In 2024, a record number of female directors received Tony nominations. And all but two of those Tony nominated directors have worked with the groundbreaking theater company WP Theater.
For 47 years WP Theater has collaborated with every notable female theater creator including Rachel Chavkin, Lynn Nottage, Theresa Rebeck, Pam MacKinnon, Dominique Morisseau, Diane Paulus, Eboni Booth, Whitney White, Danya Taymor, Leigh Silverman, Anne Kauffman, Lila Neugebauer, Jackson Gay, Lee Sunday Evans and Martyna Majok.
In fact, the company continues to be devoted to emerging talents. “If you’ve seen a play at WP in the last ten years, you’ve likely seen a future Pulitzer Prize winner, a future Tony Winner, a future Emmy winner, and beyond. We give artists their first big opportunity, and then do our best to launch them into the heights,” says producing artistic director Lisa McNulty. “In these risk-averse times in the arts, we are proud risk-takers.”
Founded in 1978 by Julia Miles, WP Theater is the oldest and largest theater company in the United States devoted to women+ artists. Under the leadership of producing artistic director Lisa McNulty they work to develop, produce and promote their work at all stages of their careers.
McNulty, who has been at the helm of WP theater for a decade describes herself as a “truffle pig” sniffing out gems, especially from voices that have been marginalized. “I love plays, and I love artists—they feel like magicians to me,” says McNulty who insists that she doesn’t have the ability to write plays.
“I feel gobsmacked every day that my job is to go find great plays by artists who can and to put them onstage,” she says. “And that thrill runs even deeper when you know that you’re fostering work by artists who may not be given a chance elsewhere. I get to show our audiences the brilliance of these stories and these creators.”
In a full circle moment McNulty began her professional career at WP Theater. Her first paying job in the theater industry was as WP’s literary manager in 1997 working with Miles. The experience was transforming, At that point in her life McNulty was at an impasse in her professional life.
“A theater I had founded with friends had closed, and I had taken an internship at a regional theater to give myself something approaching a professional credit,” says McNulty. “The fact that Julia took a chance on me, at a time when no one else would, meant everything to me then and now. “ In fact, now she tries to be that same person for people that Miles was for her.
Working at WP Theater during the start of her career provided McNulty with a roadmap of at she hoped her professional life would be. “I wanted my work to matter, to mean more than any one individual project,” says McNulty. “If this doesn’t sound too crazy, that job taught me that theater can change the world.”
Jeryl Brunner: How has being at WP Theater changed you?
Lisa McNulty: When I was simply a producer, I used to feel that my work was most successful when it was most invisible. But after years of telling the artists in my care that it’s important for them to take up space, I’ve finally learned that lesson too. It was a tough one for me.
Brunner: It’s hard for so many theater companies to stay afloat, especially post pandemic. Why do you believe WP Theater has been able to thrive?
McNulty: I believe we’ve been able to persevere because we’re so clear about what we do and why we do it—we exist to support Women+ theater artists, and to tell their stories onstage. It just makes it so easy to talk to folks about our work and bring folks along for the ride. Also, we have a track record of producing the most brilliant new artists, who just happen to be Women+.
Brunner: So many people dream to create but don’t feel they have the resources or courage, what would you advise?
McNulty: If you’re drawn to express yourself artistically, get in there and do it! You don’t need anyone else’s validation, or even money. A pen and paper are cheap! If you want to write, you just need to start doing it and keep at it. If you write every day, you’ll learn about your own voice, and you’ll get better. I also really recommend getting together with other folks you like who also are wanting to express themselves creatively. Buy a six pack of your favorite beverage and get together regularly to share feedback about your work. You don’t need anyone’s permission or validation, just do it.
Brunner: Your most recent production was Mathilde Dratwa’s funny and heartbreaking play, Dirty Laundry. What inspired you to take it on?
McNulty: I’m always most excited by work that shows me the world in a new way, and Mathilde’s play was an eye into grief that I’d never seen before. Mathilde was able to take her personal experience of her mother’s death, and her discovery of her father’s betrayal, and turn it into the funniest, most theatrical, and moving evenings of theater I’ve seen in a long while. Mathilde took a time of conflict in her life and turned the warring voices in her head into actual humans with differing points of view about what she was going through, and even while she was so angry, she was able to build characters that we love because of their frailties, not despite them. It feels like magic to me.