“When I moved to NYC, the WP Directors Lab was the first group that would have me.   A few years later I was lucky enough to direct SMUDGE.  Again, allowed to be fierce and committed but this time in production.  Hats off, WP!”
– Pam MacKinnon, WP Directors Lab Alum, Tony Award-Winning Artistic Director of ACT

WP’s Directors Lab is the oldest director’s group in New York City and has served over 225 members since it was founded in 1983 as the Directors Forum. The Lab allows members to network and discuss directorial techniques and trends in the field, while creating collaborative relationships with members of the Playwrights and Producers Labs.

Jordana De La Cruz

Jordana De La Cruz (she/they) is a Brooklyn-based stage director, curator, creative producer, and co-conspirator in the movement to spread Black & Brown joy. She concentrates on new work that questions what it means to be free and, more urgently, how we are helping each other achieve this freedom. Their practice aims to expand the concept of community and serve as inspiration for action, whether it be protest, rest as resistance, or artistic creation. Jordana is also the Co-Director of JACK, an award winning Brooklyn performance meets civic space, whose mission is to fuel experiments in arts and activism with adventurous artists and neighbors. She has served as a visiting faculty member at Fordham University and held producing, curating, and directing positions at Park Avenue Armory, INTAR Theatre, 52nd Street Project, Story Pirates, Young Jean Lee’s Theater Company, Lark Play Development Center, Japan Society, Iati Theater, La Mama Experimental Group, and The New School.

Onyekachi Iwu

Onyekachi Iwu is a Nigerian-American director and playwright from Nashville, TN. Drawing from her Southern and Nigerian roots, Iwu’s work explores themes of love, sisterhood, violence, and transformation. Iwu’s most recent directing credits include: Assistant Director for Stereophonic, directed by Daniel Aukin at Playwrights Horizons. Assistant Director for The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window, directed by Anne Kauffman at Brooklyn Academy of Music and on Broadway. As a playwright, Iwu was an inaugural member of the American Theatre Group Playlab. She was a finalist for UCROSS +The Blank Theatre’s 2022 Future of Playwriting Prize, 2021 Crossroads Diverse Voices Playwriting Initiative, and the 2020 Leah Ryan Fund for Emerging Women Writers. Her short play, Georgia Rose, was published in an anthology by Concord Theatricals in 2023.

Julia Sirna-Frest

Julia Sirna-Frest (she/her) is a performer, composer, director and teaching artist. She has performed at WP Theater (!), The Kitchen, NYTW, BAC, The Incubator, Hartford Stage, Wild Project, The Brooklyn Museum, La MaMa, Abrons Art Center, The New Museum, Mass MoCA, PS 122, Joe’s Pub, The Bushwick Starr and New Dramatists. Directing collaborations with playwright Zoë Geltman: Puffy Hair (The Tank), Sea Fraud (Dixon Place, The Brick), Lolly, Lolly, Lolly (Development at NACL, The Bushwick Starr and New Georges). As a founding member of the Obie winning theater company Half Straddle she has toured to France, Croatia, Portland and Philadelphia with Seagull (thinking of you), In the Pony Palace/Football and Ghost Rings. She composes with Shane Chapman and their work has been at Target Margin, Ars Nova, The Exponential Festival and The Fisher Center. Their first album will be released Jan 2023. She co-fronts Doll Parts, a Dolly Parton Cover Band.

Dina Vovsi

Dina Vovsi (she/her) is a New York-based director and theatermaker. Recent projects include EXITS, an audio-theatrical journey through Fort Greene, supported by New Georges and the Brooklyn Arts Council, and Love is… [Kocham Cię], a 2022 Brooklyn Arts Council SU-CASA collaboration with Pete McGuinness Senior Center. She has directed and developed new work with The Civilians, New Georges, Working Theater, Cape Cod Theatre Project, and more. Dina is a member of the 2022-23 Roundabout Directors Group, a New Georges Affiliated Artist and a Working Theater 5 Boroughs 1 City Initiative commission recipient. She was a 2021 Brooklyn Arts Council Grantee, a Robert Moss Directing Fellow at Playwrights Horizons, a member of The Civilians’ R&D Group, the recipient of an SDC Foundation Observership, a member of the Lincoln Center Directors’ Lab, and a Mass MoCA Assets for Artists Grantee. As an associate/assistant director, Dina has worked on Broadway, off-Broadway, and regionally with Roundabout, Playwrights Horizons, Spoleto Festival USA, WP Theater, Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival, Ma-Yi, and more. www.dinavovsi.com

Ran Xia

Ran Xia (she/her) is a Shanghai-born, Brooklyn-based Playwright/Director/Audiogremlin. Beatrice Terry Resident at the Drama League (2021/22); Resident Director at the Tank where she directed and composed for the film adaptation of Prometheus Bound (inaugural Artist of the Year 2019, In Blue, Tallest Man in the World, etc.); Guest director ar Barnard (Orlando, fall 2021), Montclair State (Randi & Roxanne), Commissioned playwright at Vanderbilt University (To Stab a Butterfly Through the Heart); Usual suspect at Exquisite Corpse Co (Sound Design for the NYT critics’ pick Zoetrope, audio installation for Memory House, and many more); audio producer at Black Revolutionary Media. Playwright/Director for the theatrical portion of Risa Puno’s The Privilege of Escape with Creative Time. She’s also recently sound designer for productions at LIU Brooklyn, John Jay College, Theater Lab, and more. Chava the Giant and the Oldest Bird at Rattlestick Global Form Festival. ranxia.info | thearcticgroup.org/echo