Drama League Announces Lineup For In Conversation and #Collaboration Series - JAGGED LITTLE PILL, Jonathan Groff and Christian Borle, and More!

The Drama League has announced the upcoming lineup for the digital series In Conversation and #Collaboration. May and June episodes will feature Tony Award-winning director Diane Paulus, choreographer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, and actor Elizabeth Stanley on their collaboration during Jagged Little Pill; Tony-winning director Michael Mayer with actors Jonathan Groff and Christian Borle on Little Shop of Horrors; directors Lileana Blain-Cruz, Sheryl Kaller, and Desdemona Chiang; director Gaye Taylor Upchurch and playwright Lauren Gunderson on The Half-Life of Marie Curie; and more. All episodes can be viewed by visiting dramaleague.org/digitalseries.

In Conversation focuses on an acclaimed director who is changing the face of theater, film and television, while #Collaboration features two or more artists discussing their journey together on a recent project. New episodes are released every Wednesday in video, podcast, and text formats, and have included Moritz von Stuelpnagel (Bernhardt/Hamlet), Steven Canals ("Pose"), Erica Schmidt (Mac Beth), Awoye Timpo & Ngozi Anyanwu (The Homecoming Queen), Daniel Kramer (Bent), and Jenna Worsham & Ren Dara Santiago (The Siblings Play).

#Collaboration: Jagged Little Pill

with director Diane Paulus, choreographer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, and actor Elizabeth Stanley
Wednesday, May 13, 2020 at 3:00 PM

"A problem can be fun," proclaims choreographer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, reminiscing over the creative process of creating Jagged Little Pill with director Diane Paulus and actress Elizabeth Stanley. Jagged Little Pill, recently nominated for a Drama League Award for Outstanding Musical, is an exhilarating original piece inspired by the themes and emotions laid bare in Alanis Morissette's seminal album of the same name. In Diablo Cody's reimagining, "every moment on stage has a history."

In Conversation with Desdemona Chiang

Moderated by Drama League Artistic Director Gabriel Stelian-Shanks
Wednesday, May 20, 2020 at 3:00 PM

Desdemona Chiang is based in Seattle, Washington and Ashland, Oregon, but as one of America's most prolific directors, her work is seen at major theaters across the country -- Philadelphia, New York, Houston, Washington DC, Minneapolis, Costa Mesa, Pittsburgh, and Baltimore are just a few of her recent stops. The recipient of the Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Theatre, awarded to artists of exceptional ability who identify as immigrants, is just one of her many accolades: the Princess Grace Award, SDC Sir John Gielgud Directing Fellowship, and both the Drama League New York and Film/Television Fellowships. In this intimate interview, Ms. Chiang talks about her earliest beginnings to her present work, and her hopes for theatre's future.

#Collaboration: Little Shop of Horrors

With director Michael Mayer, and actors Jonathan Groff and Christian Borle
Wednesday, May 27, 2020 at 3:00 PM

There's holding for a laugh, and then there's holding too long for a laugh...either way,these longtime collaborators have no problem! Tony winner Michael Mayer and the stars of his revival of Little Shop of Horrors,Jonathan Groff and Christian Borle, discuss just how delicate their numerous collaborations have been over the years.Freedom of play, creative vulnerability, audition stories, a game of rock/paper/scissors, and more are on deck for this hilarious journey into the collaborative process.

In Conversation with Lileana Blain-Cruz

Moderated by Drama League Artistic Director Gabriel Stelian-Shanks
Wednesday, June 3, 2020 at 3:00 PM

Lileana Blain-Cruz has received Obie Awards for Marys Seacole at LCT3 and The Death of the Last Black Man in the Whole Entire World AKA The Negro Book of the Dead at Signature Theater.She recently directed Anatomy of a Suicide at The Atlantic Theater Company, Fefu and Her Friends at Theater for a New Audience, Girls at Yale Repertory Theater, Faust at Opera Omaha, and The House That Will Not Stand at New York Theater Workshop. Other projects include Lucas Hnath's Red Speedo at NYTW, Alice Birch's Revolt. She Said. RevoltAgain at Soho Rep, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins' War at LCT3 and Yale Rep, Henry IV Part 1 and Much Ado About Nothing at Oregon Shakespeare Festival, The Bluest Eye at The Guthrie, and Actually at MTC. She was awarded a 2018 United States Artist Fellowship and the Josephine Abady Award from the League of Professional Theater Women.

#Collaboration: Gaye Taylor Upchurch & Lauren Gunderson

Wednesday, June 10, 2020 at 3:00 PM

Gaye Taylor Upchurch is a freelance director who credits include world premieres of Lauren Gunderson's The Half-Life of Marie Curie (Audible Theater at Minetta Lane); Nick Gandiello's The Blameless (The Old Globe); Anna Ziegler's The Last Match (The Old Globe, Roundabout); Clare Lizzimore's Animal (Atlantic Theater, Studio Theatre, Helen Hayes nomination); Laura Marks's Bethany (WP, Old Globe). She has also directed productions of Carson McCullers's The Member of the Wedding (Williamstown); Simon Stephens's Harper Regan and Bluebird (Atlantic); Songbird (Two River); The Year of Magical Thinking (Arena Stage); An Iliad and As You Like It (Hudson Valley Shakespeare).

Lauren Gunderson has been one of the most-produced playwrights in America since 2015, topping the list twice including 2019/20. She is a two-time winner of the Steinberg/ATCA NewPlay Awardfor I and You and The Book of Will, the winner of the Lanford Wilson Award andthe Otis Guernsey New Voices Award,a finalist for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize and John Gassner Awardfor Playwriting,anda recipient of the Mellon Foundation's Residency with Marin Theatre Company. She co-authored the Miss Bennet plays with Margot Melcon, and her play The Half-Life of Marie Curie is available on Audible.com. LaurenGunderson.com

In Conversation with Sheryl Kaller

Moderated by Drama League Artistic Director Gabriel Stelian-Shanks
Wednesday, June 17, 2020 at 3:00 PM

Sheryl Kaller, one of the most prolific and influential directors in the country, is perhaps best known to Broadway audiences for her productions of Terrence McNally's Mothers and Sons and Geoffrey Nauffts Next Fall, for which she received a Tony Award nomination. Having recently staged Bliss, the musical by Tyler Beattie and Emma Lively, at Seattle's 5th Avenue Theater, other projects include The White Chip at 59E59,A Walk on the Moon by Paul Scott Goodman and Pamela Grey at A.C.T., Frozen for Disney Cruise Lines, Our Town with Deaf West Theater and Pasadena Playhouse, Sacred Valley by Josh Radnor at NYSAF, and Choice by Winnie Holzman. She also recently directed the world premieres of Billy Porter's play While I Yet Live (Primary Stages),Nick Blaemire's A Little More Alive (Barrington Stage and Kansas City Rep), Meghan Kennedy's Too Much Too Much Too Many (Roundabout Underground), and Daniel Beaty's Mr. Joy (LCT3).

Queering The Theater: A Special Pride Week Event

Wednesday, June 24, 2020 at 3:00 PM

The Drama League celebrates Pride 2020 with Queering the Theater: A Special Pride Week Event! Gathering in one landmark coast-to-coast conversation, artistic leaders from America's bastions of LGBTQ work -- the theater companies that, as their mission, specifically produce and premiere works by, for, and about the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer communities -- come together to discuss the joysandchallenges of theatrically representing our voices onstage.