Leslie Buxbaum
Leslie Buxbaum (she/her) is a collaborating director with Julia Rhoads/Lucky Plush Productions with whom she co-created The Better Half, The Queue, Rooming House and Facing. For over a decade, Leslie was co-founder and resident director of the Chicago-based physical theater company 500 Clown, whose shows performed in Chicago and throughout the US. She was stage director for Third Coast Percussion’s Metamorphosis (with Movement Art Is - Lil Buck & Jon Boogz), Paddle to the Sea and Wild Sound, composed by Wilco’s Glenn Kotche, with performances at venues throughout the US and abroad including Carnegie Hall, MCA Chicago, Metropolitan Museum of Art, National Forum of Music (Wroclaw) and De Doelen (Rotterdam). Leslie has directed at The Actors Gymnasium, House Theatre, Redmoon, Chicago Children’s Theater, About Face Theater, and in New York at New Victory Theater and PS 122, among others. Prior to turning to directing, Leslie toured nationally and internationally as an actor with NYC’s Elevator Repair Service. Leslie is Associate Professor of Practice in Theater and Performance Studies, University of Chicago. Her musical Out Here, for which she is book-writer & co-lyricist with composer Erin McKeown and dramaturg David Levin, premieres at Court Theatre in Spring 2026, directed by Chay Yew.