Sam Turich designs immersive experiences, creates films and plays, and teaches the next generation of artists and filmmakers.
He served as creator/director on large-scale immersive theatre projects with Bricolage Production Company, including STRATA (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 2012 Best Production of the Year), OjO at the La Jolla Playhouse and the Three Rivers Arts Festival (San Diego Union-Tribune 2015 Top Five Production), The Ascendants and DODO at the Carnegie Museums of Art and Natural History (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 2017 Top Ten Production). He designed and produced the immersive entry event STUDIO A: IMMERSIVE ENGAGEMENT in 2018. He created his most recent immersive project was DAYLIGHTING THE STREAM on Governors Island in New York City in 2019.
Sam’s short film Mombies was an official selection at film festivals in Europe and the U.S. His first feature, Progression, screened at festivals across the U.S., and won the Best Feature Award at the Johns Hopkins Film Festival. He was a director of the second season of the Emmy Award-winning Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood for PBS Kids.
New York directing credits include: at Gotham City Improv Theater and School, Sam created Off the Top of Our Heads, which won the 6th Big Apple Improv Festival and the title “Best Improv Group in New York.” The 2nd American Revolution, Prussia: 1866, The Magnificent Hour, Insecurity Guards, Itamar Moses’ Dorothy & Alice. Regional directing: Quantum Theatre’s Inside Passage in 2018, Yinz’r Scrooged at Bricolage in 2015, Quantum Theatre’s Fat Beckett (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 2011 Top Ten Production), and B.U.S. At the August Wilson Center for African American Culture, The Sisters Grey. At University of Pittsburgh: As You Like It, Darwin and the Kid, Shakespeare’s Lovers & Fighters, Alice and Tomato Plant Girl.
He currently serves as Head of Education for Bricolage Production Company, and for seven years he was the resident artist for Quantum Theatre’s education program. He has worked as a full-time faculty member in Point Park University’s Cinema Department and the University of Pittsburgh in the Theatre Arts Department. He taught at Gotham City Improv Theatre and School, New York Film Academy, Pittsburgh Filmmakers/Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, and Rogers/CAPA. Sam is a graduate of Columbia University and the British American Drama Academy. He holds a Master of Fine Arts in Film and Digital Technology from Chatham University.