Many stage directors get "typecast" according to certain kinds of projects. There are those who do classics, and those who specialize in collaborating with playwrights on new dramas. It's not often easy for directors to cross-over between the two camps. As comfortable staging 18th century French farces as she is contemporary plays by Palestinian-American playwrights, Jessica Heidt is one of the few directors who creates consistently high-quality work regardless of when it was written. As associate artistic director of the Magic Theatre (a post she assumed in 2003), Heidt has helmed many works by living writers from Chantal Bilodeau to Betty Shamieh, bringing her striking visual sensibility and intuitive collaboration with actors to bear on often complex contemporary texts. Heidt's work beyond the Magic, meanwhile, has shown her adept at taking on plays from other eras, from Pierre Marivaux's The False Servant to Arthur Miller's After the Fall.