ERIC PARNESS is the Artistic Director of Resonance Ensemble, where he has directed productions of Sophocles’ Antigone, Maxim Gorky’s The Lower Depths (pick of the week on NYTheatre.com and OffOffOnline.com), Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard, Ibsen’s The Master Builder, and the world premieres of Strange Bedfellows by Bruce Cohen, La Tempestad by Larry Loebell, The Mail Order Bride by Charles L. Mee, Sherlock Solo by Victor Cahn, What Happened Then by Michael Feingold, 23 Knives by Christopher Boal (nominated for two IT awards), Shakespeare’s Slave by Steven Fechter, The Truth Quotient by Richard Manley, and Burning by Ginger Lazarus.
Other New York directing credits include IATI Theater’s Three on a Match and The Treatment, Rising Sun Performance Company’s Proud, Off the Wall Theatricals’ Going Once! Laughing Twice!! (eight month run at the St. Luke’s Theater) Rachel Reiner Productions’ Embraceable Me, Jean Cocteau Repertory’s Crazy for the Dog, State of Play’s North to Maine (and a remount by American Theatre of Actors), Oberon Theatre Ensemble’s The Winter’s Tale, Of Mice and Men (named “One of the Top Ten Shows in New York of 2003” by Theatermania.com), Measure for Measure, and The Starship Astrov (nominated for 11 MITF Awards including Outstanding Direction), Hypothetical Theatre Company’s Kryptonite City, and Boomerang Theatre Company’s Blood Wedding.
He has also directed regional theatre for the Blumenthal Center in Charlotte, NC, Curtain Call Theatre in Latham, NY, The Home Made Theater in Saratoga Springs, NY, and the Gordon Center in Owing Mills, MD. As the current Associate Professor of Acting and Directing at Westfield State University, he has directed student productions of The Tempest by William Shakespeare, O Beautiful by Theresa Rebeck, Marisol by José Rivera, and the musicals Spring Awakening, Urinetown: The Musical, and Andrew Lippa’s Wild Party, as well as several virtual productions during the COVID-19 pandemic. He has also directed educational theatre for Dean College, Brooklyn College, Marist College, Stern College and Brandeis University. Eric is a graduate of Brandeis University (BA) and Brooklyn College (MFA), and a member of Lincoln Center Theatre’s Directors Lab.