‏Christopher Peditto‏

Christopher Peditto studied drama at Carnegie-Mellon University, and with Robert Lewis (co-founder of The Actors Studio in New York City), before co-founding igLoo Theatre in Chicago. As producing artistic director of igLoo (1985-98), Peditto directed plays by Sam Shepard, Luigi Pirandello, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Antonin Artaud, Dario Fo & Franca Rame, as well as the critically-acclaimed Chicago premiere of Lee Breuer's A Prelude To Death In Venice. He adapted and directed premieres of John Fante's The Saga of Arturo Bandini (Igloo, Chicago), Jim Thompson's The Killer Inside Me (Off-Broadway, Currican, New York City) and Charles Bukowski's Pulp (Off-Broadway, SoHo Rep, NYC). He has co-produced documentaries for HBO, including the Emmy award-winning films Talked to Death and Dead Blue: Surviving Depression. Peditto made his feature film directorial debut with Light and the Sufferer. Starring Paul Dano (There Will Be Blood), the film premiered at the 2007 Edmonton International Film Festival. His screenplays include Black Wings Has My Angel (co-written with Wild At Heart author Barry Gifford), Lucky Accident Crash, and Hang On To A Dream, based on the life of legendary singer-songwriter Tim Hardin. In 2016, Peditto founded Balkan American Theatre, Sarajevo's first English-speaking theater. For BAT's debut production, Peditto adapted and directed the dark comedy Fearing's Funhouse, based on the life and poetry of Kenneth Fearing. The play premiered in November 2016 at Club Monument, Sarajevo. It will be released as the feature film Fearing in Sarajevo, in 2019. In March 2018, Peditto directed the European premiere of Michael Ende's The Neverending Story at Pozoriste Mladih Sarajevo. He will direct his own adaptation of Yevgeny Zamyatin's classic dystopian novel We at Sarajevo War Theater in 2019. Peditto has been a guest teacher at the Academy of Performing Arts in Sarajevo, and a guest lecturer at the International University of Sarajevo.