Tina Shepard is one of the co-founding members of The Talking Band along with Ellen Maddow and Paul Zimet.  Other Off-Broadway companies she has worked in include: The Open Theater, The Other Theater, La Mama E.T.C, Target Margin Theater, VIA Theater, and Theater of a Two Headed Calf. Shepard met Paul Zimet while doing shows together in college, and the two formed a long-lasting creative partnership. In 1974, Maddow, Zimet, and Shepard founded The Talking Band. Tina Shepard’s Off and Off-Off-Broadway  performance credits include: THE SERPENT (1969), TERMINAL (1970), NIGHTWALK (1973), MUTATION SHOW (1973), THE KALAVALA (1975),  WORKSONG (1977), SOFT TARGETS (1981), TOURISTS AND REFUGEES #2 (1982), FURIES (1986), NO PLAYS, NO POETRY (1987), THE THREE LIVES OF LUCIE CABROL (1988), FATA MORGANA (1991), ORESTES (1992), LILAC AND FLAG (1994), BITTERROOT (2001), PAINTED SNAKE IN A PAINTED CHAIR (2003), FLIPSIDE (2008) , IMMINENCE (2008), HAMLET (2010),  NEW ISLANDS ARCHIPELAGO (2010), WALK (2011), OBSKENE (2012), HOT LUNCH APOSTLES (2012), MARCELLUS SHALE (2013), THE GOLDEN TOAD (2015), BURNISHED BY GRIEF (2016), THE ROOM SINGS (2017). 

Tina Shepard grew up in the suburbs of Philadelphia. She attended Sarah Lawrence College to study acting. She performed often, designed sets and put together theatrical projects with other women in the program. Shepard became interested in lighting and ran lights for various lectures at Sarah Lawrence and HOWF. While working as a lighting designer, she met Moni Yakim and Mina Yakin and became involved in the Pantomime Theatre of New York. In 1967, Tina started working with Joseph Chaikin’s The Open Theater along with Zimet and Lee Worley. In 1974, after The Open Theater disbanded, The Talking Band was born. She has received several awards for her work with The Talking Band, including an OBIE award for THE THREE LIVES OF LUCIE CABROL (1988) and for NO PLAYS, NO POETRY (1987). Tina Shepard taught acting, directing, voice and movement at Smith College, Princeton University, and Williams College. She currently serves on the faculty of the Experimental Theater Wing/NYU.