The Drama League Names 2023 Directors Project Recipients

The Drama League has announced the fourteen exceptional stage directors receiving the fellowships, assistantships, and residencies of the 2023 Drama League Directors Project. They are FutureNow Directing Fellows Héctor Alvarez, Alex Keegan, and EJ Soto; Directing Assistantship Recipients Michelle Chan, Diego González, Sanhawich Meateanuwat, and Vanessa Ogbuehi; Beatrice Terry Director in Residence Ann Kreitman; Next Stage Directors in Residence Nehprii Amenii and Lyam B. Gabel; and, continuing into their second year of the Directors Project, Drama League Stage Directing Fellows Nadia Guevara and Ibi Owolabi, and Drama League Film/Television Directing Fellows NJ Agwuna and Justin Emeka.

Selected from hundreds of applicants worldwide, they will be publicly introduced to the professional theater community during the 89th Annual Drama League Awards, which 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

Nadia Guevara (she/her) and Ibi Owolabi (she/her) have been chosen for the two-year Drama League Stage Directing Fellowships, which offers each of them $100,000 and health insurance support for two years, and professional engagements with Manhattan Theatre Club, McCarter Theater Center, Dallas Theater Center, New York Stage & Film, Red Bull Theater, and Theatre Communications Group, including multiple directing and assisting opportunities.

Héctor Alvarez (he/him), Alex Keegan (she/her), and EJ Soto (he/they) are recipients of the Drama League FutureNow Directing Fellowships, which include directing projects at the Hangar Theatre (Ithaca, NY) for the Kidstuff Series and FutureNow Festival this summer. They will then begin pre-production to direct national touring productions for TheaterWorksUSA (NYC).

NJ Agwuna (she/her) and Justin Emeka (he/him) have been chosen for the Drama League Film and Television Directing Fellowships, a program for mid-career theater directors expanding their creative work into these related disciplines. Both recipients will shadow on episodes of the upcoming dramatic series A Small Light for Disney+/Nat Geo., under the mentorship of showrunner Tony Phelan (Grey's Anatomy), before returning in their second year to direct short films of their own.

Michelle Chan (she/her), Diego González (he/they), Sanhawich Meateanuwat (he/they), and Vanessa Ogbuehi (she/her) have been chosen for the Drama League Stage Directing Assistantships, which pairs early-career directors from historically marginalized communities with established directors. Next season, they will assist on productions across the country with acclaimed directors May Adrales, Tatyana-Marie Carlo, Desdemona Chiang, and Dawn Monique Williams, respectively.

Nehprii Amenii (she/her) and Lyam B. Gabel (they/he) will develop new projects at The Drama League as the 2023 Next Stage Directors In Residence, joining Ann Kreitman (she/they), the new Beatrice Terry Director In Residence. Amenii will prepare her work Human for its world premiere at Atlanta's Center for Puppetry Arts. Gabel will create their piece DADDY or you couldn't make me dress up as a seahorse if you tried which I know you were going to don't try to lie about it. Finally, Kreitman will write and direct a first workshop of her play The Archivists.

"I'm often asked why I am so positive about the future of the creative sector in America. And THIS is why: I'm overjoyed to introduce these extraordinary artists as the newest members of the Drama League community," said Artistic Director Gabriel Stelian-Shanks, who noted that the recipients are from a wide variety of geographic locations, including Chicago, Cleveland, Iowa City, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, San Juan, and Washington DC. "Each of them has a rare combination of talent, determination, skill, and artistry that gives me great hope for the future of the American theater."

The 2022 Fellows will join the ranks of over 400 Drama League Alumni including Tony Award Winners Christopher Ashley (Come From Away), Rachel Chavkin (Hadestown, The Thanksgiving Play), Sam Gold (Macbeth), Michael Mayer (Funny Girl, A Beautiful Noise), Pam MacKinnon (Artistic Director, A.C.T.), Diane Paulus (1776), John Rando (Back To The Future: The Musical), Rebecca Taichman (Sing Street), Alex Timbers (Moulin Rouge!, Here Lies Love), Tony nominees Mark Brokaw (How I Learned To Drive), Moritz von Stuelpnagel (Bernhardt/Hamlet), Alan Schneider Award winner May Adrales (Poor Yella Rednecks), Obie Award winners Arin Arbus (The Merchant of Venice), Lear deBessonet (Into The Woods), Anne Kauffman (The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window), Lila Neugebauer (The Waverly Gallery, Academy Award-nominated Causeway), Whitney White (On Sugarland), Callaway Award winner Mike Donahue (Which Way To The Stage), and more.

The Drama League is the preeminent artistic home and development organization for directors, providing them with career-changing experiences in the 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.

THE DRAMA LEAGUE

2023-2024 DIRECTORS PROJECT RECIPIENTS

DRAMA LEAGUE STAGE DIRECTING FELLOWSHIPS

A two-year program in partnership with Manhattan Theatre Club (NYC), McCarter Theater Center (Princeton, NJ), Dallas Theater Center (Dallas, TX), New York Stage & Film (Poughkeepsie, NY), Red Bull Theater (NYC), and Theatre Communications Group (NYC)

Nadia Guevara | IBI OWOLABI

Nadia Guevara (she/her) Proud recipient of the 2022-2044 Drama League Stage Directing Fellowship. Directing: Fefu and Her Friends (American University), "N" (Keegan Theatre), Palabras de encanto: Tales of Borikén (Academy of Classical Acting at George Washington University), Little Women (Johns Hopkins University), Guadalupe in the Guest Room, Cinderella: A Salsa Fairy Tale (NVA), El encuentro (Old Globe). Readings: L'HÔTEL (Fulton Theatre), Azul (SD Rep/LNFP). Associate/Assistant/Resident Director: Acoustic Rooster, Show Way (The Kennedy Center), The Wolves (McCarter Theatre Center), The Odyssey (Dallas Theatre Center/Dallas Public Works), Daphne's Dive (Signature Theatre), Put Your House in Order (La Jolla Playhouse). Upcoming Off-Broadway: Movement Director/Assistant Director, The Knight of the Burning Pestle, Director, Short New Play Festival (Red Bull Theatre). In 2024, Nadia will direct a revamped Cinderella: A Salsa Fairy Tale (Imagination Stage), Spring Awakening (American University), Off-Broadway directorial debut (TBA). www.nadiaguevara.com IG@nadiaguevaradc

IBI OWOLABI (she/her) is an Atlanta-based director. Her work has been seen at 7 Stages, Kenny Leon's True Colors Theatre, Theatre Emory, The Weird Sisters Theatre Project, and the DC Black Theatre Festival. Ibi graduated from Georgia Southern with a degree in theatre, and was awarded the SDC Fellowship her sophomore year. Post graduation, she then moved to Actor's Express for a directing internship, and then went on to become the Kenny Leon Fellow at the Alliance Theatre. Ibi directed several Zoom productions, including Well-Intentioned White People, Good Bad People, White-Ish, Stew, and Faith. Ibi's recent in person productions include These Shining Lives at USC, The Bluest Eye at Synchronicity Theatre, and Intimate Apparel at Actor's Express.

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DRAMA LEAGUE FUTURENOW STAGE DIRECTING FELLOWSHIPS

A practicum in artistic leadership, in partnership with Hangar Theatre (Ithaca, NY) and directing a touring production for TheaterWorksUSA (NYC).

HÉCTOR ALVAREZ | ALEX KEEGAN | EJ SOTO

HÉCTOR ALVAREZ (he/him) is a theater director and writer based in Los Angeles. His practice draws from post dramatic theater, the legacy of the avant-garde and non-Western performance traditions but is committed to accessibility and the power of storytelling. His directing work has been praised as "visually gorgeous and fulsome, so rich and sensitive in detail" (The Chicago Reader). In parallel, he has worked extensively with incarcerated populations in prisons and juvenile detention centers, and as a teaching artist in public schools. He was the executive director of Still Point Theater Collective in Chicago, a nonprofit organization that provides arts outreach programs to adults with developmental disabilities, incarcerated women, and senior citizens. Héctor is a Princess Grace Award Winner, a United World College Scholar, a Watson Fellowship recipient, and has won numerous literary awards for his poetry and fiction in Spanish.

ALEX KEEGAN (she/her) is a director and writer of new work, adaptations, and devised pieces. Recent directing: Affinity co-adapted with Rebecca Adelsheim from Sarah Waters' novel, Manning by Benjamin Benne, Uhuru by Gloria Majule, Measure for Measure (Yale Drama), That Poor Girl... by Jen Silverman (AADA), Birds of North America by Anna Ouyang Moench (Chester Theatre), Auntie Vanya by Reed Northrup (Ars Nova ANT Fest), and new work in development with NYTW Adelphi Residency, Primary Stages, Signature Theatre, MCC FreshPlay, The Drama League. Alex is a Directing Fellow at Rattlestick Theater, Visiting Assistant Professor of Theater at Wesleyan University, EST/Sloan Project Commission recipient, and former Artistic Director of Yale Summer Cabaret. Member/Alum: New Georges Jam, Roundabout Directors Group, Lincoln Center Directors Lab, The Civilians R&D Group, Williamstown Directing Corps, Geva Directing Fellowship. BA: Brown. MFA: Yale School of Drama, where she received the Julian Milton Kaufman Memorial Prize for Directing. alex-keegan.com

EDGARDO J. SOTO GONZÁLEZ "EJ" (he/they) is a latinx stage director and producer from Puerto Rico. He has an unconventional approach to commercial theater and a style that is unapologetic, minimalistic and resourceful. He has had the opportunity to train with renowned companies such as The Public Theater (NYC), Aria Entertainment and Selladoor World Wide (London). Edgardo is the current Artistic Director and Co-Founder of Puerto Rico Theatre Lab and the Programing and Production Manager of The Department of Arts and Culture of the City of San Juan. His credits include Constellations (PRTL), "El Juego" (Pompearte), Almost Maine (PRTL) and the original pieces Here & There (Camden Fringe), "Buen Día Mundo" (TBC Comedy Festival) and "Armonía" (PRTL). His first short film "El Último Mensaje" premiered on WAPA Television in 2022. He holds an MA from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama & is an Alumni of the YALE University Directors Intensive Program. www.ejsotopr.com

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DRAMA LEAGUE FILM AND TELEVISION DIRECTING FELLOWSHIPS

An accelerator for established theater directors expanding into film, television, and online content storytelling

NJ Agwuna | Justin Emeka

NJ Agwuna (she/her) is a director of stage and screen from central Maryland. She approaches theatre with curiosity and wonder, believing that theatre can not only heal us, but show us all the possibilities of the world that we inhabit. She is the 2022 recipient of the SCDF Barbara Whitman Award, and is now Assistant Directing Moulin Rouge on Broadway and the North American Tour amid preparing to film her short for her fellowship. Selected Credits: Love All by Anna Deavere Smith (NY Workshop Associate Director),7 Minutes by Stefano Massini (HERE Arts), boys don't look at boys by jeremy o'brian (NYSAF), Clyde's by Lynn Nottage (Associate Director, Second Stage), The Magic Flute (Glimmerglass Festival), The Woman's Party by Rinne B. Groff (Clubbed Thumb, AD), Till: A Musical (won Best Direction), The Lover by Harold Pinter (DirectorFest 2020), Blanks by Gethsemane Herron (JAG Fest, Roundabout), The Tempest (Lenfest), Freedom Train (TWUSA National Tour '18, '19), What She Found (won Best Drama at FRIGID). She is a Drama League alum and an associate writer/teaching artist with Tectonic. Directing MFA, Columbia University; SDC associate. www.njagwuna.com

Justin Emeka (he/him) is a director, actor, writer, and Capoeirista who is recognized for his ability to incorporate diverse cultural traditions within classical and contemporary theater. He has worked at many theaters around the country, including Yale Rep, Old Globe, Karamu House, Seattle Rep, Syracuse Stage, Langston Hughes Performance Center in Seattle, Philadelphia Theater Company, Seattle Theater Group, and Classical Theater of Harlem. Some of his favorite directing projects include: Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, Sweat, Sunset Baby, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Romeo n Juliet, Wedding Band, The Bluest Eye, Death of a Salesman, Paradise Blue, and Macbeth. He previously received a Drama League Fellowship in Classical Directing. He is a tenured professor of Theater and Africana studies at Oberlin College, as well as a member of SDC and Actors Equity. He authored the chapter "Seeing Shakespeare through Brown Eyes" in the best-selling book, Black Acting Methods: Critical Approaches. He serves as the Resident Director of Pittsburgh Public Theater, and is currently directing and performing in August Wilson's Two Trains Running (June 2022). JustinEmeka.com

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DRAMA LEAGUE STAGE DIRECTING ASSISTANTSHIPS

Opportunities for early-career directors who are members of marginalized populations and communities to assist on major productions led by BIPOC directors

MICHELLE CHAN | DIEGO GONZÁLEZ

SANHAWICH MEATEANUWAT | VANESSA OGBUEHI

MICHELLE CHAN (she/her) is a director, theatremaker, and arts facilitator from Hong Kong. She is a first-generation Taiwanese-American who holds a degree in Theatre Directing and English Literature from Pace University. She is currently an Associate Artist at Sanguine Theatre Company, a Resident Artist at Breaking & Entering Theatre Collective, a member of the Fled Collective and the 2023 Moxie Arts Incubator, and Teaching Assistant to Suzan-Lori Parks at NYU Tisch. Michelle has also been workshopping/co-directing We Are Not the Gorilla Girls, an original work created and performed by a diverse ensemble playing over 25 different roles inspired by the anonymity of the Guerrilla Girls. Upcoming projects include the premieres of C. Julian Jiménez's Buck Stars at Keen Company and Alyssa Chin-Haddad's You Should Be So Lucky at WP Theater. michchan.com @michellechaann

DIEGO ALEJANDRO GONZÁLEZ (he/they) is an NYC-based director, playwright, community builder, and theater-maker by way of the México-Texas border. This year, Diego has co-founded The Borderlands, a cultural arts company, and MUXE Creative, an indie creative agency. Directing credits: Guadalupe: un recuerdo, Peter/Starcatcher (Thirteen O'Clock), The Little Mermaid (24 HR Musical, Abilene TX), Annie (All Star Theater, RGV). Dramaturgy credits: Doublespeak and Pablo y Pedro (Thirteen O'Clock). Documentary credits: "WHAT DO I STAND FOR?" and "REVOLUTION" (Lawrence Township). Diego was the Associate Artistic Director for Thirteen O'Clock Theater (2015/16) in the Rio Grande Valley. They have led, served, and facilitated work with the teams at Ars Nova, The Public (PUBLIC WORKS), Dance Lab NY, Roundabout Theater Company, Tectonic Theater Project, The Civilians, ¡OYE! Group, Baltimore Center Stage, Abrons Arts Center, and CNTR ARTS. Up next, Diego is creating with One Nation/One Project (a national arts and wellness initiative).

SANHAWICH MEATEANUWAT - สัณหวิชญ์ เมธีอนุวัตร (he/they) is a third-year MFA directing student at Illinois State University, originally from Thailand. Their directing work focuses on creating dynamic theatre that supports social movements and explores and asks questions that impact the larger society, especially in the context of cultural diversity. They are graduating in May 2023.

Their recent works are Clifford Odets' Waiting for Lefty, Eugene Ionesco's Rhinoceros, Brecht's Mother Courage and Her Children, and Lauren Gunderson's The Revolutionists. During their graduate program, they also developed an adaptation, Walk to the Stars, combining a story from a socialist Thai children's book with a story of young protesters in Thailand. The play demands democracy, equality, and freedom of expression.

In 2022, they received the National SDC Directing Fellowship Award at the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival. They worked as a Directing Fellow at the National Playwrights Conference 2022 at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre Center.

VANESSA OGBUEHI (she/her) is a Philadelphia-based director and performer of new and devised theatre that inspires others to see their own lives as beautiful, complicated myths. Her work emerges as cabaret, performance art, or virtual experiments made from the uncanny arrangements of improvised movement, music, and visual design. Recently, she served as Associate Director for Pig Iron Theatre Company's immersive collaboration, The Path of Pins or the Path of Needles, working alongside award-winning filmmaker Josephine Decker. Other directing work includes Resilient: Black Bottom at Drexel University; The Bodice Ripper Project, a solo, digital cabaret performed by Grammy-winning mezzo-soprano Maren Montalbano; and Metamorphoses at Villanova University. Vanessa is an alum of the Pig Iron School/University of the Arts' Graduate Certificate in Devised Performance.

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Beatrice Terry DIRECTOR IN RESIDENCE

A director-led creative and investigative process developing a new stage work, by a female-identifying or nonbinary-identifying writer-director.

ANN KREITMAN

ANN KREITMAN (she/her) is a director and playwright utilizing theatre to share lesbian history and inspire queer mythmaking. Ann has presented original work in Chicago, Philadelphia, New York City, and Iowa City. She is an associate member of the Stage Directors and Choreographer's Society and formerly served as the Co-Artistic Director of (re)discover theatre in Chicago. She holds a BA in Directing from the Sargent Conservatory of Theatre Arts at Webster University and will complete an MFA in Directing from University of Iowa in May 2023. While in Iowa, Ann helped to found the LGBTQ Iowa Archives & Library with a mission to collect, preserve, and share Iowa's queer history.

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NEXT STAGE DIRECTORS IN RESIDENCE

A director-led developmental process preparing a new work for the stage

Nehprii Amenii | LYAM B. GABEL

Nehprii Amenii (she/her) is a Brooklyn based stage director, playwright, and puppeteer. She has a passion for both personal narratives and grand-scale spectacle. She is known for creating experiences that dismantle the wall between players and audiences. Nehprii has worked with Bread and Puppet, Lumberyard Performing Arts, The Public, La Mama, The O'neill, Connecticut Rep, Pan Asian Rep, Virginia Stage Company, Alvin Ailey Dance Foundation, The New York PhilHarmonic, and more. Her work has been shared internationally in India, Haiti and South Africa. She's been awarded The Lipkin Prize for Playwriting, and from The International Rotary Club, LMCC, Puffin Foundation, The Jim Henson Foundation and The National Endowment for the Arts. She is currently in fellowship with New Victory Theatre, and is a member of The Stage Directors and Choreographer's Society and the Lincoln Center Theater Directors Lab. Nehprii is Artistic Director of Khunum Productions, a platform for creative anthropology.

LYAM B. GABEL (they/he) is a trans* performance-maker, scholar, and community archivist who creates containers for collective remembering and radical celebration. They are a founder of trans-media oral history and performance collective LAST CALL, and a director of the NEFA NTP '18/ MAP '16 performance Alleged Lesbian Activities. Their current work the dance floor, the hospital room, and the kitchen table, exploring queer care from the early years of the HIV/AIDS crisis through COVID-19, received a NPN Creation Fund commission and was performed at the 2022 TCG conference. He regularly collaborates on work by playwrights and solo performers and has developed work at The Brick, Judson Church, Pipeline, Ashland New Plays Festival, The Theater Offensive, and The New Orleans CAC among others. 2021 Drama League Next Stage Resident, Drama League Fellow 2017. Lyam is an Assistant Professor of Acting and Directing at Lehigh University.

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.