Anna D. Shapiro

Anna Shapiro, the Tony Award-winning director of August: Osage County, has been awarded the Dorothy Ann and Clarence L. Ver Steeg Distinguished Research Fellowship.

The $35,000 fellowship is Northwestern University's first endowed award for excellence in research by a faculty member and is designed to support scholarship that enhances the University's reputation.

Since joining Northwestern's theatre department in 2002, Shapiro has helped to create one of the nation's most exciting and attractive graduate programs in directing. At the same time, she has continued her own artistic work. She has directed dozens of plays, and served as the original director of Steppenwolf Threatre's New Plays Initiative.

Shapiro also serves as director of the Master of Fine Arts Directing Program in Northwestern's School of Communication.