CASSIE AHIERS' Directing Lab is for bold, scrappy, and genre-defiant theater makers eager to sharpen their directorial skills. Through hands-on exercises, ensemble experiments, and class discussion, you'll step into the role of director and practice leading a room confidently while communicating your ideas effectively.
Whether you identify as a director or want a fresh perspective on your work, this lab-style course from the Elysian offers practical tools and inspiring ideas for creating indie comedy and performance that doesn’t fit neatly into a box…mostly because your props are too big.
Whether you identify as a clown, improviser, filmmaker, writer, performance artist, dancer, or uncategorizable individual, you’ll become the prepared, fun, and highly imaginative collaborator everyone wants to work with. We’ll approach it all through the lens of DIY theater-making, helping you create work that may be low-budget, but is always entertaining.
Class SOLD OUT? Join the WAILIST!
Sundays March 22nd - May 10th
2pm-5pm
in the Skunk Room
About the Instructor:
CASSIE AHIERS is a director, writer, and educator originally from Minnesota. She holds a degree in Theater Directing from Columbia College Chicago. Elysian directing credits include Shipping, Fanny: A Classical Punk Musical, and Widdle Women, an original play she wrote for the Elysian’s Spaghetti Festival.
For the past decade, Cassie has been developing her dark comedy musical The Mountain Digby, which was a finalist for the Stellar Emerging Artist in Theatre Grant (2021), the National Alliance for Musical Theatre Festival (2023, 2025), and honorable mention for the American Playwriting Foundation’s Relentless Award (2025.)
Cassie has over 15 years of experience teaching improv, sketch writing, and theater to students ages 4 to 80. She is a former director of The Second City’s National Touring Company, leading 100+ productions that toured theaters nationwide. As an acting coach, she worked on over 50 episodes of Nickelodeon productions, including Side Hustle, The Thunderman's Return, That Girl Lay Lay, Danger Force, and Aaron & Erin.
In 2024, Cassie piloted The Blast Zone, an original podcast with Atlas Obscura and NPR. Her newest short film, Aloneness, is set to premiere later this year, while Boy Band in a Haunted Hotel (a short she created with a group of artists with intellectual and developmental disabilities) is wrapping up an international, award-winning festival run.
Learn more about her directing work at www.cassieahiers.com.
Class cancellation policy: No refunds, exchanges, or transfers.