Rob Adler — Theatre Director
Actor-centered direction for text, new work, and ensemble performance.
I build rehearsal structures that help actors move from explanation into embodied action—especially when a scene, relationship, rhythm, or performance problem must be solved quickly and collaboratively.
Selected Directing
GANGSTERS!
New musical by Zach Helm. The Theatre School at DePaul University.
Interact / Los Angeles Public Library Series
Fully staged readings including Clybourne Park, Waiting for Lefty, WIT, and The Humans.
Birthday Candles
By Noah Haidle.
Goosebumps the Musical
By John Maclay and Danny Abosch.
Bad Hamlet
Created from Shakespeare’s First Quarto with Coin & Ghost Theatre Company.
Patriot Act
Original devised work.
The Rehearsal Room
Games are not warm-ups. They are rehearsal structures that focus attention, make risk playable, and help actors stop illustrating choices and begin doing them. Every rehearsal is an act of composition.
Great Acting Looks Improvised.
What Critics Say
“Uniquely entertaining…innovative in a few different ways.”
— LA Weekly, Bad Hamlet
“Shakespeare for a new generation.”
— Accessibly Live Off-Line, Bad Hamlet
Writing on Directing
Beyond the Script: Harnessing the Power of Play in Clybourne Park
A director’s account of how Viola Spolin theatre games transformed a constrained staged reading into a dynamic theatrical event with professional Los Angeles actors.
The Alchemy of Space: Viola Spolin and the Conjuring of the Invisible
A peer-reviewed video essay arguing for Spolin’s space work as theatrical invocation rather than illustration.
About Rob
Rob Adler is a Chicago-based theatre director, actor, and educator whose rehearsal practice is actor-centered, ensemble-driven, and grounded in Viola Spolin theatre games, physical composition, and close text work.
He has worked with Coin & Ghost Theatre Company, Theatre Dybbuk, Interact Theatre Company, the Los Angeles Public Library, and the Bootleg Theater, and has collaborated with Roger Guenveur Smith. He is an ensemble member of Interact Theatre Company and founder of AdlerImprov.
Rob joined the faculty of The Theatre School at DePaul University in 2017 and has served as Co-Head of BFA Acting since 2023. His honors include DePaul’s Excellence in Teaching Award, the Wicklander Fellowship for Professional Ethics, and a University Research Council Grant.
Available For
Directing projects, commissions, university workshops, and creative collaborations.