ED BAIERLEIN, Director/manager of Germinal Stage Denver, was born August 27, 1943, in Wilmington, Delaware and was raised in Jersey City, New Jersey and in Claymont, Delaware. He received his BA in English from Gettysburg College in 1965 and his MA in Theatre Arts from Penn State University in 1967. While at Penn State, he studied under a Shubert Playwriting Fellowship. He enlisted in the USAF in 1968 and spent most of his four-year tour at Lowry AFB in Denver CO.

He was Playwright-in-Residence at The Changing Scene Theatre in Denver from 1970 to 1972 and Associate Director and Production Coordinator at The Third Eye Theatre in Denver from 1972 to 1973. In 1973, he co-founded Germinal Stage Denver.

As an actor, he has performed over 90 leading roles since 1974, including Othello, Archie Rice (twice), Arnolphe, James Tyrone, Sr. (twice), James Tyrone, Jr. ("Moon"), Dr. Rance (twice), Don Juan (Shaw-twice), Aubrey Piper, Martin Doul, George ("Virginia Woolf"), the Duke of Altair, Willy Loman, Starbuck, Bill Maitland, Tom ("Menagerie"), Strindberg ("Tribades"), Max ("Homecoming"-twice), Gary Essendine, Nickles, Galileo, Eddie Carbone, Elyot Chase, Undershaft, Spooner, Erie Smith, Solness, Shotover, Davies, & Hamm. He has been nominated twice by the Denver Drama Critics Circle for "Best Performance by a Leading Actor" and, in 1985, won the award for "Best Season for an Actor.'"

As a director, he has staged over 170 productions since 1974, including plays by Betti, Chekhov, Pinter, Anouilh, O'Neill, Osborne, Williams, de Ghelderode, Camus, Handke, Shaw, Wesker, Cocteau, Ionesco, Rabe, Stoppard, Beckett, Orton, Synge, Pirandello, Sartre, Coward, Brecht, Ibsen,  Shepard, and Shakespeare.  Often, he plays in the productions he directs and designs set and lights.  Practically speaking, he is more interested in investigating the community of actors and audience in real space than in making statements or interpreting them. He was nominated four times by the Denver Drama Critics Circle for "Best Director" (winning for Travesties in 1993 and Suddenly Last Summer in 1999) and, in 1987, received Westword's "Best Director" Award. In 2007, he won the Denver Post Ovation "Best Director" Award for More Stately Mansions and the award for "Theatre Person of the Year."

As a teacher,  he has been a guest instructor in acting and directing at the University of Colorado at Denver, Colorado Womens' College, and Denver University, and has also taught privately.

In addition,  in 1982 he  received a Governor's Award for Excellence in the Arts from Colorado Governor Richard D. Lamm and, in 1988, a Mayor's Award for Excellence from Denver Mayor Federico Pena and the Bonfils-Stanton Foundation Award for the Arts & Humanities. From 1998 to 2001, he was a member of  the National Theatre Conference. In addition, he and Sallie Diamond  have received awards for achievement from the Rocky Mountain Womens' Institute and from Zeta Phi Eta.  Productions he has produced or directed have been nominated for over one hundred twenty-five local awards. For twenty years, he served as Chairman of the Colorado Theatre Producers Guild, which he helped found. He has sat on the boards of the Greater Denver Arts Council and the Metro Denver Arts Alliance, on the advisory board of KCFR-FM (NPR), and on the Denver Mayor's Commission on Art, Culture, and Film.

He has been married to actress Sallie Diamond since 1967 and has one child, Thaddeus Adam, born in 1980. He is a struggling but avid golfer. He has lived in Denver, Colorado since 1968 and considers himself fortunate professionally in that he has never had to "go where the work is," but has been able to decide where he liked to live and to make the work happen there. The payoff:  ". . . continuous activity, investigation, discovery . . . and a sense of neighborhood."