Nathan Dale Short (they/them) is a Chicago-based theatre-maker, director, and co-founder of A Short Leap Theatre Company, where they serve as Artistic Director of Literature — which basically means they read too many plays and convince everyone else they’re brilliant. Their directing work includes Clearing by Beth Hyland (Short Leap’s sold-out inaugural production) The Rocky Horror Show, God of Carnage, Other Desert Cities, The Realistic Joneses, and Pirandello’s Six Characters in Search of an Author. They’ve also directed too many ten-minute plays and stand readings to count.

Nathan builds theatre that’s sweaty, intimate, and a little dangerous — the kind that makes you laugh in the middle of something you probably shouldn’t. Their work lives in that tension: comedy that comes at a cost. They’re drawn to contradiction — faith and failure, humor and harm, the messy humanity in our best intentions. They aim to make work that leaves audiences seen, unsettled, and strangely grateful for both; the kind of laughter that catches in your throat because it’s too true not to hurt a little.

Before co-founding A Short Leap, Nathan co-founded Sunrise Theatre Company in Topeka, where they helped lead two completely sold-out seasons of new and contemporary work. They’ve spent nearly a decade acting, producing, and occasionally sprinting away from collapsing set pieces across the Midwest. Favorite credits include a little of everything — absurd comedies, messy dramas, and the kind of shows that make audiences whisper “that felt too real.”

They’re currently curating Short Leap’s upcoming seasons, building a home for bold new voices and beautifully broken stories — the kind that remind us we’re all just trying to survive each other, one act at a time. They believe the best theatre doesn’t hand you answers — it hands you a mirror. They make it to remind people that empathy and discomfort aren’t opposites — they’re scene partners. They can usually be found clutching an iced coffee and a metaphor, trying to make chaos look intentional, and they’re still waiting for the day someone says, “Hey, that was too much,” and means it as a compliment.