APRIL CLEVELAND

April Cleveland is the director of EXODUS, a Santa Fe-based performance ensemble that formed after she and a handful of Chicago artists lost their jobs in the arts due to the pandemic. The Exodus Ensemble is developing and performing breathtaking, high-octane, live theatrical events for audiences in New Mexico and around the world. Exodus aims to raise the stakes of theatre for the Netflix generation. The ensemble adapts classics into immersive, contemporary sagas, fusing big ideas with ambitious aesthetics and an obsession with audience experience.  April was raised in Champaign, Illinois and moved to Los Angeles in high school. She studied acting for four years (The Lee Strasberg Institute, Hollywood) and undertook The Great Books Program at St. John’s College in Santa Fe (BA, 2015). April received her MFA in Directing at The Theatre School at DePaul University in 2019. Directing credits include work for The Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Classic Stage Company (NYC) and Oregon Shakespeare Festival.