The Drama League Awards are the oldest theatrical awards in America and the unofficial kick-off to the theater awards each spring. This year’s Drama League Awards honored Andre DeShields, Lear deBessonet, The Drama Book Shop, Darin Oduyoye, and competitive awards for performance, directing, and revivals. Each new season Artistic Director Gabriel Stelian Shanks, Executive Director Bevin Ross, and Board President Bonnie Comley share The Drama League’s significant accomplishments at their annual Drama League Awards. This spring, the trio announced The Irene Gandy Stage Directing Assistantship Program.
After working with her on several Broadway productions, Bonnie Comley recruited Irene Gandy for the Drama League Board in 2021. “If you are one of the lucky ones in the American Theatre to have worked with the legendary Broadway producer and publicist Irene Gandy, you already know how transformative she has been for our field. A Black woman in leadership on Broadway beginning with her first show in 1968, she’s worked on hundreds of productions, received a Lifetime Achievement Tony Award, and gives back by mentoring dozens of up-and-coming artists. That’s why we’ve begun the campaign to keep Irene’s legacy forever in view, with our campaign to rename The Drama League’s Directing Assistantship Program in her honor. We are now asking for help to ensure this program lives forever in our field and permanently enshrines Irene’s legacy,” Gabriel Stelian-Shanks stated. The Drama League Executive Director, Bevin Ross, echoed this by expressing the many mentoring efforts and numerous contributions to the growth of the careers of many notable leaders in the field made by Irene Gandy in her fifty-plus-year career.
At the height of the theatrical season each May, The Drama League Awards are presented in a star-studded luncheon ceremony attended by a thousand Broadway industry insiders. Lauded as “a wonderful, notoriously swanky affair” by Playbill and as “the best party on Broadway” by John Lithgow, the Awards Luncheon is considered by many to be the most intimate and friendly event of the awards season. The Drama League members include award-winning actors, designers, directors, playwrights, producers, industry veterans, critics, and dedicated audiences nationwide. First presented in 1922 and formalized in 1935, The Drama League Awards are the only major theatrical awards chosen by the theater community, specifically by the Drama League members nationwide who attend Broadway and Off-Broadway productions.
The Drama League is a non-profit arts organization with a 107-year history of delivering creative and career advancement opportunities for stage directors and the theatrical community while connecting audiences to their work—the Drama League programs in New York City, nationally and internationally through strategic partnerships. As a service organization focused on directors, the work of The Drama League is more urgent than ever.
To learn more about The Irene Gandy Stage Directing Assistantship Program or the mission of The Drama League, see www.DramaLeague.org
