The Drama League Launches Digital Archive of 2022-23 International Directors Summit

The Drama League has launched its digital archive of the 2022-2023 International Directors Summit, which united eight world-class directors from around the globe for a series of conversations about the changing nature of their work. From October 2022 through March 2023, Summit participants from the nations of Bulgaria, Georgia, Poland, Romania, Ukraine, and the United States gathered to share their experiences at home and abroad, investigating how the discipline of direction is challenged by the overlapping global forces of climate change, economic uncertainty, health/pandemics, and authoritarianism. The transcripts and videos of the International Directors Summit conversations, offered on The Drama League's website (dramaleague.org/artist-opportunities/international-directors-summit), boldly articulate the central issues impacting the work of directors globally, especially the rapid changes to rehearsal, casting, and production practices. Together, they form a set of reports from the front lines, in a way, as well as a path to the future for the global creative community.

The 2022-2023 International Directors Summit included Maksima Boeva (Bulgaria), Avto Diasamidze (Georgia), Natalie Ester (Romania), Dima Levitskiy (Ukraine), Stefan Prohorov (Bulgaria), Lisa Rothe (United States), Anna Smolar (Poland), and Mei Ann Teo (United States). The 2022-2023 International Directors Summit Coordinators included Drama League artistic leaders Gabriel Stelian-Shanks (Artistic Director), Nilan (Associate Artistic Director), Andrew Coopman (Artistic Coordinator), as well as European coordinators Kalina Wagenstein (Bulgaria) and Giorgi Toradze (Georgia), and Drama League Directors Project alumnus Gwynn MacDonald, who served as Summit Facilitator.

The International Directors Summit is sponsored, in part, through the support of The Trust for Mutual Understanding. For more information about the International Directors Summit, please contact education@dramaleague.org.

The Drama League is the preeminent artistic home and development organization for directors, providing them with career-changing experiences in professional theater, film, and television. Its alumni can be found in all aspects of the entertainment profession: on and off Broadway, at regional theaters, in Hollywood, and as artistic leaders at 100+ regional theaters across the country. Drama League Directors have been honored with the Tony, Emmy, Obie, Drama Desk, Golden Globe, Princess Grace, Bessie, Drama-Logue, Barrymore, Evening Standard, and Jefferson Awards, among others.

Since 1922, The Drama League has presented the annual Drama League Awards, the only major theatrical awards chosen by the ENTIRE theater community - specifically, by the Drama League members nationwide who attend Broadway and Off-Broadway productions. The 89th Annual Drama League Awards will be held on Friday, May 19, 2023 at the Ziegfeld Ballroom in New York City. More information can be found at www.dramaleague.org.

THE DRAMA LEAGUE

2023-2023 INTERNATIONAL DIRECTORS SUMMIT SESSIONS

SESSION 1: DIRECTING FOR THE FUTURE

In the opening session, the Summit Participant Directors explored how best to exchange ideas in virtual space. The discussion details their individual work as directors, the challenges they are facing during this time, and where they find artistic inspiration nowadays.

SESSION 2: DIRECTING AND HEALTH - COVID-19

affected every aspect of life and work, including prohibitions on gathering in space...an essential component of rehearsal and performance. In this conversation, the directors explored how health concerns have fundamentally altered our work. In anticipation of future global health crises, how do directors maintain a globalist perspective, and ensure cultural exchange even when the world shuts down?

SESSION 3: DIRECTING AND CLIMATE

As we hit the midway point of the Summit, the Participant Directors discussed how climate change has impacted their communities and the processes of theater production. What actions have we taken as theater makers in response to environmental emergency, and what tools would make our responses more effective?

SESSION 4: DIRECTING AND FINANCIAL DISPARITY

Can art thrive in difficult economic times? As financial conditions tighten in most parts of the world, the Director Participants looked past their own borders for ideas and opportunities that might counter the economic challenges of our audiences, our artists, and our institutions. Funding models, resource sharing, and global distribution are discussed, as are the very notions of stability and sustainability for the theater.

SESSION 5: DIRECTING AND AUTHORITARIANISM

According to Freedom House, less than 20% of the world's population live in free societies... which makes storytelling and ideation more important than ever. What can directors do - either in their storytelling practices, in their choice of material, or in their communications with audiences - to illuminate the deeper ramifications of our global politic, and offer alternatives that celebrate human equality? How can we encourage globalist thinking to face global challenges? How do we protect creative risk when artists across the world are facing political pressure, imprisonment, and even personal harm?

DRAMA LEAGUE INTERNATIONAL DIRECTORS SUMMIT ARTIST BIOGRAPHIES:

ANNA SMOLAR | Director Participant, Poland

Anna is a French-Polish Theatre Director, Dramaturge and Translator, and graduate of literary studies at the University of Paris-Sorbonne. In 2001, she founded in Paris "La compagnie Gochka" with whom she performed spectacles until 2004. Anna was also a resident of the Nowy Teatr in Warsaw (2017-2019) In Poland, among others she directed Claudel's The Exchange, a para-documentary performance Lady of Burma about Aung San Suu Kyi, The Jewish Actors, a mockumentary performance at the Jewish Theatre, The Dibbouk. Cinderella, according to Joël Pommerat at the National Stary Teatr in Kraków. At Nowy Teatr since 2010 she directed Enter, Pinocchio, Henrietta Lacks, Thriller, and Erazm/Erasmus in the context of Oliver Frljic's Europe Ensemble's project. Her latest works, based on a collective writing process with actors include The Cowboys about the education system, Slow motion at Vilnius National Theatre in Lithuania about #metoo in the context of cultural institutions, The end of Eddy according to Edouard Louis at Teatr Studio in Warsaw, The officers, a performance about police women and an adaptation of Halka, the most well known polish opera at the Cracow National Stary Teatr. Laureate of the Polityka Passport 2016 for "a chamber and empathetic theater, with imaginative and humor approaching marginalized subjects" and for "consistent expansion of the theatrical field as well as willingness and ability to dialogue with every recipient". In the years 2010-2021 she conducted various pedagogical classes at Theater Pedagogy, Social Arts, and with teenagers at Nowy Teatr and the Museum of the history of Polish Jews Polin. She is the author of the French translation of Grażyna Jagielska's book Love of stone. In 2022 she is the curator of the season Tough love at Warsaw's independent theatre Komuna//Warszawa. In October 2022 she will have the premiere of Hungry ghosts at the Munich Kammerschpiele: a performance about the transgenerational transmission of trauma.

AVTO DIASAMIDZE | Director Participant, Georgia

Avtandil Diasamidze is a stage director based in Tbilisi, Georgia. He has recently graduated from Shota Rustaveli Georgian State University of Theatre and Cinema, Drama Department . His stage productions include ''Bear'' by Anton Chekhov in 2014 (as a part of his BA course), A Cube, a choreographic play based on ''He'' by J. Kharchkhadze (Marjanishvili Theatre, 2015, as a part of his Diploma course), ''The Glass Menagerie'' by Tennessee Williams (Marjanishvili Theatre, 2016) "Woyzeck'' by Georg Buhner (Marjanishvili Theatre, 2017) "The Land'' by Alex Chigvinadze (independent theatrical project, 2018, frankfurt book fair) "The Room'' by Emma Donoghue (poti theatre 2020). He has also worked on children's plays such as an odyssey (Multimedia performance, Nodar Dumbadze Children's Theater 2019) and ''What did the fish swallow?" (Zugdidi National Drama Profesional Theatre, After Shalva Dadiani, 2022). He participated in joint projects with Ukrainian artists organized by the European Theatre Convention within the framework of GOGOLFEST in Kiev in 2016-2017.

DMYTRO (DIMA) LEVISTSKIY | Director Participant, Ukraine

Dmytro is a director, playwright, performer and cultural activist. He is more avant-garde-minded, works in non-traditional ways and spaces, avoids the mainstream. Something of an iconoclast, but very strongly grounded in his talent and his personal artistic searches. He is now 35 years old. Originally a playwright who was to be a founding member of Kyiv's Theater of Playwrights, but has chosen to concentrate now on directing. As a writer he was a prize-winner at Kyiv's Week of Contemporary Plays, and other festivals. Born in Russia, grew up in Russia, Hungary, Belarus. Family moved to Ukraine when he was 10 or 12, he has lived there ever since. He speaks fluent English.

Gabriel Stelian-Shanks | Artistic Director, The Drama League, United States

GABRIEL is the Artistic Director of The Drama League of New York and a founder of A Certain Something. He has directed over sixty theater, film, and television projects across the United States and Europe, and is the author of eighteen plays, two screenplays, and a television series. An alumnus of the Orchard Project, nominee for Best Director at the Madrid International Film Festival, and recipient of the Theatre Project Honor for Outstanding Vision, he has been recognized for his arts leadership by the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities. One of the directors of Peculiar Works Project's The Village Fragments (OBIE Award), his productions have been seen in New York, Seattle, Washington DC, Baltimore, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Chicago, Vienna, Sofia, Bucharest, and Budapest, among others. As a writer and director in film and television, his work has premiered at the Madrid, Stockholm, Sicily, and Barcelona International Film Festivals, among many others. Proud member SDC, IFP.

Gwynn MacDonald | Summit Coordinator, United States

Gwynn MacDonald (she/her+) has directed or produced theater, TV, film and radio receiving cable Ace and Emmy nominations, and Radio's Gracie Award. International work includes directing U.S./Native voice plays in Cuba and Bogota, as well as new plays from Argentina, India, Israel and U.K. in the States. New work in translation from Eastern Europe has been a particular focus both writing about it (co-author Slavic and Eastern European Performance ed. Daniel Gerould, "Eastern European Women Playwrights: Writing the New;" co-editor Czech Plays: Seven New Works (TCG)), promoting discussion and moderating panels ("Contemporary Bulgarian Theater" at Segal Center, Cuny; "A New Generation of Eastern European Women Playwrights" Consul General of Romania, NYC), and directing readings of English language premiers by Elena Aleksieva, Yana Borisova, Virág Erdős, Ivana Ruzickova, Egon Tobias, and Petr Zalenka among others, for the New Literature from Europe Festival, the Bulgarian Consulate and Czech Center, New York Theater Workshop and The Public Theater. Gwynn majored in dramatic literature and film production at Princeton University; she studied directing with Vjatcheslav Dolgatchev of the Moscow Art Theater and Inter(acting) with the Inner Partner taught by originator Ivan Vyskočil, DAMU, NY. Gwynn is a disability arts advocate working to promote obstacle-free inclusion and accessibility for all theater artists.

Kalina Wagenstein | Coordinator, Bulgaria

Kalina Wagenstein graduated from Sofia University in Journalism. She has worked for the Bulgarian News Agency, the National Film Centre and the National Film Archive. She has been the Bulgarian representative at the EURIMAGES Fund of the Council of Europe, which supports coproductions between European film companies. In 1999 Mrs. Wagenstein took the lead of the Sofia office of the Swiss Cultural Program in South-Eastern Europe and Ukraine. During the nearly ten years of its operation in Bulgaria, the program supported more than 400 projects in culture and arts, some of them with regional (Balkan) dimensions. In 2007 she created the Art Office Foundation. It was registered as a non-profit organization in public benefit engaged with promotion and circulation of performing arts, working with Bulgarian artists and their artistic production in the country and abroad. Mrs. Wagenstein had attended numerous trainings in cultural policy, project management, NGO management, fundraising, etc., in Bulgaria, France, Switzerland and Hungary. She performs trainings in Project Cycle Management and Marketing Communications for Bulgarian NGOs. She speaks English, French and Russian. Performances: Joaquin Cortazar 's House and Trip N-105157. He won an annual theatrical award Duruji in 2015-2016 for the best young director for "The Glass Menagerie'' by Tennessee Williams. Also, he has made a theatrical adaptation of the short novel by Raymond Carver, "The Neighbours."

Lisa Rothe | Director Participant, United States

Lisa Rothe is a freelance theater director, acting/voice coach, and intuitive healer. As a director, she was nominated for SDC's Joe A. Callaway Award for Direction for Hold These Truths by Jeanne Sakata, starring Joel de la Fuente, which has toured the country and has won multiple awards. Recent directing work includes: Indecent (Chautauqua Theatre); Another Revolution (GulfShore Playhouse); Belly of the Beast by Margaret Vandenburg (presented by TodayTix, Daniel Dae Kim/3AD & New York Theatre Workshop and nominated for a Drama League Award); Steel Magnolias (Guthrie Theatre); Fun Home and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Kansas City Repertory Theater); Amber Waves by James Still (Indiana Repertory Theatre); Pericles for Next Chapter Podcasts (adaptation by Ellen McLaughlin); world premiere of The Names We Gave Him by Ellen McLaughlin and Peter Foley (Montclair State University); productions at Irish Repertory Theatre, Cincinnati Playhouse, Theatreworks Silicon Valley), Two River Theater, People's Light, Playmakers Repertory Theatre, and many more. Future: Shared Sentences (Houses on the Moon); Village of Vale (musical podcast); As You Like It (Juilliard). Previously, Lisa was the Director of New Works at Kansas City Repertory Theatre, co-Artistic Director of The Actor's Center in NYC, co-President of the League of Professional Theatre Women, and is currently a Usual Suspect with New York Theatre Workshop, member of the National Theater Conference, an Artistic Affiliate and former Audrey Fellow with New Georges, a Drama League alum and Fox Fellow. She was also the Director of Global Exchange at The Lark for over five years, providing expanded opportunities for playwrights, aimed at advancing new work to production, both nationally and globally. www.lisarothe.com

MAKSIMA BOEVA | Director Participant, Bulgaria

Maksima Boeva is a theater director based in Bulgaria. Since graduating NATFA "Krastio Sarafov" (Directing for Drama Theater, BA) in 2017, she has been working in both independent and state-funded theater companies in Sofia, Shumen, Razgrad and Varna. Maksima's work includes projects based on critically acclaimed plays, as well as experimental pieces that combine documentary theatre and puppetry. Her directing debut ("Nirvana" by Konstantin Iliev, Vasil Drumev Theater, 2018) received numerous awards and nominations. Currently she's employed as a director at Vasil Drumev Theater, while also doing a lot of freelance work as a director and art manager for independent projects.

Mei Ann Teo | Director Participant, United States

Mei Ann Teo (they/she) is a queer immigrant from Singapore who is an artistic leader, theatre and film maker, and educator. Having served as Artistic Director of Musical Theatre Factory for three years, they are now the Associate Artistic Director and Director of New Work at Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Teo makes theatre & film at the intersection of artistic/civic/contemplative practice. As a director/devisor/dramaturg, they creates across genres, including music theatre, intermedial participatory work, reimagining classics, and documentary theatre. Directing work includes World Premieres Jillian Walker's SKiNFoLK: An American Show at the Bushwick Starr (NYTimes Critics Pick, NYMag's matrix "Highbrow and Brilliant") and Madeline Sayet's Where We Belong at Shakespeare's Globe, Woolly Mammoth ("directed with cinematic grandeur" -Washington Post), and a national tour including Seattle Rep, Baltimore Center Stage, Philadelphia Theatre Company, the Goodman, the Public, Portland Center Stage and the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. North American premiere of Amy Berryman's Walden at Theatreworks Hartford that swept the Connecticut Circle Critics Awards including Best Production and Director ("brilliant direction" - Hartford Courant, NYTimes Critics Pick). Teo's work has toured the U.S. and internationally including the world premiere of Dim Sum Warriors by Colin Goh and Yen Yen Woo, composed by Pulitzer Prize winner Du Yun at Stan Lai's Theatre Above in Shanghai, which went on a national twenty-five city tour in China. Belgium's Festival de Liege (Lyrics From Lockdown, "Truly polished, meaningful and entertaining" -New York Times), Singapore Theatre Festival (Building A Character - Hit List of the Business Times, "Dynamic staging"), Edinburgh International Fringe (MiddleFlight, "Stunning" -Scotsman), M1 Singapore Fringe Festival (The Shape of a Bird, "Superb staging" - Straits Times), Beijing International Festival (Labyrinth - Top 8 in Beijing News), Dumbo Arts Festival, and the Shanghai International Experimental Theatre Festival (Official Selection - Caucasian Chalk Circle). As an educator, they served for seven years as the Chair of Drama/Resident Artist at Pacific Union College, the Asst. Professor of Directing and Dramaturgy at Hampshire College, and the John Wells Visiting Professor of Directing at Carnegie Mellon, and have lectured at Duke and Harvard. They hold an MFA in Theatre Directing from Columbia University. www.meiannteo.com

NATALIE ESTER | Director Participant, Romania

To make it as short as I can, I've spent 27 years out of 45 in the theatre world of Romania. Even so, I believe that no amount of time consumed while performing arts could objectively define an artist, their potential, their talent or their state of being known or appreciated. We all live in a world where notable achievements are sometimes playing an important part in both self-awareness or general recognition and they can easily become a visiting card. From this perspective, I have managed to gather a few official titles, Best Actress Awards and other diplomas which are supposed to certificate a form of success in the course of my career (as an actress, writer, teacher or director) but, in my belief, they don't. The argument which stands behind this statement is the fact that we are all living the moment and what truly maters is "here & now". I shall do my very best in my attempt to offer a positive contribution during our future meetings. As for my past experiences which might have led to the present, I will mention over twenty leading roles on the stage, involvement in television, radio, film, scriptwriting, five theatre plays I have written and directed myself and at least, but not at last, 25 years of pedagogical experience with scholars and students. Here are some titles of the projects I have written and directed myself: "Why you?" (the play is being performed for the past twenty years)/ "The Flood"/ "There's Room Enough For Everyone Under The Sun"/"Curriculum Vitae"/ "The Pink Glasses Effect"/ "Europe, Between Word and Gesture"/ "Purim 5777"/ "Yiddish Trotter"

NILAN | Associate Artistic Director, The Drama League, United States

Nilan (he/him+) is an international award-winning writer, director, and performer. He serves as the Associate Artistic Director of The Drama League of New York. He is the co-creator/founder of the award-winning content creative company A Certain Something. A leader in intersectional storytelling his work has helped bridge and articulate queer and Black communities. Some of his plays are FOLKtales; Stories of the Black Diaspora, Endangered Species, and The Rainbow Plays (six of plays that chronicle queer life across the U.S. post the height of the AIDS epidemic). His work is streaming on major platforms Consent is Sexy, series (Youtube), A Holy Her (Spotify/Apple) and TA(L)KING DIRECTION (Spotify/Apple) to name a few. A career expanding twenty years he has worked in over 8 countries and across 17 states. As a performer/creator his work has been seen at PlayMakers Repertory, Edinburgh Festival Fringe, National Black Theatre, Bay Area Playwrights Festival, New York Shakespeare Exchange, Playback Berlin, Madrid International Film Festival, Harlem International Film Festival, Downtown Art, Bedlam, and several more places. His work at The Drama League speaks highly to his passion for community building and artists advocacy. He has built and hone the only after school program teaching the craft directing to high school students, New Visions/New Voices that has catered to over 100 students and produced about 20 short films. He is a proud member of AEA and SAG-AFTRA. He graduated from Cal State, San Bernardino (BA) and University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (MFA). Learn more at nilan.me | acertainsomething.org

STEFAN PROHOROV | Director Participant, Bulgaria

Stefan Prohorov is a Bulgarian stage director and playwright, working mostly in the fields of theatre and performance art. His work focuses on an interdisciplinary approach towards socially relevant subjects, as well as cross-cultural experiments in the field of classical theatre. He is also experienced as a cultural manager, having worked as a programmer for the largest arthouse cinema in Sofia and also on the Executive Board of the Association of Independent theatre in Bulgaria. In 2021, together with Ketty Marinova, he co-founded "Force Majeure", a production house for all forms of contemporary art. Stefan is also a dedicated wine-enlightener. His company "Na po vino" specializes in the popularization of Bulgarian wine via articles, tastings, and various services. Stefan is also a co-host of a podcast dedicated to links between wine and culture.

The Drama League advances the American theater by providing a life-long artistic home for directors and a platform for dialogue with, and between, audiences. Founded in 1916, it is one of the nation's oldest continuously-operating, not-for-profit arts advocacy and education organizations. For information about its Membership and Awards programs, please call 212.244.9494 ext 101 or email membership@dramaleague.org.

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