Estefanía Fadul and Graeme Gillis. (Photo by JMA Photography.)
NEW YORK CITY: Ensemble Studio Theatre (EST) has named Estefanía Fadul and Graeme Gillis their new co-artistic administrators. Gillis has been serving as interim creative director since 2022, and Fadul will be part of the corporate in March.
“I am so proud to have this brilliant team be at the head of the company,” EST Members Council co-chair Sharina Martin stated in a press release. “Representatives from across our entire community were able to weigh in on a process that took the better part of a year. I can truly say that this search reflected the best of EST—a theatre that values community, inclusion, and collaboration.”
“My favorite way of working has always been within ensemble settings, where there is space and time for trust to build, ideas to evolve, risks to be taken, and collaborations to grow. EST is uniquely positioned to be a leader in imagining, experimenting with, and practicing brave and joyful ways of creating,” Fadul stated in a press release.
“The animating idea of EST, of a community of artists dedicating themselves to their work, to each other, and to the future of theatre, is just about the most romantic, most inspiring thing I’ve ever heard,” Gillis added. “I feel so lucky today because I get to participate in that.”
Fadul and Gillis’s appointments mark the primary co-leadership construction for EST. The two will plan the 2023-24 season collectively.
Fadul is a Colombian-born, New York-based director and inventive producer. Passionate about new works, she has directed a number of world premieres, together with Caridad Svich’s adaptation of Eva Luna, based mostly on the novel by Isabel Allende, at Repertorio Español; The Garbologists by Lindsay Joelle at Philadelphia Theatre Company; The Same Day by Stefan Ivanov at Theatre Laboratory Sfumato in Bulgaria; Scissoring by C. Quintana at INTAR Theatre; and the Drama League Award-nominated Carla’s Quince, which she conceived and developed with the Voting Project Ensemble. She has directed works at a number of Off-Broadway theatres and was on the manufacturing staff for Soho Rep‘s site-specific show Washateria. Fadul is a member of the leadership circle of the Center for Performance and Civic Practice, the Drama League board of directors, and the Latinx Theatre Commons advisory committee. In 2020, she was the recipient of New York Stage and Film’s Pfaelzer Award. Fadul is a New Georges Affiliated Artist and is a co-producer on the upcoming world premiere of Raquel Almazan’s La Paloma Prisoner. She is a graduate of Vassar College, the place she co-founded Idlewild Theatre Ensemble to create and uplift work by girls and femme-aligning artists.
Gillis is a Nova Scotia native who beforehand served as EST’s affiliate creative director beneath the management of William Carden, taking on as interim creative director after Carden’s retirement. With RJ Tolan, Gillis leads the award-winning EST/Youngblood playwrights group (of which he’s an alum), fostering dozens of early-career playwrights every year. He additionally leads the EST/Sloan undertaking with Linsay Firman to foster new performs about science and expertise. As a playwright, Gillis has labored with Rattlestick Theater, Cherry Lane Theatre, and the Williamstown Theatre Festival, amongst others, and his performs have been revealed by Dramatists Play Service and Applause Books. Gillis teaches Downstage, a manufacturing convention that sees college students creating their very own theatre firm, at Sarah Lawrence College. He is a graduate of the University of King’s College and the New School and is a lifelong member of the Actors Studio.
Ensemble Studio Theatre’s mission is to develop and produce authentic, provocative, and genuine new work. The theatre is thought for its biennial Marathon of One-Act Plays, a vital a part of the New York theatre scene because it launched in 1977. As of 2021, EST had a price range of roughly $710,000.
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