About
People
Rob Melrose
Artistic Director
Rob Melrose is the Artistic Director of Alley Theatre where he has directed productions of The Glass Menagerie, The Janeiad, Thornton Wilder’s The Emporium, Pictures from Home, The Servant of Two Masters, Born with Teeth, Sweat, The Winter’s Tale, 1984, and Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express and adapted and directed A Christmas Carol. He was formerly the Artistic Director and co-founder of the Cutting Ball Theater. He has directed at The Public Theater, The Guthrie Theater, Asolo Repertory Theatre, The Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Magic Theatre, The Old Globe, PlayMakers Rep, Black Box Theatre, as well as Actors’ Collective, The Gamm Theatre, and Crowded Fire, among others. He has taught at Stanford University, UC Berkeley, USF, the University of Rhode Island, and Marin Academy. He has a BA in English and Theater from Princeton University and an MFA in directing from the Yale School of Drama. Rob directed Strindberg’s Svarta Handsken (The Black Glove) in Stockholm, Sweden at Strindberg’s Intimate Theater. His translations of Woyzeck, Ubu Roi, and Pelleas & Melisande have been published by EXIT Press. He has written a number of plays including: Helen of Troy, The Flat Earth, Divorsosaurus, When Human Voices Wake Us, Asylum, and Serpentyne and has written a rock musical adaptation of L. Frank Baum’s Ozma of Oz.
.
Jennifer Bielstein
Managing Director
Jennifer Bielstein joined Alley Theatre in 2025. Prior to the Alley, Ms. Bielstein was the Executive Director at American Conservatory Theater (A.C.T.) since 2018. She serves on the boards of TCG (Theatre Communications Group) and the League of Resident Theatres (LORT), is a member of the International Women’s Forum, and is a recent graduate of the American Leadership Forum Silicon Valley. In San Francisco, Ms. Bielstein was part of the leadership team of the San Francisco Arts Alliance, served on the Mayor’s Economic Recovery Task Force and an Advance SF Advisory Panel. Ms. Bielstein is a recent past-president of LORT having previously served as LORT’s vice president, chair of its Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Committee, secretary, and on multiple union negotiating teams. She has been recognized as among the 25 Most Influential San Franciscans of 2020 by San Francisco Magazine, and as one of the Most Influential Women in Bay Area Business by the San Francisco Business Times in 2021. Before A.C.T., Bielstein was the managing director of the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, managing director of Actors Theatre of Louisville, and executive director of Writers Theatre in Chicago. She has also worked for Steppenwolf Theatre Company, About Face Theatre, Northlight Theatre, and the Lincoln Park Zoo, as well as served on the boards of the League of Chicago Theatres, the Arts and Cultural Attractions Council, and other civic boards. She has received the Center for Nonprofit Excellence’s Pyramid Award of Excellence in Leadership, has been recognized as one of Louisville’s Business First’s 40 Under 40, was named by Twin Cities Business as a Person to Know, and a Minnesota Business magazine Real Power 50 member. Ms. Bielstein is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, attended Stanford’s Graduate School of Business Executive Program for Nonprofit Leaders in the Arts, and received an MBA from Bellarmine University, where she received the MBA Faculty Merit Award, was inducted into Beta Gamma Sigma, the honor society for business programs and in 2021 was recognized as a Distinguished Alumna.