The Drama League Directors Project
International Directors Summit
Empowering Directors Through Global Connection

OVERVIEW

  • Every two years, The Drama League International Directors Summit brings together the world’s most exciting next-generation stage directors to share methods, ideas and community, as they face the changing nature of directing across the globe. 
  • First held in 2022, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, IDS has grown to in-person meetings in the United States (2024) and Bulgaria (2025), with the next gathering planned for 2027 in Vilnius, Lithuania. 
  • To date, IDS participants have included noted directors from Bulgaria, France, Georgia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Singapore, Ukraine, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Together, they not only share creative practices, but develop strategies for the theater’s reckoning with climate change, inflation, health, technology, artificial intelligence, and rising authoritarianism.
  • In October 2025, the third International Directors Gathering took place as part of the ACT Festival of Independent Theatre in Sofia, Bulgaria. An expanded cohort of IDS directors joined others attending the festival from around the world to share findings, explore contemporary concerns, and ignite partnerships and multinational collaborations.
  • In 2024, the participants gathered in person in New York City, which included a week of panels, performances, and interactions with arts leaders from around the world.
  • The transcripts of the 2022-2023 International Directors Summit conversations, which were held virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic, are offered below. They 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, as well as a path to the future for the global creative community.

PARTICIPANTS
List in Formation: Uršulė Bartoševičiūtė (Lithuania), Ioseb Bakuradze (Georgia); Maksima Boeva (Bulgaria) | Avto Diasamidze (Georgia) | Natalie Ester (Romania) | Dima Levitskiy (Ukraine) | Gwynn MacDonald (USA) | Nilan (USA) | Stefan Prohorov (Bulgaria) | Lisa Rothe (USA) | Anna Smolar (Poland) | Mei Ann Teo (USA) | Gabriel Stelian-Shanks (USA) | Kalina Wagenstein (Bulgaria) | Gosia Wdowik (Poland)

VIRTUAL SUMMIT: TRANSCRIPTS

In  the opening session, Directing For The Future, 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.
COVID-19 affected every aspect of life, 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 health crises, how do directors maintain a globalist perspective? How do cultures learn from each other, even when the world shuts down?
As we hit the midway point of the Summit, the 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 will make our responses more effective? 
Can art thrive in difficult economic times? As financial conditions continue to tighten in most parts of the world, the Directors looked past their own borders for ideas and opportunities that might counter the economic challenges facing 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.  
According to Freedom House, less than 20% of the world’s population live in free societies. What can directors do — in their storytelling, in their choice of material, in their communications to audiences — to illuminate the deeper ramifications of our global politic, and offer alternatives that celebrate equality? Can globalist thinking in the arts counter human challenges? How do we protect risk when artists across the world are facing political pressure, imprisonment, and even personal harm?

IDS Participants

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