Melissa Crespo (she/her/hers) is from Connecticut with Dominican, Puerto Rican, and Chilean roots. She is a New York City-based director of theater, opera, and film. She most enjoys directing world premieres. She is also a producer, dramaturg, and playwright.

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As a director, Melissa has developed work at New Dramatists, The Lark, The Playwright's Center, and theaters around the country & abroad.

 

As a playwright, Melissa co-wrote Egress with Sarah Saltwick and received the Roe Green Award, and was produced as a workshop production at Cleveland Playhouse in 2019. Egress recently had a rolling world premiere at Amphibian Stage and  Salt Lake Acting Company.

 

She is a Founding Editor of 3Views on Theater, an online theater journal conceived by The Lillys. 

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Melissa has served as a Time Warner Fellow at WP Theater, Allen Lee Hughes Directing Fellow at Arena Stage, Van Lier Directing Fellow at Second Stage Theatre and is an alum of the Drama League Director's Project. She is a Usual Suspect at New York Theatre Workshop and received her MFA in Directing from The New School for Drama.

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She is the current Associate Artistic Director of Syracuse Stage.