FOR EXCELLENCE IN DIRECTION OF MEXODUS AT AUDIBLE’S MINETTA LANE THEATRE

Photo by: Ben Krantz

About David Mendizábal

David Mendizábal is a Helen Hayes and Lucille Lortel Award-winning director, designer, and the Associate Artistic Director / Director of In Dialogue at Berkeley Repertory Theatre. They serve as one of the Producing Artistic Leaders of the Obie Award-winning The Movement Theatre Company and is a founding collective member of the Obie Award-winning Sol Project. Select directing credits include In the Heights (NY City Center), Mexodus (Audible/P3), The Cook (Berkeley Rep), All My Sons (Berkeley Rep), Don’t Eat the Mangos (Huntington Theatre), the bandaged place (Roundabout), and Notes on Killing… (Soho Rep). David is the recipient of a Princess Grace Award Honoraria. They are an alum of Soho Rep Project Number One, Ars Nova Vision Residency, Drama League Directors Project, Labyrinth Intensive Ensemble, Lincoln Center Theatre Directors Lab, TCG Leadership U, and art Equity. B.F.A. – NYU Tisch School of the Arts at Playwrights Horizons Theatre School. @its_daveed | davidmendizabal.com

Photo by: Susan Lapides

DIANE PAULUS

for excellence in direction of Masquerade

Diane Paulus is the Terrie and Bradley Bloom Artistic Director of the American Repertory Theater and a Professor of the Practice of Theater at Harvard University. Broadway: Rhinoceros (upcoming); 1776; Jagged Little Pill; Waitress; Pippin (Tony Awards for Best Revival and Best Director); Finding Neverland; The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess (Tony Award for Best Revival, NAACP Award for Best Direction), all of which originated at the A.R.T.; and The Public Theater’s HAIR (Tony Award for Best Revival). Select other work includes Masquerade, an immersive reimagining of Phantom of the Opera (Drama Desk Special Award for Overall Excellence); N/A (Lincoln Center); Gloria: A Life; In the Body of the World (A.R.T./Off -Broadway); Romeo and Juliet; Becoming a Man; The White Card (A.R.T.); The Donkey Show; and Cirque du Soleil’s Amaluna. Her work as an opera director includes the world premieres of The Monkey King by Huang Ruo and David Henry Hwang (San Francisco Opera), Crossing by Matt Aucoin (A.R.T. and BAM Howard Gilman Opera House), Death and the Powers by Tod Machover (L’Opéra de Monte-Carlo), and productions of Carmen (Glyndebourne Festival), The Magic Flute (Canadian Opera Company), Olga Neuwirth’s Lost Highway (ENO and the Young Vic), and the complete Monteverdi cycle and Mozart–Da Ponte trilogy for Chicago Opera Theater with conductor Jane Glover. She was selected for Boston magazine’s 2026 list of Boston’s most influential people; the 2014 Time 100, Time magazine’s annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world; and Variety’s “Trailblazing Women in Entertainment for 2014.” In 2025 she was inducted as a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In May 2027 she will direct the inaugural production at the David E. and Stacey L. Goel Center for Creativity & Performance at Harvard University, the new home of the A.R.T.: Life on Mars, a world-premiere production featuring the music of David Bowie. 

Photo By: Curtis Brown

JOSH RHODES

for excellence in choreography of Beau the Musical at St. Luke’s Theatre

Josh Rhodes is a director and choreographer whose work spans Broadway, the West End, and the nation’s leading regional theaters. Most recently, Josh directed the Broadway revival of Spamalot (now on tour) and the award-winning Off-Broadway hit Beau. He is a frequent collaborator at New York City Center Encores! (Dear World, Grand Hotel, Mack & Mabel) and The Old Globe, where he premiered the new musical Regency Girls.  Josh’s choreography has defined the staging of Broadway’s Cinderella, Bright Star, It Should Have Been You, and First Date, as well as high-profile London productions of Sweeney Todd and Carousel. From the grand stage of The Muny to the immersive spaces of Off-Broadway, Josh continues to create vibrant, story-driven theatre across the globe.

Photo by: Austin Ruffer

LEIGH SILVERMAN

for excellence in direction of The Unknown at Studio Seaview

Leigh Silverman received Tony nominations for her direction of the musicals Suffs and Violet and received a 2011 Obie Award and 2019 Obie for Sustained Excellence. Broadway credits include: Yellow Face (Roundabout); Suffs (Tony nomination); Grand Horizons; The Lifespan of a Fact; Violet (Tony nomination); Chinglish; Well. Recent Off-Broadway: The Unknown (Studio Seaview), The Seat of Our Pants (Drama League and Drama Desk nom; Public Theater); Harry Clarke (West End; Berkeley Rep; Vineyard Theatre/Audible, Minetta Lane; Lortel nom), Merry Me (NYTW); Hurricane Diane (NYTW). Encores!: Violet; The Wild Party; others. Audible: Harry Clarke; Yellow Face, and Dykes to Watch Out For. Upcoming projects include the new musical, Particle Fever (La Jolla Playhouse).