Jim Petosa is Professor Emeritus at Boston University’s College of Fine Arts, where he served as Director of the School of Theatre (2002-2019) and continued as member of the faculty through 2023. He served as artistic director of Greater Boston’s New Repertory Theatre (2012-2018), Boston Center for American Performance (2009-2019), and Olney Theatre Center in the DC area from 1994-2011. He is co-artistic director of Potomac Theatre Project/PTP/NYC (1987-present). He has directed plays, operas, and musicals throughout his long career. As a guest director, he has worked at the Smithsonian Institution, Wolf Trap Farm Park, The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, D.C.’s Studio Theatre, RoundHouse Theatre, and many others. As a spoken word actor, he has worked with the National Philharmonic Orchestra at Strathmore Hall, the Boston University Orchestra, Eclipse Chamber Orchestra, New Collage Music for which he recorded Donald Sur’s THE LADY AND THE UNICORN, conducted by David Hoose. He has taught at The Catholic University of America, which is his alma mater, University of Maryland at College Park, George Washington University, Georgetown University, and Middlebury College among others. He is the recipient of the Helen Hayes Award for Out­standing Director of a Musical (JACQUES BREL IS ALIVE AND WELL), and a nominee for Outstand­ing Director of a Play (COLLECTED STORIES) and the Charles MacArthur Award for Outstanding New Play for his collaboration with Carole Graham Lehan on the biographically inspired LOOK! WE HAVE COME THROUGH! about the lives and marriage of D.H. and Frieda Lawrence.

A member of Actor’s Equity and the Society of Direc­tors and Choreographers for which he has served as a member of the Executive Board, Petosa is a current board member and past president of Becket Arts Center, chair of the City of Quincy’s LGBTQ+ Commission, and has served on the Board of Governors at United First Parish Church in Quincy, MA.