Julie Taymor, Tyne Daly, Donna Murphy & More Set for Drama League's 2014 Spring Season Events

The Drama League has announced their Spring 2014 Programming Schedule of special performances, events and educational offerings at the new Drama League Theater Center in Tribeca. Highlights include intimate evenings with Tony Award winners Tyne Daly, Terrence McNally, Donna Murphy, Julie Taymor, William Ivey Long and the composing team of Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty.

Also on tap is the exciting new play-meets-poetry-slam series Rough Draft and classes including Bouffon Performance Workshop, taught by the internationally acclaimed Toronto-based artist Adam Lazarus, and Beyond Kickstarter: Fundraising for Small Companies

The Drama League also offers special performances on Broadway and Off-Broadway, as well as open rehearsals, backstage tours, play readings, intimate gatherings with legendary stars, behind-the-scenes discussions with industry titans, day trips to world-class theatres, and more. To see the entire Program Guide, visit http://www.dramaleague.org.

The Drama League's starry Up Close Series includes:
Up Close: William Ivey Long
Monday, April 14 at 7:00 p.m.
Premium Seating: $25
General Public: $15
Drama League Members: $10

The undisputed master of Broadway costume design, William Ivey Long has dressed the stars of almost 70 Broadway productions in his illustrious and multi award-winning career. His beautiful and memorable designs have earned him an astonishing SIX Tony Awards, including for Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella (2013), Hairspray (2003), and Nine (1982). At this intimate event, he will share with us insights from his journey to becoming the titan of his industry; images and slides of his stunning designs; and if we're lucky, the secrets to some of Broadway's most mind-bending on-stage quick changes!

Up Close: Donna Murphy
Moderated by Tom Kirdahy
Monday, April 21 at 7:00 p.m.
Premium Seating: $45
General Public: $25
Drama League Members: $20

One of the legends of modern musical theatre, two-time Tony Award winner Donna Murphy has made a career of redefining the art form. Her iconic stage performances in Passion, The King and I, The People in the Picture, Wonderful Town, Into The Woods, Hello Again, LoveMusik, and more, have revealed her ability to inhabit almost any role. The evening will be moderated by her long-time friend, Broadway and West End producer Tom Kirdahy (Mothers and Sons, Master Class, Ragtime). Ms. Murphy will speak about her triumphs in film and television, sharing her insights and taking questions from the audience.

The composers of Rocky, The Musical on Broadway join us for a knock-out night of industry insights. Although long-time songwriting teams have become a rarity, Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty have proved the exception. In 1988, they burst onto the New York theater scene with the comic musical Lucky Stiff, and their partnership in words and music has flourished ever since. Their body of award-winning work includes the renowned Broadway musical Ragtime, Seussical, the long-running hit Once on This Island, and the Twentieth Century Fox feature film Anastasia, for which they received two Academy Award nominations and two Golden Globe nominations.

UpClose: Julie Taymor
Monday, May 5 at 7:30 p.m.
Premium Seating: $25
General Public: $15
Drama League Members: $10

Julie Taymor is the Tony Award winning and Academy Award nominated director responsible for some of the most memorable and visually stunning work in recent Broadway history. Her productions range from musicals and plays to classical operas and films. Hailed as one of the most imaginative and provocative directors and designers working in the arts today, Taymor's work includes her recent acclaimed, sold-out production of A Midsummer Night's Dream for TFANA, Broadway's Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark and the all-time highest grossing show, The Lion King, as well as The Magic Flute at the Metropolitan Opera and the films Titus, Frida, Across the Universe and The Tempest.

Playwriting legend, Terrence McNally, is a four-time Tony-award winner for Ragtime, Master Class, Love! Valour! Compassion! and Kiss of the Spiderwoman. But over the course of his prolific career, he has added more than 40 works to the American stage library. At this special UpClose event, he will be joined in conversation by the incomparable Tyne Daly. In her own long and celebrated career as an actress, Ms. Daly has starred in several of Mr. McNally's works, including Master Class (2011) and his new play currently open on Broadway, Mothers and Sons. Her other Broadway credits include The Seagull and Gypsy, but she is perhaps best known to American television audiences as Detective Mary Beth Lacey from "Cagney & Lacey," a role that won her four Emmy awards.