Bonnie Comley is the President of the Board of Directors of The Drama League, a mentoring organization for early-career theater directors. Bringing awareness of the history and the mission of The Drama League to the Broadway community may be Bonnie Comley’s superpower. In his acceptance speech at The Drama League Awards at the Ziegfeld Ballroom, Lin Manuel Miranda told the audience that he wrote several of his Broadway shows in the basement of The Drama Book Shop (which he rescued in the pandemic and now owns) and which was founded by The Drama League. Many in the audience were surprised to learn that The Drama League founded The Drama Book Shop in 1917.
When Hugh Jackman accepted his Drama League Award, he thanked Comley personally in front of the 700 members of the Broadway community in attendance. He praised Comley, her board members, and the staff of The Drama League for their efforts in guiding directors, providing professional opportunities, and introducing them to industry leaders. Many in the audience were surprised to learn that since Comley joined the Board in 2009, alums of The Drama League Directors Project have directed at least thirty percent of all Broadway shows.
Although Bonnie Comley cannot be credited with all of the success of the Drama League, she certainly can be recognized for shining a bright light on the organization and its additive value to the greater theater community. The Drama League is over 100 years old; its mission is to advance the American theater by providing a lifelong artistic home for directors and a platform for dialogue with audiences. The diverse pool of directing talent that has come through the doors and entered the world’s stages has been instrumental in changing the face of who makes theater and who buys the tickets to theater. In the theater business, expanding the fanbase is increasingly essential. Throwing a wider net for diverse audiences increases the theater industry’s sustainability, and Comley believes the best way to do this is to start with the directors.
Lin Manuel Miranda & Bonnie Comley. © Eugene Gologursky
“Directors are at the helm of every show. When you hire traditionally underrepresented directors, they hire more diverse teams of creatives for the show. Even a 400-year-old Shakespeare play becomes a different experience in the theater with a group of different storytellers,” Comley claims. “When the industry complains that there are no women or people of color that have directing experience, we can point to the hundreds of directors that have come through The Drama League Directors Project program,” she continues. The Drama League Director Project was created in 1984 and now has over 400 alums across the globe working on Broadway and off-Broadway, as Artistic Directors and heads of college theater departments. The Directors Project alums go on not only to work in theater but film and tv as well.
Comley has hosted intimate gatherings for the incoming Drama League Directors Project Fellows for the past decade. These lunches and dinners allow the directors to meet producers and ask candid questions about hiring practices, working in the theater, and expectations -no topic is off limits. The producers aren’t necessarily looking to employ those directors immediately, but it gives a sense of the caliber of talent and backgrounds of the fellows entering the Drama League’s initiatives.
Comley has been a Drama League Board Member since 2009, then served as Vice President from 2017 until 2021, when she was elected President. She has been a chair of the awards or the gala since joining, helping to raise millions of dollars to support the organization’s programs. But the difference between Comley and her predecessors has been her focus on pulling in leaders from the Broadway industry as board members, committee members, or advisors. Leveraging her twenty-five-plus years as a commercial producer on Broadway and her experience as CEO of BroadwayHD, the streaming service she created to make Broadway accessible to online viewers, she has raised awareness and allies to champion the constant flow of directors. “Broadway producers have always understood the importance of great stage directors, but it is only recently that they realized that The Drama League is the one-stop shop that has an ongoing relationship with these directors,” Comley explains. She continues,” it is in the best interest of Broadway producers to support and nurture The Drama League Directors Project. The Drama League is providing a much-needed service.”
The Drama League is a non-profit organization supported by foundation grants, donations from industry professionals, and memberships. The Drama League offers several different pricing tiers of memberships, from a basic level to a voting level to a white glove concierge service. Higher-level memberships offer discounts to exclusive theater insider events and access to the best seats to Broadway and off-Broadway shows. The voting level is the most attractive for industry professionals and active theatergoers. The voting membership allows members to vote for the Annual Drama League Awards and receive newsletters of upcoming events. Voting membership also allows international and geographically remote members a chance to have a voice in the selection of winners and therefore have a role in shaping the greater theater community.
Bonnie Comley is on a mission to entertain, educate, inspire, and create a sustainable theater industry. Her relationship with Gabriel Stelian Shanks, who has been the Artistic Director of The Drama League for the past 22 years, and Bevin Ross, who has been Executive Director since 2019, works very well. Together they have increased membership, donations, and awareness. Comley is only halfway through her four-year term as Board President, so she has another couple of years to remain the reigning Queen of The Drama League.
To learn more about The Drama League, see DramaLeague.org.
