Rob Melrose is the Founding Artistic Director of the Cutting Ball Theater and works nationally as a freelance director. He has directed at The Public Theater (Pericles, Prince of Tyre), The Guthrie Theater (Happy Days, Freud’s Last Session, Pen, Julius Caesar – with the Acting Company); The Oregon Shakespeare Festival (Troilus and Cressida – in association with the Public Theater), The Old Globe (Much Ado About Nothing); Magic Theatre (An Accident, World Premiere); PlayMakers Rep (Happy Days); Black Box Theatre (The Creature, World Premiere, BATCC Award for direction), as well as Actors’ Collective; The Gamm Theatre; Cal Shakes; and Crowded Fire, among others.

His directing credits at Cutting Ball include A Dreamplay, Ondine (World Premiere), Mount Misery (World Premiere), Communiqué no˚ 10, Strindberg Cycle: The Chamber Plays in Rep, Krispy Kritters in the Scarlett Night (World Premiere), Pelleas & Melisande, the Bay Area Premiere of Will Eno’s Lady Grey (in ever lower light), The Tempest, The Bald Soprano, Victims of Duty, Bone to Pick & Diadem (World Premiere), Endgame; Krapp’s Last Tape; The Taming of the Shrew; Macbeth; Hamletmachine, As You Like It, The Death of the Last Black Man in the Whole Entire World, Roberto Zucco, and My Head Was a Sledgehammer among others. His translations of Woyzeck, Ubu Roi, Pelleas & Melisande, and Communiqué no˚ 10 have been published by EXIT Press. He has also translated Phèdre, The Chairs, The Bald Soprano, No Exit, The Stronger, and The Man with the Flower in his Mouth. He has written a number of plays including Helen of Troy, Asylum, Divorsosaurus, and his rock musical of L. Frank Baum’s Ozma of Oz. He has taught at Stanford University, UC Berkeley, USF, the University of Rhode Island and Marin Academy. He has a B.A. in English and Theater from Princeton University and an M.F.A. in directing from the Yale School of Drama.