Name: What Would a Person Do? Thoughts on Directing and Living
Author: Kimberly Senior

Second book · Coming soon

What Would a Person Do, Too?

Thoughts on Practicing and Being

What Would a Person Do, Too? Thoughts on Practicing and Being by award-winning theater director Kimberly Senior is a warm, wickedly honest second collection that once again bridges the gap between life and art. Building on the questions she raised in her first book, Senior turns her director’s eye toward the messier, funnier, more human parts of the work — professional endings and beginnings, the friendships that shape and complicate a freelance life, the confidence it takes to hold your ground, and the grace it takes to let things go unfinished. Funny, unguarded, and hard-won, this is a fresh roadmap for anyone trying to practice their craft and live their life with intention — onstage and off.

What Would a Person Do? Thoughts on Directing and Living, by Kimberly Senior

Kimberly Senior in conversation with Chicago Tribune critic Chris Jones in wingback chairs at The Understudy bookstore — With Chris Jones of the *Chicago Tribune* at The Understudy, Chicago, November 4, 2024

First book · September 9, 2024

What Would a Person Do?

Thoughts on Directing and Living

An essay collection on directing, leadership, teaching, and life — drawing on sources from Chekhov to tennis to make the case for a more generous, listening-centered way of leading a room.

Buy the book →

Praise for the book

“In the delicate dance between life and art, What Would a Person Do? illuminates the beauty of our choices and the power of our narratives. A delightful exploration by a director whose vision is inspiring.”
— Gloria Calderón Kellett, writer, director, and actor

“Kimberly's demand for excellence made me drop all pretense and tell my story with clarity and authenticity. She taught me more than I have ever known about the art of performance.”
— Margaret Trudeau, author, activist, and public speaker

“Incisive, impactful, essential. Kimberly Senior is among the best artists practicing in our current cultural moment.”
— Kirsten Greenidge, playwright and Chair of Theater Arts, School of Theater at Boston University

“I'm so glad Kimberly Senior has written a book about ‘what a person would do’ because now I don't have to keep calling her. Her book is as insightful and hilarious as she is.”
— Aasif Mandvi, actor and comedian

Essays

Novid Parsi on The Life You Gave Me: If Only

American Theatre · October 2026

Senior interviews playwright Novid Parsi about his meta-theatrical play, whose full script appears in American Theatre’s Fall 2026 issue — on grief, autobiography and truth, and what it takes for writers of the Middle Eastern diaspora to tell their stories on American stages.

Read on American Theatre →

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…this is what a play is for: to show us what would happen if we acted it out this way, what would happen if we told the story this way.

Facilitative Directing Centers the Art

HowlRound · June 2026

Drawing on a recent production of Hundreds and Hundreds of Stars at TimeLine Theatre, Senior lays out a practice of Facilitative Leadership in the rehearsal room — decentering the director's authority and redistributing power, without pretending hierarchy doesn't exist.

Read on HowlRound →

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Facilitative Leadership in directing is not about the director's disappearance. It's about the director's transformation from auteur to lead collaborator, from commander to cultivator.

Playwriting

Senior's writing has recently turned toward the stage itself. She's a member of the FIFE Cohort at the Bechdel Project, and was named a finalist for the Bechdel Project's ROO Residency for her play The Reinvention of Annie Besant.

Work in development

The Reinvention of Annie Besant

Bechdel Project ROO Residency · Finalist, 2026

Work in development

Exhibit

A one-act play about an Egyptian museum guard and a white curator

Kimberly Senior speaking at a microphone at the Primary Stages Variety Show benefit, 2026

The page is another room to lead from — the same listening, the same case for a more generous way of holding authority, just made in print instead of in rehearsal.

Kimberly Senior at the Primary Stages Variety Show benefit, 2026

Author.