JC Clementz is the Director of Casting and Artistic Operations at Steppenwolf Theatre Company and a freelance stage director. Over the past decade, he has cast productions out of Chicago and New York including the Broadway productions of Purpose, Linda Vista, Pass Over, and The Minutes. As a freelance director his credits include the Associate Director for the pre-Broadway run of The Devil Wears Prada: A New Musical (Broadway in Chicago), Director of The Nerd, The All Night Strut!, Murder for Two, Irving Berlin’s I Love a Piano, The Devil’s Music: The Life and Blues of Bessie Smith, The Doyle & Debbie Show, Forever Plaid (all at Milwaukee Rep), Waiting: A Song Cycle (The World’s Stage/Cherry Lane, NYC), and Murder for Two (Merrimack Rep). Steppenwolf casting highlights: world premieres of King James by Rajiv Joseph (also at Center Theatre Group and Manhattan Theatre Club), Downstate by Bruce Norris (also at National Theatre, UK, and Playwrights Horizons - Artios Award for Outstanding Achievement in Casting), and Ms. Blakk for President by Tarell Alvin McCraney and Tina Landau. JC is the adaptor and lyricist of the new musical The Ballad of Oedipus with music by Nygel D. Robinson which was recently developed at the University of Chicago. He holds an MFA in Directing from Western Illinois University and is a proud member of SDC and the Casting Society.