Directing Alumna NJ Agwuna '18 Recipient Of The Drama League 2019 Directors Project Fellowship

NJ Agwuna '18 has been named as one of the renowned Drama League 2019 Directors Project fellowship. The fellows will be publicly introduced to the professional theatre community during the 85th Annual Drama League Awards, which will be held on Friday, May 17, 2019 at the Marriott Marquis Times Square. The fellows will spend the next year as part of the award-winning program. Each fellow has been accepted into five different programs of study: the New York Directing Fellowships, the Hangar Directing Fellowships (a partnership with the Hangar Theatre in Ithaca, NY), the Classical Fellowship for Directors of Color (a partnership with The Old Globe of San Diego, CA; the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival of Garrison, NY; and Shakespeare & Company in Lenox, MA); the Leo Shull New Musicals Directing Fellowship (a partnership with New York Stage and Film), and the Public Works Fellowship (a partnership with Public Works Dallas and Dallas Theater Center).

The New York Directing fellowship is an immersion for four directors in directing opportunities in the professional theatre, both regionally and in New York City, culminating in a fully-produced production in Drama League DirectorFest, January 2020. These early-career directors will begin with Drama League Professionals Week, where they will meet industry veterans, attend Broadway and Off-Broadway productions, and begin their developmental training. "These exceptional directors are going to change the face of the American theatre, of that I've no doubt,” noted Gabriel Stelian-Shanks the Artistic Director of the Drama League of New York. 

NJ Agwuna is a freelance theatre and film director hailing from central Maryland. Performing from a young age, Agwuna began studying theatre at REP Stage Summer Institute, where she not only learned the art of acting, but was also inspired to pursue the adventurous life of directing. 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 has worked on a national and international scale exploring classic text, developing new plays, devising, and investigating new ways to explore trauma and mental illness through theatre.