About The Drama League
Our Mission
The Drama League is the preeminent creative development home for directors – artists who stand at the center of live performance in theater, film, television, streaming, immersive experiences, and other industries. With over a century of experience in artist support, we offer resources, guidance, access, and opportunity to directors and their collaborators, as they inspire audiences across the world.
As architects of storytelling, directors fulfill two essential needs for humanity: to deepen our understanding of the world, and to imagine new possibilities. Despite the critical role directors play in our society’s well-being, their work is often invisible to audiences; their profession is deeply under-supported and misunderstood, even inside the field. Since 1982, The Drama League’s programs, collectively called The Directors Project, have offered award-winning fellowships, residencies, assistantships, productions, services, and international exchanges.Â
As of 2026, Directors Project Alumni have received 10 Tony Awards, 30 Tony Award Nominations, 28 Obie Awards, 7 Lortel Awards, and dozens of Oscar, Emmy, Golden Globe, Peabody, Drama Desk, Outer Critics, Jefferson, Drama-Logue, Helen Hayes, NAACP, GLAAD and Princess Grace nominations and awards, among other honors. Over 100 of them are artistic leaders of theaters and production companies across the United States, Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and Asia; together, they direct approximately 1,100 productions each season on five continents. dramaleague.org
Our Work
The Drama League opens doors for exceptional stage directors by providing time, resources, and space to work without restriction, while augmenting skills through personalized training, production opportunities, and professional development. The Drama League carefully selects directors whose vision and talent are unparalleled, with a clear commitment to the craft, the field, and audiences. Through our work, The Drama League celebrates the important role theatergoers have to the future of the industry, and champions the impact theater plays in civic life.The Drama League breaks the formidable barriers that impede success in the arts. We actively work to create a cultural landscape where every artist is considered on their merits. In doing so, we take action to support directors who have traditionally been denied opportunities.
These directors, nurtured and empowered by The Drama League’s support, are trained to create the most rigorous work possible, as a live exchange between artists and audiences. In doing so, we elevate the conversation, deeply impacting theaters and their communities. Bringing people together to celebrate difference, share experiences, and discover common ground are crucial needs served by the work of Drama League directors. This necessary cultural practice is the foundation of our shared humanity.
Now, more than ever, the theater demands articulate proponents for its urgency, resonance, and universality. As arts participation continues to decline nationwide, Drama League directors are fully prepared to lead the industry in renewed responsibility to its audiences, delivering heightened relevance, vibrancy, and accessibility to the field. Only to the extent that the field embraces its dedication to audiences –and the role it can play in uplifting and connecting those audiences through their work – will the industry remain a vital element of civilization.
Our Values
- Position creativity as a powerful engine for change.
- Embrace artistic risk-taking, innovation and surprise — mistakes inspire solutions.
- Insist on the conditions for artists and audiences to engage with thoughtfulness, care, openness, and empathy.
- Strive to communicate openly and honestly, and expect others to do so as well.
- Actively foster and advance a welcoming, fair, and supportive practice free from bias in our programs and on our team, including artists who have been marginalized in our field and our society.
- Seek to inspire through service, and create opportunity for those in our communities to engage, learn, grow, and prosper.
The opposite of war isn’t peace. It’s creation.
Jonathan Larson
The present was an egg
laid by the past
that had the future inside its shell.
Zora Neale Hurston
The Drama League is a community of artists and everyday people who support the work of directors. Directors impact every facet of modern life across the world – arts, culture, society, entertainment, business, technology, tourism, education, hospitality, leadership and more.
Everywhere — in every tradition, in every historical period — human beings have found meaning in our existence by telling each other stories. Every day, in millions of ways both visible and invisible, directors are leading teams to tell us stories in the most joyful, compelling, and surprising ways.
As we set our vision and values to best serve this community, as always, The Drama League turns to artists for inspiration and strength. As Jonathan Larson says, the act of artmaking is fundamentally one of peace; it requires creativity and imagination to generate solutions, and offers alternative paths to living that can be explored safely. Zora Neale Hurston eloquently reminds us that our present is only possible because of our past, and the future will be born from the ethical and creative actions we take today.
At The Drama League, we uplift voices that need to be heard — including all of those who haven’t been before — so that we all may connect, question, and create a better, more just world. The Drama League stands for fairness and against all acts of hatred and systems of oppression, as they are wholly antithetical to the creation of art.
We are committed to providing resources and opportunity to those who need them; a safe space for artists to make work free of restriction, repression, and injustice; and the energy of a community that believes art, and artmakers, hold the key to collective prosperity.