Drama League Names 2015 Directing Fellows

The Drama League have announced the exceptional stage directors who have been selected as the 2015 Directing Fellows of The Drama League Directors Project: Paul Bedard, Estefanía Fadul, Aneesha Kudtarkar, Emily Lyon, Brad Raimondo, Austin Regan, Daniel Rogers, Annie Tippe, Sarah Wansley and Brandon Woolf. In addition, an eleventh fellow has been selected for a brand-new fellowship program, which will be revealed during the 81st Annual Drama League Awards Ceremony, which will be held on Friday, May 15, 2015 at the Marriott Marquis Times Square (1535 Broadway). More information can be found at www.dramaleague.org

The eleven recipients, who will spend the next year as part of the award-winning program, have been accepted into four different programs of study: the New York Directing Program, the Hangar Directing Program (a partnership with the Hangar Theatre in Ithaca, NY), the Classical Directing Program (a partnership with the Old Globe of San Diego, CA; the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival of Garrison, NY; and Shakespeare & Company in Lenox, MA).

"Of the over 2,000 artists supported by The Drama League's programs each year, The Directors Project Fellows are the centerpiece of our mission," remarked Executive Director Gabriel Shanks. "I couldn't be more proud to present these talented artists to the larger community, and to watch them take the next steps in their promising careers."

"This year we received the highest number of applications in our history. I am delighted with the extraordinary group of directors who constitute of Class of 2015, and I look forward to working with all of them," said Artistic Director Roger T. Danforth.

The Fellowships will begin on May 11 with Drama League Professionals Week, where they will meet industry luminaries, attend Broadway and Off-Broadway productions, and start their developmental training. They will be publicly introduced to the professional theatre community during the 81st Annual Drama League Awards Ceremony on Friday, May 15, 2015 at the Marriott Marquis Times Square.

Since its founding in 1984, The Drama League Directors Project has become the preeminent development program for theatre directors - providing talented young artists with career-changing experiences in the professional theatre. Its 300 alumni can be found working in all aspects of the entertainment profession: at the helm of productions on Broadway and Off-Broadway, at regional theatres companies, in film and television, and as artistic directors and associate directors at 55 regional theatres across the country. Many are also producers, writers, agents, administrators, and educators of the next generation of directors, at some of the finest professional training programs. 'Drama League Directors' have been honored with many awards, including the Tony, Emmy, Obie, Drama Desk, and its own Drama League Award, with the praise of critics and audiences alike.

THE DRAMA LEAGUE
2015 FELLOWS OF THE DIRECTORS PROJECT
NEW YORK FALL DIRECTING FELLOWSHIPS

An immersion for four directors in directing opportunities in the professional theatre, both regionally and in New York City, culminating in a festival of their work Off-Broadway.

Estefanía Fadul is a Colombia-born, New Hampshire-raised, NYC-based director and producer. Directing credits: así van los fantasmas de méxico by Matthew Paul Olmos (Repertorio Español), Well by Lisa Kron (Pleiades Productions), and A Streetcar Named Desire (Vassar College). She has assisted Ed Iskandar (The Flea), Jo Bonney (MCC), Elise Thoron (Public Theatre), Tracy Young (OSF), Sheryl Kaller (NYSAF), and Michael Barakiva (Upstart Creatures). She is the founding Artistic Director of Pleiades Productions, a Van Lier Directing Fellow at Repertorio Español, and a member of the Lincoln Center Theatre Directors Lab. B.A. from Vassar College.

Annie Tippe is a director and performer. Directing includes Dave Malloy's Ghost Quartet (The Bushwick Starr; McKittrick Hotel; NYT Critics Pick), Washeteria (Soho Rep; NYT Critics Pick), Aaron/Marie (w. Rachel Chavkin, Under the Radar Incoming! Series; PRELUDE; Ars Nova ANT Fest), I Heard Sex Noises (Ars Nova Project Residency), DEBUTANTE. (Bernie Wohl Center; ANT Fest) and A Quiet Sip of Coffee (Dixon Place). Associate Director for The TEAM's Mission Drift (dir. Rachel Chavkin) and Gabriel Kahane's The Ambassador (BAM; dir. John Tiffany). Williamstown Directing Corps.

Sarah Elizabeth Wansley received her MFA from UCSD under acclaimed Romanian director Gabor Tompa. While there, she re-imagined Seamus Heaney's The Burial at Thebes and Brecht's Drums in the Night, developed site-specific work for La Jolla Playhouse's WoW festival and directed for the Wagner New Play Festival. In New York, Sarah has directed at EST/Youngblood, The Flea and the NY Fringe. She is the founding Artistic Director of Aporia Theater, where she directed Patrick Barrett's Follow Me Down and her own translation of Büchner's Woyzeck. Lincoln Center Directors Lab member.

Brandon Woolf, for the last few years, has been living in and between Berlin, Berkeley, and New York City, working on a series of interdisciplinary performance projects. He is the co-founder of two ensembles - Shakespeare im Park Berlin and the UC Movement for Efficient Privatization (UCMeP) - both of which are committed in different ways to theater as a social practice. Brandon is in the midst of a book project about the politics of the performing arts in Berlin. This book is an expansion of his Ph.D. in Performance Studies, which he completed at UC Berkeley in December 2014.

HANGAR DIRECTING FELLOWSHIPS

A practicum in artistic leadership of a regional theatre, where fellows lead a resident acting company in programming, directing, and producing the second stage season at the Hangar Theater in Ithaca, NY.

Paul Bedard is a New York City-based director and activist. He is a founder and artistic director of Theater in Asylum. Recent directing work includes ¡Olé! (Under St. Marks, Chicago Fringe, Prague Fringe), North (Dixon Place), #Coriolanus (Under St. Marks), and Nijinsky in Asylum (Steps on Broadway). He graduated from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts.

Aneesha Kudtarkar is a Dallas native who currently lives in New York City. She is a graduate of Southern Methodist University, where she developed her one woman show, Sari I'm Not Sari. In recent years she has directed several plays including Sex by Mae West (The New School); Gruesome Playground Injuries (Studio @ 620); Living Out, Animals Out of Paper, and Ninety (SMU). She has also assisted on a number of productions, including All My Sons, By the Way Meet Vera Stark (The Juilliard School); and And I And Silence (Signature Theatre Company).

Austin Regan is a New York City based director. Recent productions: YousaidShesaidHesaid (Pioneer Works), The Blind (The Flea Theater), The Sacred Harp (Musical Theatre Factory), #MormonInChief (Kraine Theater), Horse Play (Dixon Place), as well as #serials@theflea, Dragon's Egg, the Zipper Factory, 52nd St. Project, 92nd Street Y, NYU, the Boston Conservatory, and the United Nations. Assistant directing includes Broadway (American Idiot, On A Clear Day..., Everyday Rapture) and the Metropolitan Opera (Rigoletto). Resident Director at the Flea Theater. Founding Member, Musical Theatre Factory. Member, Lincoln Center Theater Directors Lab.

Dan Rogers is a co-founder of the Brooklyn-based theater collective AntiMatter, and former General Manager of the Obie-winning Vampire Cowboys Theater Company. This Spring he will receive his MFA in Directing from Brown/Trinity, where his directing credits include Pericles, Tooth of Crime, Bus Stop, and Twelfth Night. New York productions include premieres of sixsixsix by Gregory S. Moss, Death Valley by Adam Scott Mazer and The Sound by Sam Alper.

CLASSICAL DIRECTING FELLOWSHIPS

A summer residency at three of America's leading theatrical homes for classical work, assisting on mainstage productions and directing in their educational and touring programs.

Emily Lyon NYC directing includes: Tennessee Williams' Interior: Panic (FringeNYC), Max Frisch's The Arsonists (TriBeCa firehouse), "Pick Your Poison" readings (Pearl Theatre), Some of the Side Effects (United Solo). Other: Hamlet, Measure for Measure, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Pinter's The Hothouse, Bright Ideas. Literary Manager of BEDLAM. Ambassador for The Shakespeare Society. Hedgepig Ensemble Theatre member. SDCF Observership with Michael Grief on The Tempest. Studied at Shakespeare's Globe, Folger Shakespeare Library, BFA: University of Michigan.

Brad Raimondo is a director living in New York City. Recent projects include Icarus by Edwin Sánchez (Yale University Dramat), In Fields Where They Lay by Ricardo Pérez González (New Ohio Theater/Dreamscape) and the world premiere of Whale Song or Learning to Live With Mobyphobia by Claire Kiechel (FringeNYC/Dreamscape). He earned his MFA from the New School for Drama where he directed Hamlet, Some Dark Places of the Earth and Othello. Brad is Producing Artistic Director of The Dreamscape Theatre and a proud member of the New Victory Theater's Teaching Artist Ensemble.

The 2015 Fellows join the previously-announced 2015 Drama League Resident Artists, who began developing nine new plays and musicals with hundreds of collaborators at The Drama League Theater Center in Tribeca last February. The resident artists for 2015 are:

2015 BEATRICE TERRY RESIDENT ARTIST
Elena Araoz - Plastic Drastic