Joe is the adaptor/director of Shakespeare’s R&J which ran for a year in New York and earned him a Lucille Lortel Award. He also directed the play’s premieres in Chicago (5 Jeff Award nominations including Best Play and Best Director) and Washington, D.C. (Helen Hayes Award nominations for Best Play and Best Director). R&J completed a celebrated run in London’s West End in late 2003, and Joe received honorable mention from the Evening Standard Awards committee for his direction. The production received rave reviews on its subsequent tour of the U.K. The play is published by Dramatists Play Service in the U.S. and by Methuen in the U.K. He directed the Japanese premiere in Tokyo in January of 2005. He directed the critically-acclaimed world premiere of the musical Sarah, Plain and Tall at the Lucille Lortel Theatre in New York. He had the pleasure of attending the O’Neill Musical Theatre Conference in the summer of 2003 to further work on the piece with composer Larry O’Keefe, lyricist Nell Benjamin, and book writer Julia Jordan. He also directed Julia Jordan’s The Summer of the Swans at the Lucille Lortel and directed Ms. Jordan’s play Boy for Primary Stages. He is an Artistic Associate at Signature Theatre in Arlington, Virginia where he has directed productions of Urinetown, William Finn’s Elegies: a song cycle (3 Helen Hayes nominations including Best Musical), the world premiere of Norman Allen’s Nijinsky’s Last Dance (4 Helen Hayes Awards including Best Play and Best Director), Side Show (4 Helen Hayes Awards including Best Musical and Best Director), and the world premiere of his own play, in the absence of spring, which premiered in New York at Second Stage as the inaugural production of their New Plays Uptown series, under his own direction The play is published by Playscripts, Inc. and is included in The Best Stage Scenes of 2004, published by Smith and Kraus. Other regional credits include: The Last Five Years (Philadelphia Theatre Company- Barrymore nomination for Best Director, win for Best Musical), Elegies: a song cycle (also at PTC, 7 Barrymore nominations, 2 wins: best musical director and best ensemble of a musical), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (The Shakespeare Theatre), My Fair Lady and Of Mice and Men (The Hangar Theatre), Edward II, Suddenly Last Summer, To Kill A Mockingbird, Keely & Du, Educating Rita, How I Got That Story, Goodnight Desdemona, Goodmorning Juliet, Babes In Arms, and Godspell. He directed Twice Charmed: an original twist on the Cinderella story by Michael Weiner and Alan Zachary for Disney Creative Entertainment. He recently directed the premiere of The Mistress Cycle by Beth Blatt and Jenny Giering for The New York Musical Theatre Festival for which he also directed a reading of the musical Liberty Smith (book by Eric Cohen and Mark Madnick, music by Michael Weiner, lyrics by Adam Abraham). He also recently directed a presentation of Meet John Doe by Andrew Gerle and Eddie Sugarman for the National Alliance for Musical Theatre (NAMT).He will be directing a workshop of the musical Broadcast by Nathan Christensen and Scott Murphy for Playwrights Horizons in November 2005. As a writer, his adaptation of Antigone was work-shoppedat the National Theatre in London. He was a contributor to The Audience, conceived and directed by Jack Cummings III for The Transport Group, Steven Alper and Sarah Knapp (The Immigrant) wrote the song for their segment. Other contributors to the piece include, Jeff Blumenkrantz, Adam Bock, Jenny Giering, Michael John LaChiusa, and Michelle Lowe. He is writing the book for the musical Golden Gate with composer Richard Pearson Thomas for Second Stage and the book for the musical The Mysteries of Harris Burdick with composer Chris Miller and lyricist Nathan Tysen which had its West End premiere in conjunction with Mercury Musical Developments in London.  He served as resident playwright at Expanded Arts, Inc. for two years. He has been Joseph Papp artist in residence at Second Stage, is one of New York Theatre Workshop’s "usual suspects," and is a Drama League directing fellow. Graduate: Ithaca College.

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