Lavina Jadhwani is a Chicago-based director, adaptor, and activist. She gravitates towards heightened language texts from Eastern and Western canons. Her adaptation of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol premiered at the Guthrie in Minneapolis in 2021 and will remain on the boards for years to come. Other plays include Shakuntala (Goodman Theatre -- FutureLabs, OSF Writers Group), The Secret Garden (Cunningham Commission -- The Theatre School at DePaul University, O'Neill NPC semi-finalist), and The Sitayana (EastWest Players/EnActe Arts/Hypokrit Productions). She also has 90 minute adaptations of four Chekhov plays available.

Directing credits include Oregon Shakespeare Festival, the Guthrie, Mixed Blood, PlayMakers Rep, the Rep of St. Louis, Asolo Rep, the Gift Theatre, the Neo-Futurists, Silk Road Rising, Teatro Vista, and Rasaka Theatre Company, where she served as Artistic Director for 7 years. Her theatre training includes a well-rounded education (BFA in Scenic Design and MA in Arts Management from Carnegie Mellon; MFA in Directing from The Theatre School at DePaul University), numerous fellowships (OSF's Phil Killian Directing Fellowship, the O’Neill/NNPN's National Directors Fellowship, the Drama League's Classical Directing Fellowship, SDCF, Old Globe, Victory Gardens), and more than two decades of professional experience. Her critical writing has been featured on HowlRound and Rescripted and is regularly circulated in classrooms across the country.

Lavina serves on the board of the National New Play Network and the Chicago Inclusion Project, and she volunteers with Unlock Her Potential, a national mentorship program for women of color. She is a proud alum of the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy, where she received the show choir's Bob Fosse Choreography Award and the drama club's "lifetime achievement" award.