Ava DellOrfano - Theatre

Ava Dell’Orfano is a director for stage and screen emphasizing meaningful, character-driven stories and dynamic visual styles. On stage, she has directed three theatrical productions with two of them being awarded Best Production within their company in their respective seasons.

Her first project as a director was UConn Page to Stage Productions’ Spring 2024 performance of The Mad Ones, which served as the company’s annual Women’s Empowerment Project, a production dedicated to platforming women-led production teams and stories centered around women’s experiences. Her second project, also with Page to Stage Productions, was a 2025 production of Spring Awakening, a project that allowed her to expand into a larger cast project. Both of these productions were voted Best Production for their seasons by the Page to Stage general body. Following her experiences in college at the University of Connecticut, Ava made her debut in community theatre as director of the Theatre Guild of Simsbury’s July 2026 production of Into the Woods.

She has had several experiences working behind productions prior to taking on the role of director, including Assistant Director, Technical Director, and even theatre administrative work. She accredits these experiences, along with other work in cast and crew, with helping her develop her directing style. Having an understanding of all angles of theatrical production has been instrumental to communicating her vision effectively across departments of a production. Her background in film has also shaped her style, giving her a penchant for unique uses of lighting and dynamic staging to create something visually interesting out of every page of a script.