Call (212) 244-9494 for cancellations.

Ricky Martin (Evita), Philip Seymour Hoffman (Death of a Salesman), Angela Lansbury (Gore Vidal’s The Best Man), Samuel L. Jackson (The Mountaintop), Audra McDonald (The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess), Linda Lavin (The Lyons), Matthew Broderick (Nice Work If You Can Get It), Angela Bassett (The Mountaintop) and Alan Rickman (Seminar) are among the many talented nominees for the 2012 Drama League Awards.

Angela Lansbury and 2012 Drama League Awards co-host John Larroquette are nominated for their performances in Gore Vidal’s The Best Man, while Philip Seymour Hoffman and Andrew Garfield received nominations for Death of a Salesman. Ricky Martin and Elena Roger received nods for their interpretations in Evita, while Audra McDonald and Norm Lewis received nominations for their critically-acclaimed work in The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess. Cynthia Nixon is noted for her work in Wit, and Alan Rickman and Linda Lavin are nominated for their roles in Seminar and The Lyons, respectively.

Nominees for Distinguished Production of a Play include last year’s Pulitzer Prize winner Clybourne Park, as well as Other Desert Cities, Venus in Fur, Tribes, and The Lyons, among others. Newsies, Leap of Faith, Nice Work if You Can Get It and Once are among the nominees for Distinguished Production of a Musical. Distinguished Revival of a Play nominees include Death of a Salesman, Gore Vidal’s The Best Man, and Look Back in Anger. Follies, The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess, and Evita are nominated for Distinguished Revival of a Musical. Official voting ballots were mailed to all Drama League Members on April 24. Members may vote via mail, fax, or online until Wednesday, May 16 at noon!

During the Members Reception, Co-Chairs Blair Underwood (A Streetcar Named Desire), Cynthia Nixon (Wit), Audra McDonald (The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess), Judith Light (Other Desert Cities), Linda Lavin (The Lyons), Raúl Esparza (Leap of Faith), Rosemary Harris (The Road to Mecca), Nina Arianda (Venus in Fur), Jeremy Jordan (Newsies), Norm Lewis (The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess), Christian Borle (Peter and the Starcatcher), Norbert Leo Butz (How I Learned to Drive) and Christine Lahti (Dreams of Flying, Dreams of Falling) will mix and mingle with Drama League members.

First awarded in 1922, The Drama League Awards are the oldest theatrical honors in America, and the only major theatre awards chosen by audience vote. The 78th Annual Awards will be co-hosted by Tony Award winner and star of Broadway’s Other Desert Cities, Stockard Channing, and Tony Award winner and star of Gore Vidal’s The Best Man, John Larroquette. The festivities begin at noon on May 18, 2012 at the Marriott Marquis Times Square, with a Members Reception, luncheon and the Awards Ceremony.

Special awards recipients include Emmy Award winner Rosie O’Donnell, who will receive the Drama League Award for Unique Contribution to the Theatre, presented by Harvey Fierstein. Tony Award nominated director Diane Paulus will receive the Founders Award for Excellence in Directing from Gavin Creel. Eight-time Academy Award winner Alan Menken will receive the Distinguished Achievement in Musical Theatre Award, presented by Donna Murphy.

We wish a hearty welcome to Knud Adams, Amy Claussen, Vesselin Dimov, Shana Gozansky, Jess Jung, Swaine Kaui, Jesse Jou, David Mendizábal, Cat Miller, Patrick Walsh, and Christopher Windom!

Throughout the week, they will chat with leaders from The Public Theater, Manhattan Theatre Club, Jujamcyn Theatres, Abrams Artists, TheatreWorks USA and NYU, hear from prominent Directors Project alumni like Pam MacKinnon (Clybourne Park) and Carl Forsman (Keen Company), and meet with Drama League staffers and board members. We’ll bring you coverage throughout the week!

Directors Project fellows will also blog throughout their fellowships – check out the blog for each program!

Summer Hangar Residency Program Blog
New York Fall Directing Program Blog
Musical Directing Program Blog
Classical Fellowship for Directors of Color

Join the brightest stars of the season at the 78th Annual Drama League Awards! Honoring the year’s best plays, musicals and performances, The Drama League Awards luncheon is the “best party on Broadway” and not to be missed.

The Drama League Awards take place this Friday, May 18th, at the Marriott Marquis Times Square. Tony Award winners Stockard Channing and John Larroquette host the 78th Annual Awards.

The Drama League has gathered Broadway’s best performers to serve as Honorary Co-Chairs for the Awards, including Nina Arianda, Christian Borle, Norbert Leo Butz, Kathleen Chalfant, Raúl Esparza, Rosemary Harris, Jeremy Jordan, Christine Lahti, Linda Lavin, Norm Lewis, Judith Light, Audra McDonald, Cynthia Nixon, Denis O’Hare and Blair Underwood. Representing The Drama League and the wealth of talent in New York theater, the Honorary Co-Chairs will welcome guests to the Awards at acocktail reception before the event.

Additionally, The Drama League will honor three theatre luminaries with Lifetime Achievement Awards at this year’s ceremony: eight-time Academy Award-winner Alan Menken (Newsies, Leap of Faith, Sister Act) will receive the Distinguished Achievement in Musical Theatre Award. Emmy Award winner Rosie O’Donnell (Fiddler on the Roof, Suessical, Grease) will receive the Unique Contribution to the Theatre Award. Tony nominee and Drama League Directors Project alum Diane Paulus (The Gershwins’ Porgy & Bess, HAIR) will receive The Founders Award for Excellence in Directing.

Proceeds from The Drama League Awards support The Directors Project, the nation’s premier fellowship program for emerging theater directors.

We’ve posted some footage from The Drama League’s special event with the stars of JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR, Josh Young & Paul Nolan. Take a look – the boys touch on everything from bringing a show to fruition on Broadway to embarrassing moments to their best (and worst) auditions.

Special thanks to Manhattan Theatre Club Studios, Broadway World’s Richard Ridge, Boneau/Bryan-Brown, and LSG Public Relations! Enjoy.

Both alums are opening shows tonight – John directed the City Center Encores! production of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, running through this Sunday, May 13! Set in the Roaring Twenties, Gentlemen Prefer Blondesfollows the madcap adventures of the original “dumb blonde,” Lorelei Lee, as she sets sail for Europe with her best friend Dorothy Shaw. As Dorothy puts it, the gold-digging Lorelei is “the only girl in the world who can stand on a stage with a spotlight in her eye and still see a diamond inside a man’s pocket.” Based on Anita Loos’ bestselling novel of the same name, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes made a star of Carol Channing on Broadway and later cemented Marilyn Monroe’s status as an American film icon and sex symbol in the 1953 screen version. (nycitycenter.org)

Michelle Tattenbaum directed Nobody Loves You for The Old Globe. A funny and irreverent World Premiere musical romantic comedy! Filled with tuneful pop songs, NOBODY LOVES YOU takes audiences on a hilarious behind-the-scenes ride through reality television and into real life. When Jeff, a philosophy grad student, joins a dating show to win back his ex, he breaks all the rules and tries to blow the game wide open … until he meets Jenny. In a world where every kiss is staged for the cameras, can two people find a real connection? (oldglobe.org)

Be sure to check out these two wonderful shows!

Here are the great nominees that we are featuring today, May 9.

Peter and the Starcatcher:

A wildly theatrical, hilarious and innovative retelling of how a miserable orphan came to be The Boy Who Never Grew Up, PETER AND THE STARCATCHER upends the century-old legend of Peter Pan. Based on the best-selling Disney-Hyperion novel by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson, PETER AND THE STARCATCHER is directed by Tony Award® winner Roger Rees (Nicholas Nickleby) and Tony Award® nominee Alex Timbers (Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, The Pee-wee Herman Show) and written by Tony Award® nominee Rick Elice (Jersey Boys). A dozen brilliant actors play more than 100 unforgettable characters using their enormous talent, ingenious stagecraft and the limitless possibilities of imagination.

WIT:

Exquisitely written, affecting and often humorous, Wit follows a brilliant and exacting poetry professor as she undergoes experimental treatment for cancer. A scholar who devoted her life to academia, she must now face the irony and injustice of becoming the subject of research.

And our performers are:

Other Desert Cities:

In Jon Robin Baitz’s OTHER DESERT CITIES, Brooke Wyeth (Elizabeth Marvel) returns home to Palm Springs after a six year absence to celebrate Christmas with her parents (Stockard Channing and Stacy Keach), her brother (Matthew Risch), and her aunt (Judith Light). Brooke announces that she is about to publish a memoir dredging up a pivotal and tragic event in the family’s history – a wound they don’t want reopened. In effect, she draws a line in the sand and dares them all to cross it.

The Maids:

Revenge tragedy meets film noir in this seductively playful and incendiary masterpiece.  House-maid sisters Solange and Claire spend their days dreaming of escape, while their bourgeois employer Madame floats through life on champagne bubbles – until fantasies turn deadly in this thrilling psychological kaleidoscope of a play. Set in a phantasmagoric world of masks and mirrors, ceremonies and sensuality, heightened language and beautiful gesture, The Maids is ritualistic exploration of class, the nature of identity, and the power of imagination.

And our performer nominees are:

Directors Project alumni Rafael Gallegos was recently appointed Artistic Director of the Working Classroom Ensemble Theater Company in Albuquerque, New Mexico.  For 23 years, Working Classroom has collaborated with prominent theater artists to produce contemporary work by playwrights from historically ignored communities and to create, produce and tour new work exploring New Mexico’s often conflicting histories and cultures.  Rafael will be responsible for commissioning new projects from playwrights in collaboration with the Working Classroom Ensemble Theater Company and initiating devised theatre collaborations.  Prior to this position, Rafael served as the Artistic Leadership Fellow at New York Theatre Workshop from 2008-2010.  Rafael is a winner of Opera America’s Robert LB Tobin Director-Designer Showcase, a New York Theatre Workshop Directing Fellow, and a member of both the Soho Rep Writer/Director Lab and the Lincoln Center Directors Lab. His work has been seen at the Ontological Theatre/Incubator Arts Project, The Bushwick Starr, Joe’s Pub, Galapagos Artspace, Le Poisson Rouge, Roulette, and Arts in Bushwick.  As an administrator, Rafael completed the TCG Arts Leadership Bootcamp, served as a studio manager for the Merce Cunningham Dance Co., was an intern with The Wooster Group and a theatre curator at The Tank.  He is a graduate of the University of New Mexico.

Directors Project alumni Meredith McDonough has been appointed Associate Artistic Director of The Actors Theatre of Louisville.  Meredith will start her position in September 2012 and will direct The Whipping Man by Matthew Lopez in January 2013 as part of the Brown-Forman series.  Meredith previously codirected Backstory and Heaven & Hell, as well as numerous short plays including A Bone Close to my Brain and Kuwait in the Humana Festival of New American Plays at Actors Theatre of Louisville, where she began as a directing intern, and then served as the Associate Director of the Apprentice/Intern Program for two seasons. Most recently, McDonough has been the Director of New Works at TheatreWorks in Palo Alto for the past three seasons, where she directed the world premieres of Laura Schellhardt’s Upright Grand and Auctioning the Ainsleys, as well as Now Circa Then, [title of show] and Opus (Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Awards: Best Director and Best Production).  She has been the Associate Artistic Director of The Orchard Project, was the New Works Director for the National Alliance for Musical Theatre, a Drama League Fellow, an alum of the Women’s Project Directors Lab and a Kesselring Award Panelist. McDonough received her B.S. from Northwestern University and her M.F.A. from UCSD, where studied with Actors Theatre Artistic Director Les Waters.

The eleven exceptional young stage directors, who will spend the next year as part of the award-winning program, have been accepted into five different programs of study: the New York Fall Directing Program, the Hangar Residency Program (a partnership with the Hangar Theatre in Ithaca, NY), the Musical Directing Program (a partnership with Barrington Stage Company in Pittsfield, MA), the Classical Fellowship for Directors of Color (a partnership with Shakespeare & Company in Lenox, MA), and the U.S./Bulgaria Stage Directors Exchange (in partnership with Art Office Sofia and New York Theatre Workshop).

“These brilliant young directors, selected from more than 230 applicants, represent the future of professional theatre directing,” said Danforth. “They will now undergo a year of immersive, hands-on activities designed to hone their creative abilities and develop their professional careers. We welcome them with open arms.”

“We have a lot to be proud of,” added Shanks. “In this season alone, Drama League alumni Pam MacKinnon (Clybourne Park) and Alex Timbers (Peter and the Starcatcher) have received Tony nominations for Best Direction of a Play, and Diane Paulus (The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess) a Tony nomination for Best Direction of a Musical.”

The Directors Project’s Class of 2012 will begin May 15th, when they will meet industry luminaries, attend Broadway and Off-Broadway productions, and start their developmental training. They will be publicly introduced to the professional theatre community during the 78th Annual Drama League Awards on Friday, May 18 at the Marriott Marquis Times Square.

THE DRAMA LEAGUE DIRECTORS PROJECT 2012 FELLOWS

KNUD ADAMS worked and trained at Williamstown Theatre Festival, Playwrights Horizons, Soho Rep, and Steppenwolf Theatre Company, assisting Sam Gold, Rachel Chavkin, Sarah Benson, Carolyn Cantor, and Meghan Finn. This year, he wrote and directed the acclaimed premiere of Children of the Future Age. His work has also been seen at Theatre 80, Judson Church, Brooklyn Lyceum, EST, and Playwrights Horizons Resident Workshop. Current projects: Carmen (dellʼArte Opera Ensemble) and assisting Sam Gold on Annie Bakerʼs adaptation of Uncle Vanya (Soho Rep.)

AMY CLAUSSEN is a director, playwright, and Artistic Assistant/Company Manager for City Theatre in Pittsburgh. Amy’s play White Elephant, based on her childhood in Indonesia, was seen in the New York Fringe Festival and featured in The New York Times ArtsBeat. In New York, she was the original assistant director on Love, Loss, And What I Wore and assistant to producer Daryl Roth. BFA, Carnegie Mellon.

VESSELIN DIMOV is a graduate of the Bulgarian National Academy for Theatre and Film Arts. He is the founder of the theatre company Momo, co-founder of the ACT Association for Independent Theatre, and co-organizer of the international Festival for Independent Theatre. He has directed plays by Samuel Beckett, Peter Handke, Anton Chekhov, and more. He has directed audio plays for Bulgarian National Radio, and participated in projects in 11 different countries.

SHANA GOZANSKY has a BA in Theater from Bard College and an MFA from the Brown University/Trinity Rep Directing Program. Directing credits include Slawomir Mrozek’s Tango, The Tempest, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Hedda Gabler, ee cummings’ Him, and a variety of devised pieces. She was an Artist-in-Residence at chashama and the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, and is a member of the LCT Directors Lab.

JESSE JOU. Originally from Houston, Jesse Jou received his MFA from the Yale School of Drama. His credits include Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater, the New York International Fringe Festival, and The Kitchen Theatre Co., Ithaca, NY. He served as Artistic Director of the 2010 season of the Yale Summer Cabaret and as the Staff Repertory Director of the 2010-2011 tour of the Acting Company. Upcoming projects are Formosa at Ars Nova’s ANTFest and the spoken-word theater piece Say You Heard My Echo.

JESS JUNG served as the Assistant Director of Education at Actors Theatre of Louisville before pursuing her MFA in Directing at De Paul University. Directing and dramaturgy credits include Actors Theatre of Louisville, Imagination Stage, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, and Young Playwrights’ Theatre. Jess currently works as a teaching artist in Washington DC. She has also studied with The Gaiety School of Acting In Dublin, Ireland.

SWAINE KAUI has had the extreme pleasure of crossing many stages throughout America and beyond, both on and off stage. Studies include: Webster University, CW Post/LIU. Directing credits: Hair, A New Brain, Blood Wedding, and Creeping Hard (NYC). Performance Credits include: La Rondine, As You Like It, Mame. Awards include the Carol Burnett/Tom Selleck Musical Theater Scholarship. Swaine is a member of AEA.

DAVID MENDIZÁBAL is one of the Producing Artistic Leaders of The Movement Theatre Company. He directed the North American premiere of Bintou by Koffi Kwahulé. Other directing credits include plays by Harrison David Rivers, Anton Chekhov, Naomi Iizuka, Migdalia Cruz and Regina Taylor. Assistant directing credits: MCC, Williamstown, Second Stage. B.F.A., New York University/Tisch School of the Arts.

CAT MILLER. Current/upcoming projects include: The Exonerated (Next Theatre), Caroline Prugh’s Betwixt Them Made (Columbia University’s New Works Now Festival), and Janine Nabors’ Letters to Kurt (Keen Company’s Keen Teens). She was the assistant director for Stephen Adly Guirgis’ The Motherfucker with the Hat on Broadway. Cat was a directing resident at Playwrights Horizons, recipient of an SDCF Observership and is a member of the Lincoln Center Director’s Lab. MFA: Northwestern University.

PATRICK WALSH. Directing: The Brothers Size (Chautauqua Theatre Company), Two Spoons (Bailiwick Repertory Theatre), Chicken Bone Beach (Mad Hatter Theater Productions), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Trails End Theater). Assistant Directing: Ethan McSweeney, Brian Mertes, Les Waters, Henry Godinez, Steve Robman and Jason Loewith. B.F.A., University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

CHRISTOPHER WINDOM.  Directing: The Beard by Paul Mancini, A Christmas Carol (Trinity Rep), NYMF, Fringe NYC, Arrow Rock, Our Country’s Good, The Tempest and Woyzeck (Brown/Trinity). He is also a choreographer (Dessa Rose, Crowns, Ragtime at TheatreWorks) and a performer: Broadway, National Tours, West End and regional credits. B.F.A., Webster University.

To learn more about The Drama League Directors Project and its programs, visit http://dramaleague.org/directors-project/63-2/.

Here are the nominees for May 4th! Click on the title to learn more about each production!

One Man, Two Guvnors:

Bob Boyett and The National Theatre of Great Britain present the comedy sensation ONE MAN, TWO GUVNORS, winner of the Evening Standard Award and the Critics’ Circle Award. Breakout comic actor James Corden (The History Boys, BBC’s “Gavin & Stacey”) stars as Francis Henshall (“ONE MAN”). Always famished and easily confused, Henshall agrees to work for a local gangster as well as a criminal in hiding (“TWO GUVNORS”), both of whom are linked in a web of schemes, extortions and romantic associations… none of which Francis can keep straight. So he has to do everything in his power to keep his two guvnors from meeting, while trying to eat anything in sight along the way. Simple.

Look Back In Anger:

For Jimmy Porter, there is nothing more criminal than the lack of emotion and enthusiasm he sees evident in his generation, especially in his well-born wife, Alison, and their roommate Cliff, who have grown addicted to Jimmy’s passion and rage. But when Alison’s childhood friend Helena visits, she exposes the unsustainable madness of their relationships and living situation, forcing Alison to decide whether to leave the most exciting and dangerous man she’s ever known.

Queen of the Mist:

Queen of the Mist is a world premiere musical with words and music by 5-time Tony nominee Michael John LaChiusa (The Wild Party, Marie Christine, Hello Again). Based on an astounding and outrageous true story, two-time Tony nominee Mary Testa stars as Anna Edson Taylor, who, in 1901 at the age of 63, set out to be the first woman to shoot Niagara Falls in a barrel of her own design. Navigating both the treacherous Falls and a fickle public with a ravenous appetite for sensationalism, this unconventional heroine vies for her legacy in a world clamoring with swindling managers, assassins, revolutionaries, moralizing family, anarchists and activists. Convinced that there is greatness in her and determined not to live as ordinary, she sets out to battle her fear and tempt her fate.

Jesus Christ Superstar:

Since its Broadway debut, this spectacular musical phenomenon has thrilled millions of theatregoers worldwide; mesmerizing them with its passion, captivating them with its story and entrancing them with its anthemic title song. And now, two-time Tony Award®-winning director Des McAnuff brings a bold, new vision to the classic rock opera by Tony, Grammy, and Academy Award-winners Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice.

We hope that everyone enjoyed meeting some of our great nominees this week! Make sure to check back on Monday when we will start to highlight our exceptional performers and continue to feature our great nominated productions! Tickets to the 78th Annual Drama League Awards are still available! The awards will be held at the Marriot Marquis in Times Square on Friday, May 18 at noon. For more information and to purchase tickets, contact Tom Stein at the Drama League.