THE DRAMA LEAGUE Opens Applications For The 2023-24 Directors Project

The Drama League (Artistic Director Gabriel Stelian-Shanks, Executive Director Bevin Ross) has opened the 2023-2024 applications for its acclaimed umbrella of service programs, collectively called The Directors Project. These programs, which for the last four decades have provided unparalleled industry-leading production opportunities, career development, and professional growth, give early and mid-career directors paid fellowships, residencies to develop new works, and assistantships at major theatrical institutions.

As the nation's only full-time creative home for directors, The Drama League's program portfolio, which was reimagined for the 2022-2023 application cycle, expands, deepens, and accelerates field-wide support for directors in the post-pandemic professional theater landscape, in an effort to address systemic inequity and pay disparity in the field of directing.

The FutureNow Fellowship expands in 2023 to address the needs of directors who work in both traditional and non-traditional spaces. A professional immersion experience, in partnership with the Hangar Theatre in Ithaca, NY, and TheaterWorksUSA in New York City, the 2023-2024 FutureNow Fellowship will now include traditional production, site-specific production, and promenade practices, with material chosen by the Hangar Theatre Artistic Director, and developed with the Fellows in Hangar's Wedge FutureNow Festival. "Site-specific and promenade theater have become mainstays of many communities, bringing theater to people in new, exciting avenues," noted Drama League Artistic Director Gabriel Stelian-Shanks. "We're thrilled to offer directors this additional opportunity to strengthen and diversify their skill sets, fostering theatrical accessibility by engaging communities in new and exciting ways. The FutureNow Program has always looked to the future, but never more than it does now."

Applications for the Fellowship and Assistantship programs are now available at dramaleague.org.

The 2023-2024 Directors Project Programs include:

The Drama League Directing Assistantships: Each season, The Drama League partners with established BIPOC/Global Majority stage directors to provide assistant directing opportunities on productions across the United States to the next generation of early-career BIPOC/Global Majority directors, sharing knowledge, access, and creative energy in production processes. For each recipient, The Drama League pays the assistant director's salary, and reimburses housing, travel and health care costs. For the 2023-2024 cycle, Directing Assistantships will be paired with four nationally renowned directors: May Adrales, Tatyana-Marie Carlo, Desdemona Chiang, and Dawn Monique Williams. Theaters participating this cycle include Manhattan Theatre Club in New York City, and Trinity Repertory Company (Trinity Rep) in Providence, RI. The full program description can be found at https://dramaleague.org/directing-assistantships.

The FutureNow Fellowship: A professional immersion experience for early and mid-career stage directors, in partnership with the Hangar Theatre in Ithaca, NY, and TheaterWorksUSA. Three recipients will be supported by a scholarship prize of $850/week for directing and professional development at The Drama League and Hangar Theatres in Summer 2023, plus an additional paid contract to direct a TheaterWorks USA touring production, as well as up to $1500 in health care insurance reimbursement. The FutureNow Directing Fellowship allows directors to practice their craft and explore directorial leadership, focusing on works for communities and young audiences. While in residence at the Hangar Theatre, FutureNow Fellows direct the Second Stage season of the company, including productions for adults (The Wedge FutureNow Festival) and young audiences (KIDDSTUFF Series). This year, the Wedge FutureNow Festival will focus on site-specific and promenade practices, while KIDDSTUFF will remain in a traditional theatrical venue. In these works, the Fellows direct the Hangar Performance Fellows and collaborate with Hangar Design and Production Fellows. At TheaterWorksUSA, the Fellows remount a repertory production for TYA audiences that tours nationally for the season. The FutureNow Directing Fellowship offers production experience, career development, mentorship, and intimate access to the processes of major theatrical institutions. The full updated FutureNow program description can be found at https://dramaleague.org/futurenow-directing-fellowships.

The Beatrice Terry Residency: Designed for early or mid-career stage directors who are ALSO the writers of their own work (that is, artists that identify as writer-directors, who most often write the productions that they direct), this residency offers a $10,000 stipend to support the writing of the work and the production of a workshop, thirty hours of rehearsal time to develop the script, and a final open rehearsal or staged reading for a public audience. The Beatrice Terry Residency is open to women and nonbinary people. The Residency seeks to make space and resources for this community, who often encounter barriers as creators when they choose to both write and direct simultaneously. The full program description can be found at https://dramaleague.org/Terry-Residency/.

The Next Stage Residency: Designed for mid-career or established directors in exploring a work for possible production, this residency offers a $10,000 stipend to support the writing of the work and the production of a workshop, thirty hours of rehearsal time to develop the script, and a final open rehearsal or staged reading for a public audience. The full program description can be found at https://dramaleague.org/next-stage-residency/.

Educational Initiatives: The Drama League's after-school program for high school students New Visions/New Voices also opens its applications today for New York City-area young people. Students, under the guidance of Teaching Artists, will write and direct scenes and monologues to be performed with working professional artists. This immersion into "how one makes art" broadens and refines their own aesthetics, builds confidence and public speaking skills, and introduces the possibilities of a career in the professional arts sector. All students will have the chance to see their work realized in a work-in-progress showing. More information on each can be found at https://dramaleague.org/new-visions-new-voices/.

The Drama League Awards: the oldest theatrical honors in North America, the Drama League Awards will return May 19, 2023. Nominators for the season's awards began their work in late July, with the return of live performances in New York City. More information about the Drama League Awards will be announced soon.

Programs of The Drama League are made possible thanks to the generosity of our supporters including EY, the Howard Gilman Foundation, The Hyde and Watson Foundation, the Sylvia W. & Randle M. Kauders Foundation, Willette Murphy Klausner and Manuel S. Klausner, the Jolene McCaw Family Foundation, The Shubert Foundation, the Leo Shull Charitable Fund for the Arts, and the Trust for Mutual Understanding. Drama League programs are supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the New York State Council on the Arts, with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature. A special thanks goes out to Drama League Members, who provide important underwriting support for The Directors Project.

THE DRAMA LEAGUE

The Drama League is a home for stage directors, and a platform for dialogue with, and between, the audiences they inspire. Founded in 1916, the organization is one of the longest running, continuously operating arts service organizations in the United States. To support its programs for artists, or to become a member of its community, please visit www.dramaleague.org.

HANGAR

The Hangar Theatre is located at 801 Taughannock Blvd., north of Ithaca on Route 89 on the shores of Cayuga Lake. Originally opened as a summer theatre in 1975, the Hangar is home to the Hangar Theatre Company and serves as a venue for a variety of performing artists and community organizations. The Hangar Theatre Company offers professional theatrical productions throughout the year and a renowned education program. The Hangar Theatre creates and presents performances of exceptional quality in New York's Finger Lakes region while training the next generation of theatre artists. We inspire our community with work and classes that enrich, entertain, and enlighten. We believe in the power of theatre to transform lives.

MANHATTAN THEATRE CLUB

Manhattan Theatre Club, under the leadership of Artistic Director Lynne Meadow and Executive Producer Barry Grove, has become one of the country's most prominent and prestigious theatre companies. Over more than four decades, MTC productions have earned numerous awards including 7 Pulitzer Prizes, 27 Tony Awards, 40 Drama Desk Awards and 49 Obie Awards. MTC has a Broadway home at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre (261 West 47th Street) and two Off-Broadway theatres at New York City Center (131 West 55th Street). For more information on MTC, please visit www.ManhattanTheatreClub.com.

THEATERWORKSUSA

TheaterWorksUSA has led the Theater for Young and Family Audiences movement in New York City and across North America for over half a century. At TWUSA, we believe that access to art-and theater, in particular-is vital for our youth. Since 1961, the 501(c)3 not-for-profit has captured the imaginations of 100 million new and veteran theatergoers with an award-winning repertoire of over 140 original plays and musicals. Acclaimed alumni include Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez (Disney's Frozen), Jerry Zaks (The Music Man), Benj Pasek and Justin Paul (Dear Evan Hansen), Joe Iconis (Be More Chill), Daphne Rubin-Vega (Rent), and Kathleen Chalfant (Angels in America). Prior to suspending live production due to the pandemic, TWUSA's 19-20 season included touring eleven shows around the country, the Broadway premiere of The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical, and three world premieres: Warriors Don't Cry, based on the autobiography of Melba Patillo Beals; Dog Man: The Musical Off-Broadway; and The Pout-Pout Fish, which opened the New Victory Theater's season in October 2019. Visit www.TWUSA.org for more information.

Trinity Repertory Company

Trinity Repertory Company (Providence, RI) reinvents the public square with dramatic art that stimulates, educates, and engages our diverse community in a continuing dialogue. We do this through nationally recognized stage productions, a professional artistic and resident company, graduate training programs offered in partnership with Brown University, lifelong learning opportunities, and arts education programs for students in grades K-12.

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