Dr. Rob Shimko

serves as the Company Dramaturg for The Catastrophic Theatre and has previously worked on 4.48 Psychosis, Fefu and Her Friends, Baby Screams Miracle, Tragedy: A Tragedy, Speeding Motorcycle (2019 production), Toast, Wakey Wakey, First Suburb, Curse of the Starving Class, Jim Lehrer and The Theatre & Its Double and Jim Lehrer’s Double, The Strangerer, Small Ball, Leap and the Net Will Appear, Rhinoceros, Evening at the Talk House (co-director), Snow White, Trevor, The Designated Mourner (2010 and 2017 productions), Song About Himself, Buried Child, Thom Pain (Based on Nothing), The Hunchback Variations, Everything Will Be Different: A Brief History of Helen of Troy, The Danube, Waiting for Godot, Bluefinger, and Our Late Night. Rob is the Director of the School of Theatre & Dance at the University of Houston and the Executive Director of the Houston Shakespeare Festival. Other professional dramaturgy credits include the Alley Theatre, the Guthrie Theater, The Acting Company, Stages Repertory Theatre, Harlem Stage, and 4th Wall Theatre. Rob is a widely published theatre historian and recipient of both the Robert A. Schanke Theatre History Research Award and the University of Houston Teaching Excellence Award. He is the author of the play Specks, available through Samuel French, Inc.