Ana Cristina (Gigi) Buffington

Education

BA, Columbia College Chicago
MA, Guildhall School of Music and Drama, Training Actors (Voice)
PG Award, University of Warwick, The Teaching of Shakespeare in Theory and Practice for Actors and Artists

Gigi Buffington specializes in voice, text, and performance.  She is Brazilian-American and was raised speaking Portuguese and American English. She is resident Director of Voice for Steppenwolf Theatre Company and Head of Voice, Speech and Text for the Meisner Studio. Formerly a modern dancer, breath and movement is integral to her work in the theatre.

Film: She is the Dramaturg/ Text Consultant for Spike Lee and Ron Wimberley’s screenplay, Prince Of Cats. 

Broadway credits include Grey House, by Levi Holloway, directed by Joe Mantello (with Laurie Metcalfe), Between Riverside and Crazy, by Stephen Adly Guirgis, directed by Austin Pendleton (with Stephen McKinley Henderson, Liza Colon-Reyes, and Common) Cost Of Living, by Martyna Majok, directed by Jo Bonney (with Kara Young and David Reyes), Slave Play Broadway Remount, by Jeremy O. Harris, directed by Robert O’Hara; Clyde’s by Lynn Nottage, directed by Kate Whorisky (with Uzo Aduba and Ron Cephas Jones); Pass Over by Antoinette Nwandu, directed by Danya Taymor (the first play to re-open Broadway theater); The Minutes, by Tracy Letts, directed by Anna Shapiro; Linda Vista by Tracy Letts, directed by Dexter Bullard; Straight White Men, by Young Jean Lee, directed by Anna Shapiro; King Kong Live On Broadway, Book by Jack Thorne, directed by Drew McOnie.

Selected Off Broadway Productions include Corsicana, by Will Arbery, directed by Sam Gold; OnSugarland, by Aleshea Harris, directed by Whitney White; Prayer for the French Republic, by Joshua Harmon, directed by David Cromer; The Thin Place, by Lucas Hnath, directed by Les Waters, Heroes Of The Fourth Turning, by Will Arbery, directed by Danya Taymor; Our Dear Dead Drug Lord, by Alexis Scheer, directed by Whitney White; Dying City, written and directed by Christopher Shinn; Mary Page Marlowe, by Tracy Letts, directed by Lila Neugebauer; Uncle Romeo Vanya Juliet, Adaptation by Eric Tucker; Elizabeth: Texts & Beheadings, by Karin Coonrod; Coriolanus, directed by Michael Sexton; The Tempest, directed by Karin Coonrod (with Reggie Cathay).

Gigi has coached three world premieres of Will Arbery’s plays: Heroes Of The Fourth Turning, Corsicana, Evanston Salt Costs Climbing; and of Pulitzer Prize winner Tracy Letts’ plays: Mary Page Marlowe, (featuring Carrie Coon), The Minutes, and Linda Vista.

For Steppenwolf: King James, by Rajiv Joseph, directed by Kenny Leon; BUG, by Tracy Letts, directed by David Cromer, featuring Carrie Coon and Namir Smallwood; Dance Nation, by Clare Barron, directed by Lee Sunday Evans; True West, by Sam Sheppard, directed by Randall Arney; The Great Leap, by Lauren Yee, directed by Jesca Prudencio; Lindiwe, Written and Directed by Eric Simonson, with Ladysmith Black Mambazo; Downstate, for Steppenwolf and The National Theatre of London, by Bruce Norris, directed by Pam McKinnon;  Ms BLKK For President, by Tarell McCraney and Tina Landau, directed by Tina Landau; The Children, by Lucy Kirkwood, directed by Jonathan Berry; A Doll’s House, Part 2 by Lucas Hnath, directed by Robyn Witt; LaRuta by Isaac Gomez, directed by Sandra Marquez; Familiar, by Danai Gurira, directed by Danya Taymor; Guards At The Taj, by Rajiv Joseph, directed by Amy Morton; The Doppelganger (An International Farce), by Matthew-Lee Erlbach, directed by Tina Landau; You Got Older, by Clare Barron, Directed by Jonathan Berry; BLKS, by Aziza Barnes, Directed by Nataki Garrett; The Rembrandt, by directed by Hallie Gordon; HIR, by Taylor Mac, directed by Hallie Gordon; The Christians, by Lucas Hnath, directed by K Todd Freeman; Visiting Edna, by David Rabe, directed by Anna D. Shapiro; East Of Eden, Adapted by Frank Galati, directed by Terry Kinney.

For the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC): A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Hamlet (with David Tennant and Patrick Stewart) and Love’s Labour’s Lost (with David Tennant). She toured with Director Tim Carroll’s production of The Merchant Of Venice. She led Voice & Text workshops from the season’s plays to directors, teachers, and university students at Shakespeare’s Birthplace Trust, and led teacher- training workshops in Voice & Text in the RSC Rehearsal Studios.

She coached the international site-specific production of The Merchant Of Venice for the 500 year commemoration of the Jewish Ghetto in Venice and the 400 year anniversary of William Shakespeare’s death, in the Jewish Ghetto of Venice. The production toured to the Bassano Arts Festival, and Palagalileo Casa Di Reclusione Di Padova, a maximum-security prison, in Padua. Chief Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and actor F. Murray Abraham presided over a ‘Mock Trial’ of the play in Venice.

Regional: La Jolla Playhouse: The Outsiders, book by Adam Rapp, music by Jamestown Revival and Justin Levine, directed by Danya Taymor.

For American Players Theatre: She directed the highly critically acclaimed production of Jean Genet’s The Maids; Director of Voice and Text from 2013- 2017; Pericles, Othello, An Illiad, The Seagull, Hamlet, Romeo & Juliet and Richard III, Antony and Cleopatra, The Merry Wives Of Windsor.

Directing for the Meisner Studio: Julieta’s Story (based on Romeo and Juliet); Antigona Furiosa (The Antigone Project); Water By The Spoonful, by Quira Alegria Hudes; The Wolves, by Sarah DeLappe; Men On Boats, by Jaclyn Backhaus; Punk Rock, by Simon Stephens; Unity (1918), by Kevin Kerr; Top Girls, by Caryl Churchill; Number 11 (Blue & White), by Alexandra Cunningham; The Crucible, by Arthur Miller; Vinegar Tom, by Caryl Churchill.

She is the only American practitioner trained by Patsy Rodenburg at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London where she completed her master's degree in Training Actors (Voice). She received a Post Graduate Award from The University of Warwick in The Teaching of Shakespeare in Theory and Practice for Actors and Artists. She completed a two-year Voice, Speech, and Shakespeare’s Texts program with master teacher Robert Neff Williams in New York City, and a two-year Mesiner acting program with master teacher Maggie Flanagan. www.gigibuffington.com

She is an active member of: AEA, SAG/AFTRA, VASTA