The Board of Directors

A Bi-monthly interview series with the world’s leading theatre directors, exploring how they navigate their artistry both inside and outside the rehearsal room, creating an international platform for dialogue on directing practice, leadership, and the evolving role of the director in contemporary theatre, expanding access to professional knowledge-sharing, and fostering community among emerging and established directors worldwide.

The Board of Directors is a arts podcast hosted by Adam Marple, with 32 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80.

Adam Marple hosts The Board of Directors, a arts show with 32 episodes published.

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  Episode #27

  BoD Episode 27: Benita de Wit

  Sep 28, 20261h 14mS2

  Benita de Wit (they/them) is an Australian director based in New York. Recently, they were a Mercury Store lead artist and directed Life Sucks by Aaron Posner at Oklahoma City Rep. Benita is an SDC Member, a Barbara Whitman Award 2024 Finalist, and a New Georges-affiliated artist. They have developed new work at Clubbed Thumb, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Mercury Store, Powerhouse Theatre, Gingold Theatrical Group, Exquisite Corpse Company, Dartmouth College, and Playwrights Horizons Theater School. Benita has an MFA in Directing from Columbia University and is on the faculty at Circle in the Square Theatre School. As an Associate Director, their credits include Jamie Lloyd’s Sunset Blvd starring Nicole Scherzinger (Broadway), SIX The Musical (Broadway), Black Swan (A.R.T), Bat Out of Hell (US & UK Tours), and Straight Line Crazy (The Shed) starring Ralph Fiennes as Robert Moses. Directing credits include Creature/Comfort (Exponential Festival), The Shark Is Broken (Weathervane Theatre), Small Mouth Sounds (Circle in the Square Theatre School), The Moors (Theatre Row), Tartuffe (Pace University), Slaughterhouse (Belvoir St Theatre), Razorhurst (Hayes Theatre Co), and Salty (Access Theatre). Connect with us This monthly gathering invites directors and other theatre makers to come together, share experiences, and seek advice in a supportive community. There is often an isolating nature to directing, and this new space aims to foster connection and collaboration. The Board of Directors is an opportunity to set aside time each month to be alongside members of the Directing community all over the world.  Support the show To submit a question: Voice- https://www.speakpipe.com/TheBoardofDirectors Email- adam@boardofdirectors.world Show Credits Host: Adam Marple Music: https://www.purple-planet.com/home

  ListenShow Notes
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  Episode #26

  BoD Episode 26: Saheem Ali

  Sep 14, 20261h 4mS2

  Saheem is a proud immigrant from Kenya, currently serving as the Associate Artistic Director/ Resident Director of New York’s Public Theater. He is a Tony Award nominee for Buena Vista Social Club and Fat Ham , the latter of which also earned the Joe A. Callaway Award, Drama Desk and Lucille Lortel nominations. His Shakespeare in the Park productions of Romeo & Juliet, Twelfth Night and Merry Wives were recorded for PBS Great Performances, and were the subject of the HBO documentary Reopening Night . Other productions include Goddess , Good Bones , Fires in the Mirror (Signature Theatre), The Rolling Stone (Lincoln Center Theater), Passage (Soho Rep) and Sugar in Our Wounds (MTC). He is the recipient of an Obie Award for Sustained Excellence in Directing, a Sir John Gielgud SDCF Fellow and a Shubert Fellow. MFA: Columbia University Connect with us This monthly gathering invites directors and other theatre makers to come together, share experiences, and seek advice in a supportive community. There is often an isolating nature to directing, and this new space aims to foster connection and collaboration. The Board of Directors is an opportunity to set aside time each month to be alongside members of the Directing community all over the world.  Support the show To submit a question: Voice- https://www.speakpipe.com/TheBoardofDirectors Email- adam@boardofdirectors.world Show Credits Host: Adam Marple Music: https://www.purple-planet.com/home

  ListenShow Notes
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  Episode #25

  BoD Episode 25: Nambi E Kelley

  Aug 31, 20261h 4mS2

  Nambi E. Kelley is an award-winning actor, playwright, and television writer-producer whose work bridges history, politics, and intimate human storytelling. As an actor , she has performed regionally, internationally, and on television, including productions playing opposite greats such as Phylicia Rashad and Alfre Woodard, multiple productions at Goodman Theatre and Steppenwolf Theatre Company, with select television appearances on Chicago Med, Elementary , Person of Interest , Madam Secretar y, Chicago P.D ., and Chicago Justice . Recent stage credits include Goodman Theatre's critically acclaimed Joe Turner's Come & Gone , MacArthur Genius Dominique Morisseau’s Pipeline , and off-Broadway in Jeff Sweet’s Kunstler. Nambi has been nominated for multiple acting awards, including Chicago's prestigious Jeff Award and multiple Broadway World Awards, winning a Black Theatre Alliance Award for Best Lead Actor for her role in Coffee Will Make You Black (City Lit Theatre). As a writer , Kelley has written and produced for television on shows such as Peacock's Bel-Air and Apple's Lady in the Lak e, earning a Black Reel Award nomination for her work on the latter. She also served as a writer on Lena Waithe's The Chi and Fox's Our Kind of Peopl e. Her acclaimed stage adaptation of Native Son received productions nationwide, including at Yale Repertory Theatre and in New York with The Acting Company, earning an AUDELCO Award for Best Production and a Drama League nomination for Best Revival. Personally selected by Toni Morrison to adapt Jazz , Kelley continues to develop bold new theatrical work, including Broadway-aimed projects with Tony Award winners Ruben Santiago-Hudson and Ken Davenport, and Grammy Award-winning DJ duo Future Cut with Emily Phillips. Most recently, Kelley developed a television project with political icon Stacey Abrams and is currently developing a project with Grammy Award-winning rapper Nas and Oscar and MacArthur Genius Award winner Tarell Alvin McCraney for Lionsgate and Disney Entertainment Television’s Onyx Collective/Hulu (TBA). As a producer , in addition to television work, Kelley founded First Woman LLC, a family-centered production company creating work across film, television, and theatre. First Woman produced the internationally award-winning film adaptation of Jabari Dreams of Freedom , which also toured nationally as a play after premiering at New Victory Theater in New York City. The company has produced 4 national tours and is currently in pre-production for its upcoming 2026–27 touring season, including a run at the world-famous Apollo Theatre in New York (TBA). Kelley holds a B.F.A. from The Theatre School at DePaul University and an M.F.A. in Interdisciplinary Arts from Goddard College. Connect with us This monthly gathering invites directors and other theatre makers to come together, share experiences, and seek advice in a supportive community. There is often an isolating nature to directing, and this new space aims to foster connection and collaboration. The Board of Directors is an opportunity to set aside time each month to be alongside members of the Directing community all over the world.  Support the show To submit a question: Voice- https://www.speakpipe.com/TheBoardofDirectors Email- adam@boardofdirectors.world Show Credits Host: Adam Marple Music: https://www.purple-planet.com/home

  ListenShow Notes
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  Episode #24

  BoD Episode 24: Copeland Woodruff

  Aug 17, 20261h 22mS2

  Copeland Woodruff is currently the Mary and Michael Jaharis Director of Opera Studies at Lawrence University, Conservatory of Music. He has been on the directing and production staffs of the New York City Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Chautauqua Opera, Michigan Opera Theatre, Yale Opera, Atlantic Coast Opera Festival (NJ), and Opera North (Philadelphia and New Hampshire). He has been on the faculties of the Juilliard School, Oberlin Conservatory, Academy of Vocal Arts, Temple University, University of Memphis, Universität Bamberg, the Harrower Opera Workshop, Red River Lyric Opera, La musica lirica (Italy), and Festival of International Opera of the Americas (Brazil). Copeland is highly sought after as a teacher of the singing actor and has directed 100+ productions, including the 2013 world premiere of the musical Raise the Red Lantern at the Tianqiao Theatre in Beijing, China. Since 2006, his productions have earned seventeen National Opera Association Best Opera Production Awards (including nine first-place awards) and nine awards in The American Prize (including two first-place awards), among other recognition and citations. He is the first recipient of the Charles Nelson Reilly Prize in Directing from The American Prize (2018). He was recently recognized as an Honored Artist of the American Prize (2023), which is awarded to those who have proven themselves to be of "sustained excellence" over a number of seasons as laureates of The American Prize competitions. He has enjoyed an extended relationship with Boston Conservatory’s Ensemble-in-Residence, Guerilla Opera. In addition to having served on their advisory board, he has directed three productions for the company, one of which (Rojahn’s Heart of a Dog ) earned Second Prize in the American Prize for Opera Performance competition, professional division. Heart of a Dog was a favorite at the Opera America convention in May 2011 and its sold-out, two-week run in Boston garnered such reviews as: “…a brilliant stroke of staging” and “…stunning” (Boston Musical Intelligencer); “brilliantly physicalized in this extraordinarily well-acted production” and “a prime and rare example of opera properly compounded with theater” (Boston Lowbrow). Copeland is a proud member of the American Guild of Musical Artists (AGMA). He has a Bachelor's and a Master's degree in Vocal Performance (USC); M.F.A. studies in Theatrical Design (Lighting; USC); and a Master's in Stage Direction in Opera (Indiana University). He has also been lucky enough to assist Anne Bogart and the SITI Company, as well as train with them. https://www.lawrence.edu/people/copeland-woodruff-mary-and-michael-jaharis-director-of-opera-studies-and-associate-professor-of-music Connect with us This monthly gathering invites directors and other theatre makers to come together, share experiences, and seek advice in a supportive community. There is often an isolating nature to directing, and this new space aims to foster connection and collaboration. The Board of Directors is an opportunity to set aside time each month to be alongside members of the Directing community all over the world.  Support the show To submit a question: Voice- https://www.speakpipe.com/TheBoardofDirectors Email- adam@boardofdirectors.world Show Credits Host: Adam Marple Music: https://www.purple-planet.com/home

  ListenShow Notes
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  Episode #23

  BoD Episode 23: Natalie Hennedige

  Aug 3, 20261h 21mS2

  Natalie Hennedige is the founder and artistic director of CAKE, a Singapore-based performance company creating interdisciplinary works across diverse spaces. At the core of CAKE’s methodology is a commitment to interdisciplinarity and collaboration. The company works across theatre, dance, music, visual arts, film, and multimedia to generate hybrid forms that resist categorisation. This is embodied in long-running platforms such as Jamming Space and Running with Strippers , which function as exploratory frameworks for artistic exchange, experimentation, and the development of new performance vocabularies. A director and writer, Natalie works with performers and artists across disciplines and cultural contexts, shaping highly constructed, heightened worlds that interrogate complex states. She is the recipient of the National Arts Council Young Artist Award and the JCCI Singapore Foundation Culture Award. Most recently, she served as Festival Director of the Singapore International Festival of Arts (2022–2025). https://www.caketheatre.co/ Connect with us This monthly gathering invites directors and other theatre makers to come together, share experiences, and seek advice in a supportive community. There is often an isolating nature to directing, and this new space aims to foster connection and collaboration. The Board of Directors is an opportunity to set aside time each month to be alongside members of the Directing community all over the world.  Support the show To submit a question: Voice- https://www.speakpipe.com/TheBoardofDirectors Email- adam@boardofdirectors.world Show Credits Host: Adam Marple Music: https://www.purple-planet.com/home

  ListenShow Notes

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