SAM PINKLETON  is a Tony Award-nominated director and choreographer known for making peskily genre-defying theater work and big-hearted, human-powered spectacles. Born and raised in small town Virginia, he most recently directed Cole Escola's sold out downtown sensation Oh, Mary! and choreographed Stephen Sondheim's final musical Here We Are at The Shed. Other recent work includes a new stage production of The Wizard Of Oz at ACT in San Francisco (with surprise guests including Sister Roma, the Bay Area Intertribal Dancers, and the San Francisco Gay + Lesbian Freedom Marching Band), the undefinable dance-driven club experience Untitled DanceShowPartyThing for Virgin Voyages (created with Ani Taj), the world premiere of Noah Diaz’s You Will Get Sick starring Linda Lavin (Roundabout Theater Company), a new production of the Go-Go’s musical Head Over Heels, starring Alaska 5000 and Lea DeLaria (created with Jenny Koons for Pasadena Playhouse), the world premiere of Jeanine Tesori and David Henry Hwang’s Pulitzer Prize Finalist Soft Power (The Public Theater / Center Theater Group), and a revival of Liz Swados’ groundbreaking musical Runaways, reconceived as a youth-led civic spectacular in Central Park. His work on Broadway includes the electropop epic Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812 with Josh Groban (Tony Award Nomination), Macbeth with Daniel Craig and Ruth Negga, the musical adaptation of Amélie, a revival of Machinal with Rebecca Hall, and the world premieres of Heisenberg and Significant Other. He has created new work in collaboration with Courtney Love, Todd Almond, The Dutch National Opera, the NYC Department of Education, Carnegie Hall, James Corden, BAM, Soho Rep, Anne Washburn, The Civilians, David Adjmi, Swing Left, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Pig Iron Theater Company, Cirque du Soleil, Nickelodeon, and the late Liz Swados and Michael Friedman. The New York Times has described his work as “gloriously geeky”, “delightfully droll”, and “how the Ramones might have danced if Bob Fosse choreographed them.” He does not own any dance shoes.