Mark Shanahan

Mark Shanahan was named Westport Country Playhouse incoming artistic director for 2023-24. He assumed the position in February 2024. Since 2018, he has been the curator of the Playhouse’s popular Script In Hand series originated by Annie Keefe.

Shanahan is the writer/director of The New York Times Critics’ Pick “A Sherlock Carol” (Off-Broadway Alliance nomination, Best New Play 2021), playing two seasons in New York and annually at London’s Marylebone Theatre. He directed his own adaptation of “Agatha Christie’s The Murder of Roger Ackroyd,” in partnership with Agatha Christie Ltd. in a World Premiere production at the Alley Theatre. Additionally, he is the author of “A Merry Little Christmas Carol,” “See Monsters of the Deep,” the Off-Broadway and regional hit comedy “The Dingdong,” and numerous radio plays as creator of the White Heron Ghost Light series, featuring Christopher Plummer, Judith Ivey, Rhonda Ross, and other notable actors.

Shanahan has directed at stages around the country such as Alley Theatre, George Street Playhouse, Virginia Stage, Arkansas Rep, White Heron, Mile Square Theatre, Hudson Stage, Theatre Squared, Fulton Opera House, Weston Playhouse, Orlando Shakespeare Festival, Florida Rep, Penguin Rep, Merrimack Rep, The Cape Playhouse, and many more.

As an actor, he has appeared on and Off-Broadway (“The 39 Steps,” “Tryst,” “The Shaugraun,” and others) and at many celebrated regional theatres.

Shanahan has appeared on the Westport Country Playhouse stage as an actor in “Journey’s End” (2005) “David Copperfield,” directed by Joanne Woodward and Annie Keefe, (2005), “Sedition” (2007), “Tryst” (2008), and “Around the World in 80 Days” (2009) and over twenty Script In Hand readings. He has also directed his play “A Sherlock Carol” on the Playhouse stage.

During the pandemic, he was the creator of the Westport Country Playhouse Radio Theater, in partnership with WSHU Public Radio, and served as writer/director of the Playhouse radio adaptation of “A Merry Little Christmas Carol,” and served as as director of scripts commissioned for the series.

For more, please visit mark-shanahan.net.

Playhouse Engagements