Russ is a veteran Seattle-based theatre director of 39 plays. The four-time recipient of a Seattle Times Footlight Award recently directed the critically acclaimed play Mauritius at Seattle Public Theatre. Other area work includes Othello, Macbeth, Twelfth Night, Henry V (Seattle Shakespeare); Merchant of Venice (Wooden O); Ethan Frome, Romance with Double Bass, Even Cowgirls Get the Blues (Book-It); Santaland Diaries (TAG); Of Mice and Men (Seattle Public); Sylvia, House of Blue Leaves, Waiting for the Bus (Montana Players Inc.), Loot (Interplayers Ensemble), among many others. Previously, Russ was a successful actor, making his Broadway debut in The Merchant with Zero Mostel. Off Broadway he appeared in Sticks and Bones, Twelfth Night and Night Over the Tiber at the Provincetown Playhouse. On television, he co-starred for a season in the NBC sitcom Joe’s World with Christopher Knight from The Brady Bunch. He also co-starred as Crockett in the classic Meatballs, Bill Murray’s first film and the ninth biggest grossing movie of 1979. Russ earned an MA in Drama Theory and Criticism and an MFA in Directing, and was a Javits Fellow at the University of Montana, where he taught for three years. 1/2011