Peter Sampieri

With over 23 years of combined administrative and academic experience (16 years in service at Salem State University), Prof. Sampieri (he/him) is a lifelong academic who has dedicated his work to the training of graduate and undergraduate artists.

His administrative experience includes serving as a Department Chairperson, Faculty Fellow in First Year Experience, Regional Chair for the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival, and Institutional Representative for NAST (National Association of Schools of Theatre).

Specializing in academic leadership, curriculum development, accreditation, and program reviews, he has worked as an academic consultant for University of New Hampshire, University of Rhode Island, D'Youville University, and currently for Rhode Island School of Design's Terra Carta Design Lab.

An author and designer of degree programs, he has successfully written and passed 4 new degree programs through university governance and the MA Board of Higher Education.

He works diligently on recruitment and retention, including designing a student-to-student peer mentorship program that led to a 97% retention/persistence rate between 2011-2020. He collaborates with the METG (Massachusetts Educational Theatre Guild) and volunteers as a regional judge evaluator, and offers free workshops and performance programs. He has served as an oral communication instructor in Academic Support Services, creating a bridge for new students from diverse backgrounds to receive a higher education.

He is a stage and screen director, playwright, musician, composer, and puppeteer. His professional directing credits include (Off-Broadway) the world premiere of On The Line at the Cherry Lane Theatre, The Sister Wall at Barrow St. Theatre, The Three Same Guys at The Public, and Space Laser, in Space! at The Vineyard. (NYC workshops): world premieres of Show Ho at Six Figures, Ars Nova, and Vendetta Chrome for The Dramatist’s Guild. (Regional Theatre): Wit, A Christmas Carol, and The Taming of The Shrew at Trinity Rep, and the world premiere of Yemaya’s Belly at Portland Stage Company. Red Noses, Crime and Punishment, The Pillowman, and the world premiere of Radio Free Emerson (Elliot Norton Award in 2008 for Outstanding New Play) at Gamm Theatre. Others include A Bright Room Called Day, Talk to Me Like the Rain…, Recession: The Musical, Decagogo, and King Stag for the Elemental Theatre Collective.

He has taught and directed at New York University, Brown University, Huntington Theatre Company, New England Conservatory of Music, Providence College, University of Rhode Island, OperaWorks, and Northwestern University.

This is his sixteenth year serving as a tenured Professor of Directing and Performance for the Theatre and Speech Communication Department at Salem State University where he’s directed Twelfth Night, Cabaret, Kafka in Tel Aviv, The Grapes of Wrath, The Master and Margarita, A Free Man of Color, Ragtime, The Long Christmas Ride Home, The Skin of Our Teeth, The School for Lies, Something Rotten, and Angels in America. His original plays include Kafka in Tel Aviv, Grass, The Painter in the Trees, and Offended.

He graduated magna cum laude from the Honors Program at St. Michael’s College, receiving dual Bachelor of Arts Degrees in Theatre and English Literature; later he earned a Master of Fine Arts in Directing from the Trinity Rep Conservatory. Peter is the 2002 recipient of a Pell Award Scholarship for Artistic Excellence, and the 2014 recipient of 3 national awards from The Kennedy Center for his original play Kafka in Tel Aviv, including Outstanding Direction of a New Work, and The David Mark Cohen National Playwriting award. His multi-media production of The Long Christmas Ride Home in 2020 garnered 13 national awards from the Kennedy Center, including Special Achievement in Directing.

He was an O’Neill Playwriting Fellow in 2014, received Salem State’s first-ever Distinguished Teaching Award in 2015, a Whiting Fellowship in 2017, and became a guest resident artist and teacher at The National Theatre Academy in Helsinki, Finland in 2017. He is a proud member of The Dramatists Guild, and SDC, a national labor union for directors and choreographers.