Abigail Killeen

Abigail Killeen works as an actor, director, and producer. Her performance research generates theatrical projects that place women in leadership roles: offstage as directors and producers, and onstage outside of traditional narratives, investigating themes of grace and transformation. Most recently she generated, produced, and performed a theatrical adaptation of Isak Dinesen’s short story “Babette’s Feast”. Babette’s Feast was developed at New York Theatre Workshop and premiered at Portland Stage, Maine’s only LORT theater, in January of 2018. Babette’s Feast then transferred to New York in March of 2018 for a 9 week Off-Broadway run at the Theatre at St. Clement’s in New York.  Babette’s Feast was a New York Magazine and New York Newsday Critic’s Pick, and was nominated for the “Most Unique Theatrical Experience” Award by the Off Broadway Alliance. It is published by Dramatic Publishing and has been licensed across the US, Canada, and Australia.

Abigail is a company member of Compagnia de’ Colombari, an international theater company based in New York. With Colombari she toured with Karin Coonrod’s adaptation of Flannery O’Connor’s “Everything That Rises Must Converge” and played Nerissa in The Merchant of Venice through Montclair State’s Peak Performances series.

Abigail also performs and creates work in the Portland area regularly at Portland Stage, Good Theater, Dramatic Repertory Company, Fenix , and The Theater Project. In 2015 two of her projects: The Amish Project (Portland Stage Studio, producer and performer) and Hamlet (Fenix, conceiver and director) were recognized among the Best of the Year by the The Portland Phoenix and in 2011 she won the Portland-based PEER Award for her work as Lady Macbeth in Macbeth with Fenix. 

Abigail’s film work includes commericials and limited series television, most notably the Emmy-nominated America’s Hidden Stories. She is represented by The Andrew Wilson Agency.

Abigail holds a BFA in Acting from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and an MFA in Acting from Brandeis University’s Professional Actor Training Program.  She trained with Master Teachers in the Stella Adler Technique, the Michael Chekhov Technique, Suzuki, Viewpoints, and Extended Voice with the Roy Hart Theatre in France. Additionally she has studied acting for film with The Moving Frame and physical theatre with the Double Edge Theater, Gordana Maric from the University of Belgrade, and the award-winning Frantic Theatre Company in London.

Abigail is an award-winning theater teacher (Outstanding Teaching Award, Brandeis University and a Karofsky Encore Lecture Recipient at Bowdoin College). She currently serves as a Professor of Theater in the Department of Theater and Dance.