Her husband, Thomas C. Fichandler, Edward Mangum and herself founded The Arena Stage Theatre Company in 1950 in Washington D.C. She was director and artistic director from 1950 to 1990.
From 1984 to 2009, she was chair of the Graduate Acting Department at New York University in New York City. She has also been a master teacher of acting and directing at the Tisch School of Performing Arts at New York University.
She was awarded the National Medal of the Arts for her services to theatre in 1996.
She was the first regional theatre director to inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame in 1999.
Mother of two sons, Mark Fichandler and Hal Fichandler. She is survived by her sister, Joyce Diamond Simons, and two grandchildren.
She earned a Bachelor of Arts Degree from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York and a Masters of Fine Arts degree from George Washington University in Washington D.C.
The Arena Stage was renamed the Fichandler Stage Theatre in 1992 in her honor.