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is a director and educator who works primarily on new plays, re-imagined classics, and community-centered practices. She is committed to collaborating with playwrights and artists whose work disrupts and unsettles notions of race, gender, and class through imaginative and theatrical storytelling. Additionally, Horton collaborates with researchers from a multitude of fields at the intersection of theater practice and scientific research. She is currently working as part of an international art-science research team on the development of innovative transdisciplinary approaches to examine future volcanic risk on the coastline of Italy (Campi Flegrei). Horton is an Associate Professor of Practice in Theater & Directing at New York University’s Gallatin School where she served as Chair of the Interdisciplinary Arts Program from 2017-2022.
Upcoming work includes the publication of “Moving Women from the Margins to the Center of History: After/Life and the 1967 Detroit Rebellion,” in Applied Theatre and Gender Justice (Routledge) edited by Lisa S. Brenner and Evelyn Diaz Cruz in December 2024; and the NYU Gallatin Summer travel course, “Theater of the Earth,” co-taught with volcanologist Karen Holmberg in Naples, Italy in summer 2025.
Recent work includes the world premieres of Chisa Hutchinson’s WHITELISTED, a revenge horror comedy about gentrification at the Contemporary American Theater Festival; AFTER/LIFE: DETROIT '67 by Lisa Biggs, a community devised drama about the 1967 Detroit rebellion focusing on the experience of women and girls; and BATHTUB, a multimedia performance installation event of radical intimacy and surrender, conceived and performed by Tanisha Christie.
Horton recently directed a workshop presentation of CARRY YOU by Leila Buck co-produced by Noor Theater and Engarde Arts; two Arabic to English translation workshops: PRINCE OF LIES by Gisele Njeim with translation by Dima Matta and dramaturgy by Sahar Assaf at the NYUAD Institute and DAMASCUS/ALEPPO by Abdullah Alkafri with translation by Dima Matta as part of “Arab Voices: Three New Dramatic Texts from Beirut to Berlin” in New York, curated by Catherine Coray at NYU Tisch.
For many years she developed new work at the Lark Play Development Center, where she directed as part of its many programs including the U.S./Mexico Exchange, Middle East America, Playwright’s Week and Barebones Series, as well as several programs for alumni writers including The Playground which she developed in collaboration with directors May Adrales and Sturgis Warner. At the Lark she’s worked with numerous writers including Rajiv Joseph, David Henry Hwang, Sam Hunter, Lisa Kron, Chisa Hutchinson, Katori Hall, Steve Drukman, Lloyd Suh, Caridad Svich, Chiori Miyagawa, Saviana Stanescu, Elaine Romero, Dano Madden, Andrew Rosendorf and Jeanne Sakata.
Her new play collaborations have appeared at the Contemporary American Theater Festival, Working Theater, HERE, NYC Summerstage, Lark Play Development Center, William Inge Playwrights’ Festival, New Dramatists, The Playwrights’ Center in Minneapolis, Workhaus Collective, id Theater, Commonweal Theatre, NYU’s Skirball Center, Riverside Theatre, Iowa New Play Festival, Lied Center for the Performing Arts, Edinburgh Festival Fringe and National Black Theatre Festival.
Inspired by her experience assisting acclaimed director Lee Breuer on the Mabou Mines’ DOLLHOUSE at the Sundance Theater Lab, Horton has continued to investigate re-imaginings of the classics. At NYU Gallatin she commissioned and directed Jen Silverman’s BONES AT THE GATE, an adaptation of Sophocles’ ANTIGONE as well as directed a devised adaptation of Shakespeare’s long poem, THE RAPE OF LUCRECE. Other adaptations have included Jason Grote’s 1001, Kafka’s THE TRIAL as well as the world premiere of Victoria Stewart’s ACCLIMATE, a contemporary adaptation of Ibsen’s LADY FROM THE SEA at Commonweal Theatre.
Also a specialist in heightened text, she has directed several plays by Shakespeare for Riverside Theatre in the Park including HAMLET, MERCHANT OF VENICE, RICHARD III and MEASURE FOR MEASURE as well as UNCONTROLLABLE MYSTERY: THREE PLAYS BY WB YEATS at the University of Iowa. At NYU Gallatin she has taught several advanced acting Shakespeare classes focusing on a play or distinct body of work including Hamlet, the Henriad and the Roman Tragedies. In fall 2019, she co-directed an adaptation of Henry IV Parts 1 and 2 with Ben Steinfeld, Co-Artistic Director of Fiasco Theater.
Horton began her theater career in the mid-90s as a member of the Living Stage Theatre Company, the groundbreaking social change theater of Arena Stage, where she created performances for a diverse audience including incarcerated men and women. While in Washington, DC, she also produced adult education programs for the Kennedy Center’s 1999-2000 season and served as Artistic Director of Full Contact, whose company-created piece based on the narratives of Kosovar and Serbian refugees premiered at the Studio Theater. Her early experiences making theater for social change and producing educational programming continue to inform and inspire her work as reflected in recent collaborations with NoPassport, Dream Act Union, Urban Democracy Lab and Center for Creative Activism.
A recipient of the National Endowment for the Arts/TCG Career Development Program for Directors she has also received fellowships from the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and Sundance Theater Lab.
At NYU she currently serves as Co-Director of Arts & Health @NYU, a university-wide initiative that brings together faculty and students from across NYU global campuses who are involved in the study and practice of how the arts contribute to ecological, physical, social, organizational, psychological, and public health. She received the Dean’s Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2014. She has also served as a guest artist at Fordham College at Lincoln Center and Cornell College. She holds a BA in Religion from Emory University and an MFA in Directing from The University of Iowa where she has been recognized as one of its distinguished alumni.
Member, SDC, a national labor union.