies from New York University.
Growing up, Shoshanah loved museums and other interactive learning environments. As an artist, she aims to create the kind of experiences that would have captivated her as a child. Shoshanah’s scholarly and practice-based research exists at the interstices between theater, science, technology, and human connectivity. Modeling her artistic practice after Karen Barad’s idea of “diffractive reading”, Shoshanah’s work asks questions about resonance in performance, and as performance; resonance in the world, and as world making.
Most recently, that has manifested as a fascination with ether-waves, the theremin, and the physics of touching. Shoshanah is currently developing an audio-driven project about the invention of the theremin with support from the Orchard Projects’ Audio Lab.
For the past three years, Shoshanah has been an adjunct professor in the Department of Theatre at Adelphi University, teaching Scene Study, Stanislavski, Viewpoints, and Laban techniques. In the Fall of 2022, Shoshanah collaborated with artists at St. Ann’s Warehouse and Little Amal Walks New York, to create an opportunity for Adelphi students to engage with the Amal puppet. This past year Shoshanah directed two original theatre pieces for Adelphi University: a devised piece exploring hope, curiosity, and the paradoxes of both Pandora’s Box and Schrodinger’s Cat; and a contemporary adaptation of Proust’s ‘In Search of Lost Time’ set during the COVID pandemic.
Shoshanah is currently a teaching artist with TADA! Youth Theater where she works with performers ages 4-18. Prior to working for TADA!, Shoshanah served as Associate Artistic Director of Andy’s Summer Playhouse in Wilton, New Hampshire, and Managing Director of Shining Studios in Port Washington, New York.
When the COVID pandemic shut down most theatres and arts institutions, Shoshanah enthusiastically embraced the new landscape of digital theatre making. Choosing to focus on the shutdown as an opportunity for innovation, Shoshanah worked with like minded collaborators on creating new forms of theatrical storytelling. In January 2021 Shoshanah became an associate at ViDCo (Virtual Design Collective), and in that capacity collaborated on virtual and hybrid productions for Geffen Playhouse, BAM, Ars Nova, Princess Grace Foundation, and TheaterWorks Hartford. Additionally, Shoshanah had the honor of spearheading the virtual filming of seasons 2 & 3 of Paula Vogel’s Bard at the Gate. Outside of her work with ViDCo, Shoshanah has worked professionally as a projection designer, video editor, and multimedia consultant for theatre companies in and around the New York area.
Fun fact: Shoshanah is one of the 0.01% of the global population to ever complete a full-length (140.6 mile) Ironman Triathlon (December 2019, Western Australia)!