Sandra Lee Hughes

Sandra Hughes ins a professional theatre director, performer, playwright, and choreographer. She was born and raised in Erie, Pennsylvania. In 1974, Ms. Hughes co-founded and became artistic director of the Great American Mime Experiment – known since 1991 as Gateway Performance Productions. She has created over 23 original productions for the company for live stage and television. These include mime dramas, innovative works combining mask theatre, mime, dance, and original music as well ask mask plays inspired by the Irish Mummer and Native American traditions. Subjects include father/daughter incest (In Search of Eros), the rigors of climbing the corporate ladder (The Loss of Iris), the nature of healing in collaboration with and at the request of Native American healer Two Trees (The Image Makers), the dynamics of dictatorship (Kirkos), and a tribute to the life and art of Mexican visual artist Frida Kahlo (Bring Me Yellow Flowers).

Ms. Hughes’ productions have toured to theatres, festivals, museums, art centers and other community sites in 35 states in the United States and to Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy, Spain, Germany Slovenia, Hungary, Northern Ireland, Canada, and Mexico, and have received broadcast on National Public Television. Highlights include performances for Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts Meet the Artist Series and the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian (NYC) as well as collaborative performances with mime ensembles with the Cleveland Orchestra and the Akron Symphony. Her video adaptation of her stage production, Bring Me Yellow Flowers, showcased at the American Film Institute Video Festival in Los Angeles where it was nominated for the Robert Bennett Award. Television awards include a regional EMMY for “Outstanding Entertainment Program of the Year” and a CINDY award for excellence in children’s programming.

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