Spencer Whale (he/him) is a Brooklyn-based director and playwright focused on developing subversive new works and unearthing fresh, queer readings of classics. Most recently, he was Assistant Director on Broadway’s Lempicka, directed by Rachel Chavkin. Upcoming projects include Vile Isle at the Tank and Kin for Making Our Space Theatre Co. He received his MFA from Columbia, where he studied under Anne Bogart, whom he assisted on SITI Company’s farewell tour revival of The Medium. Productions at Columbia included his original play Cuck, Cuck, Bull; Justin Halle’s Vile Isle and Cowgirl; The Two Noble Kinsmen; and Vanya: An Active Analysis Workshop. He’s a past Directing Fellow at Manhattan Theatre Club, Directing and Producing Fellow at City Theatre, and Lab Company director at the Hangar Theatre. Other favorite productions include Sam Morrison’s Hello, Daddy! for Dixon Place’s HOT! Festival; LUNGS, Fun Home, Big Fish, and Quentin Crisp: The Last Word in Pittsburgh; and Titus Andronicus and subculture at Cornell. Spencer has also worked with the Pittsburgh Public, Quantum, and Kinetic Theaters; Pittsburgh CLO; Hiawatha Project; and THE TRIP.
Originally from Pittsburgh, PA, Spencer lived an exciting past life as a young inventor. Raised by a hardworking single mother who was frequently hospitalized for heart disease, he observed an unpleasant incident in a hospital corridor where a young boy riding around in a toy pedal car outpaced the nurse following him with an IV pole and had to have his treatment tube reinserted. At six years old, Spencer invented KidKare Ride Toys for a school invention competition, simply attaching IV poles to a line of toy ride equipment for use in children's hospitals. His invention won a series of increasingly large competitions, and at eight years old Spencer became the youngest-ever inductee into the National Gallery for America's Young Inventors. He received both a patent and a licensing deal for KidKare, and spent much of his free time appearing at invention conventions and mentoring other kids to pursue ambitious goals, as well as advocating for the American Heart Association in Washington, D.C. and Harrisburg. Though he turned his focus to his artistic pursuits, he's always maintained a parallel career in mentorship and education, serving as everything from a substitute teacher for Pittsburgh Public Schools to a private SAT/ACT tutor. He now coaches entrepreneurship to ambitious high schoolers around the world for Spike Lab.
