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| THE DRAMA LEAGUE SETS HISTORIC PRECEDENT WITH NEW AND EXPANDED SLATE OF PROGRAMS | |
| Posted by: Official_Press_Release 04:34 pm EDT 09/29/21 | |
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| THE DRAMA LEAGUE SETS HISTORIC PRECEDENT BY INVESTING MILLIONS OVER THE NEXT DECADE IN DIRECTORS THROUGH NEW AND EXPANDED GROUNDBREAKING SLATE OF PROGRAMS OPPORTUNITIES INCLUDE: $100,000 Fellowship & Guaranteed Developmental and Production Opportunities at Nationally Renowned Theater Companies New Program Aiding Mid-Career Theatre Directors Expanding Into Film and Television BIPOC/Global Majority Directing Assistantships Providing Essential Access and Mentor Opportunities Partners Companies Include: Lead Partners Manhattan Theatre Club and McCarter Theatre Center and Dallas Theater Center, The Hangar Theatre, New York Stage and Film, Red Bull Theater, Theatre Communications Group, TheaterWorksUSA Applications Now Open Programs Begin May 2022 September 29, 2021 (New York, NY) -- The Drama League (Artistic Director Gabriel Stelian-Shanks, Executive Director Bevin Ross) today launched a sweeping reimagination of its acclaimed umbrella of service programs called The Directors Project. As the nation's only full-time creative home for directors, The Drama League's new program portfolio is the result of a company-wide evaluation, undertaken during the pandemic and in conversations with over 100 artists, artistic leaders, producers, activists, and community members. With financial stability, well-being, and guaranteed employment opportunities at the forefront of this unprecedented initiative, the new program portfolio expands, deepens, and accelerates field-wide support for directors in the post-pandemic professional theatre landscape, in an effort to address systemic inequity and pay disparity in the field of directing. "Even as our emergency services ramped up during the pandemic, The Drama League felt it was necessary to take time to answer the calls from the field and deeply interrogate our program offerings," said Artistic Director Gabriel Stelian-Shanks. "These programs, which we call The Directors Project, have been industry-leading for 40 years, but this moment brought forth clarity of a set of evolving needs directors and their collaborators have that we can respond to. We hope that other artist development organizations will join us in efforts to deepen, expand and improve artist care in a field-wide excavation of what 'best practices' can look like." Added Executive Director Bevin Ross: "We are grateful to our alumni, our members, our colleagues, the Drama League Directors Council, and especially our partners in this effort -- Dallas Theater Center, The Hangar Theatre, Manhattan Theatre Club, McCarter Theatre Center, New York Stage and Film, Red Bull Theater, Theatre Communications Group, and TheaterWorksUSA -- for joining us in this effort, to more impactfully serve directors utilizing our resources, to address the damage of the COVID-19 pandemic upon the theater's ecosystem, and to confront and dismantle white supremacy inside the arts sector and our institution." Applications for the Fellowship and Assistantship programs are now available at dramaleague.org. HIGHLIGHTS OF THE NEW INITIATIVES INCLUDE: THE DRAMA LEAGUE STAGE DIRECTING FELLOWSHIPS: a two-year experience for early-career stage directors, supported by an unprecedented $100,000 scholarship prize per recipient ($50,000 per year), up to $10,000 in health care insurance reimbursement ($5,000 per year), and a wide range of unparalleled opportunities at the organization's Theater Center in New York City and at the Fellowship's partner institutions Dallas Theater Center, Manhattan Theatre Club, McCarter Theatre Center, New York Stage and Film, Red Bull Theater and Theatre Communications Group. During the two years, the selected Fellows will have an extended residency and direct a festival production as part of DirectorFest; internal directing projects during an extended residency at Manhattan Theatre Club or McCarter Theater Center; direct staged readings at The Drama League and Red Bull Theater; assist on major projects at Dallas Theater Center and New York Stage and Film; attend the Theatre Communications Group national conference as part of The Drama League's delegation; and many additional career-building activities. Two applicants will be accepted per cycle, the first of which will begin in May 2022. The deadline for applications is December 31, 2021. Selected Fellows will be celebrated at The Drama League Awards in May 2022. The full program description can be found at https://dramaleague.org/DL-Stage-Directing-Fellowships/. THE DRAMA LEAGUE FILM AND TELEVISION DIRECTING FELLOWSHIPS: an approximate 16-week production experience spanning two years for mid-career stage directors interested in expanding their work to include film and/or television directing, supported by a $20,000 scholarship prize per recipient ($10,000 per year), up to $10,000 in health care insurance reimbursement ($5,000 per year), and more. The program includes on-set shadowing experience, introduction to mentors and industry professionals, and the opportunity to direct a short film that will premiere as part of DirectorFest before being submitted to festivals. Recipients will be mentored by the Emmy-nominated writer/director/showrunner Tony Phelan ("Grey's Anatomy"). Two applicants will be accepted for this Fellowship position, which will begin in May 2022. The deadline for applications is December 31, 2021. The full program description can be found at: https://dramaleague.org/dl-film-television-fellowships/ THE DRAMA LEAGUE DIRECTING ASSISTANTSHIPS: Each season, The Drama League will partner 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 will pay the assistant director's salary, and reimburse housing, travel and health care costs. In 2022, The Drama League Directing Assistants will be paired with four nationally-renowned directors: Jennifer Chang (Vietgone; 2019 Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award in Direction), Lisa Portes (Disgraced at Cincinnati Playhouse), Nicole A. Watson (School Girls; or, the African Mean Girls Play at Round House Theatre and Associate Artistic Director, McCarter Theatre Center), and Pirronne Yousefzadeh (The Wolves at Actors Theatre of Louisville, and Producing Artistic Director at the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center). Four applicants will be accepted for the 2022-2023 season. The deadline for applications is December 31, 2021. The full program description can be found at: http://dramaleague.org/Directing-Assistantships. THE FUTURENOW DIRECTING FELLOWSHIPS: a 15-week experience for early-career stage directors, supported by a $10,000 scholarship prize per recipient and an additional professional directing contract to direct a TheaterWorks USA touring production, as well as up to $1500 in health care insurance reimbursement. A partnership with the Hangar Theatre in Ithaca, NY, and TheaterWorksUSA in New York City, the FutureNow Directing Fellowships allow early-career stage directors to practice their craft and explore institutional arts leadership, focusing on works for communities and young audiences. At the Hangar Theatre, FutureNow Fellows will direct and produce the second stage season of the company, including productions for adults (The Wedge) and young audiences (Kiddstuff), with the Hangar Lab Company composed of early-career actors, designers, and stage managers. At TheaterWorksUSA, the Fellows will remount a repertory production for TYA audiences that will tour nationally for an entire season. Three applicants will be accepted for this Fellowship, which will begin in May 2022. The deadline for applications is December 31, 2021. The full program description can be found at http://dramaleague.org/FutureNow-Directing-Fellowships. THE DRAMA LEAGUE DIRECTING RESIDENCIES: The Drama League's Directing Residency programs including the Beatrice Terry Directing Residency and the Next Stage Residency, will continue in expanded, reimagined formats. Details will be announced in mid-November when applications will open to director applicants for the 2022-2023 season. EDUCATIONAL INITIATIVES: The Drama League's after-school program for high school students, New Visions/New Voices, as well as its skills-building workshop series for theater professionals The Essentials and its acclaimed podcast, Ta(l)king Direction, will continue in new and expanded forms beginning in October. More information on each can be found at http://www.dramaleague.org. Drama League Programs are supported in part by the Howard Gilman Foundation, Hyde and Watson Foundation, Sylvia W. and Randle M. Kauders Foundation, Jolene McCaw Family Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, New York State Council for the Arts, the Shubert Foundation, EY, Leo Shull Charitable Fund for the Arts, as well as Drama League Members, Alumni and Individuals nationwide. Learn more about how to support this new programming at Light the Lights! A Drama League Celebration on Monday, October 18, 2021. Details about the benefit and tickets to attend can be found at www.dramaleague.org/benefit. FOR PHOTOS & PARTNER THEATER LOGOS, VISIT: https://bit.ly/3EFwEPZ BIOGRAPHIES THE DRAMA LEAGUE The Drama League advances the American theater by providing life-long artistic resources for directors and a platform for dialogue with audiences. Founded in 1916, we are one of the longest-running arts service organizations in the country. We enable directors to make the most powerful, impactful work possible across multiple mediums reaching ever-wider audiences, and build sustainable careers. Uplifting directors of all economic classes, races, abilities, genders and identities is a cornerstone of this mission. We provide support to directors throughout their artistic life, and our work in education offers both continued learning to professionals and introduces the skills of directing to young people. Underpinning our work is the support of our members, a community of ardent theater fans and industry professionals whose commitment to advancing the art form helps develop the careers of the talented directors we champion. 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. MTC is committed to doing the ongoing institutional work to reassess our practices and to reaffirm our goal of achieving an anti-racist organization which respects and honors all of the voices heretofore underrepresented in our industry. For more information on the actions we are taking, please visit?https://www.manhattantheatreclub.com/edi/ McCARTER THEATRE CENTER McCarter's mission is to create stories and experiences that enliven minds, expand imaginations, and engage communities. An independent not-for-profit performing arts center located between New York City and Philadelphia - and on the campus of Princeton University - McCarter is a multi-disciplinary creative and intellectual hub offering theater productions, music, dance, spoken word, and educational programs for all ages. Celebrated for developing new work, and winner of the 1994 Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre, world premieres include Christopher Durang's Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike (Tony Award for Best Play), Tarell Alvin McCarey's The Brother/Sister Plays, Emily Mann's Having Our Say, and Danai Gurira's The Convert. Highlights of McCarter's 21/22 season include Branford Marsalis, Audra McDonald, David Sedaris, Mark Morris Dance, Roseanne Cash, the popular rock band Lake Street Dive, Valerie June, National Geographic Live, and two joyous musicals - Dreaming Zenzile, based on the life of Miriam Makeba, and Ride The Cyclone. Digital programming has opened the door to new opportunities with Paula Vogel's Bard at the Gate and a bilingual family show Sugar Skull, celebrating the holiday of Día de los Muertos. McCarter connects with the community year-round with a Shakespeare Community Reading Group, holiday programs, a free outdoor concert series, local partnerships in Trenton and Princeton, and in-school artistic residencies. McCarter and Princeton University share a long history of unique collaborations and commissions including the Roger S. Berlind Playwright in Residence program and the Princeton and Slavery Project. www.mccarter.org DALLAS THEATER CENTER One of the leading regional theaters in the country, Dallas Theater Center (DTC) performs to an audience of more than 90,000 North Texas residents annually. Founded in 1959, DTC is now a resident company of the AT&T Performing Arts Center and presents its mainstage season at the Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre in the Dallas Arts District. DTC also presents at its original home, the Kalita Humphreys Theater, the only freestanding theater designed and built by Frank Lloyd Wright. DTC engages, entertains and inspires a diverse community by creating experiences that stimulate new ways of thinking and living by consistently producing plays, educational programs and community initiatives that are of the highest quality and reach the broadest possible constituency. THE HANGAR THEATRE 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. NEW YORK STAGE AND FILM New York Stage and Film is a not-for-profit company dedicated to both emerging and established artists in the development of new works for theater, film and television. Since 1985, New York Stage and Film has played a significant role in the development of new plays, provided a home for a diverse group of artists free from critical and commercial pressures, and established itself as a vital cultural institution for residents of the Hudson Valley and the New York metropolitan region. Notable productions that received vital incubation with NYSAF include: the Tony Award-winning Hamilton (Lin-Manuel Miranda), Hadestown (Anaïs Mitchell), The Humans (Stephen Karam), Doubt (John Patrick Shanley); OBIE Award winning The Invisible Hand (Ayad Akhtar), Pulitzer-finalists The Wolves (Sarah DeLappe) and Taylor Mac's A 24-Decade History of Popular Music; Broadway musicals Head Over Heels, American Idiot, Bright Star; Off-Broadway's The Fortress of Solitude (Michael Friedman and Itamar Moses), Sanctuary City (Martyna Majok); the award-winning Peanut Butter Falcon (Tyler Nilson and Michael Schwartz); multiple collaborations with Ngozi Anyanwu, Jocelyn Bioh, Halley Feiffer, Zach Helm, Beth Henley, Warren Leight, Mozhan Marnó, Billy Porter, Brian Quijada, Josh Radnor, Duncan Sheik, Steven Sater; and hundreds more. RED BULL THEATER Red Bull Theater brings rarely seen classic plays to dynamic new life for contemporary audiences. Our work unites a respect for tradition with a modern sensibility. Red Bull Theater is named for the rowdy Jacobean playhouse that illegally performed plays in England during the years of Puritan rule, and was the first London theater to reopen after the Restoration. This bold spirit is central to our identity. With the Jacobean plays of Shakespeare and his contemporaries as our cornerstone, Red Bull Theater is New York City's home for dynamic performances of great plays that stand the test of time. The company also produces new works that are in conversation with the classics. Red Bull Theater delights and engages the intellect and imagination of audiences. A home for artists, scholars and students, we strive to make our work accessible, diverse, and welcoming to all theatergoers. Educational as well as entertaining, our work keeps a rich and vital tradition thriving. Red Bull Theater believes in the power of great classic stories and plays of heightened language to deepen our understanding of the human condition. We believe in the special ability of live theater to create unique, collective experiences. And we believe in the timeless capacity of classical theater to illuminate the events of our times. Founded in 2003 with a production of Shakespeare's Pericles, Red Bull Theater has been acclaimed by The New York Times as "a dynamic producer of classic plays" and by Time Out New York as "the most exciting classical theater in New York." In our 17-year history, Red Bull Theater has produced 21 Off-Broadway Productions and nearly 200 Revelation Readings of rarely seen classics, serving 5,000 artists and providing quality artistic programming to an audience of 5,000. The company's unique programming has received ongoing critical acclaim, and has been recognized with Lortel, Drama Desk, Drama League, Calloway, Off Broadway Alliance, and Obie nominations and Awards. THEATRE COMMUNICATIONS GROUP Theatre Communications Group (TCG), the national organization for theatre, leads for a just and thriving theatre ecology. Since its founding in 1961, TCG's constituency has grown from a handful of groundbreaking theatres to over 700 Member Theatres and affiliate organizations and over 7,000 Individual Members. Through its programs and services, TCG reaches over one million students, audience members, and theatre professionals each year. TCG offers networking and knowledge-building opportunities through research, communications, and events, including the annual TCG National Conference, one of the largest nationwide gatherings of theatre people; awards grants and scholarships to theatre companies and individual artists; advocates on the federal level; and through the Global Theater Initiative, TCG's partnership with the Laboratory for Global Performance and Politics, serves as the U.S. Center of the International Theatre Institute. TCG is North America's largest independent trade publisher of dramatic literature, with 18 Pulitzer Prizes for Drama on the TCG booklist. It also publishes the award-winning American Theatre magazine and ARTSEARCH®, the essential source for a career in the arts. TCG believes its vision of "a better world for theatre, and a better world because of theatre" can be achieved through individual and collective action, adaptive and responsive leadership, and equitable representation in all areas of practice. TCG is led by executive director and CEO Teresa Eyring and deputy director and COO Adrian Budhu. tcg.org 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. |
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