New York’s Ensemble Studio Theatre Names Estefanía Fadul And Graeme Gillis As Co-Artistic Directors

EXCLUSIVE: Ensemble Studio Theatre, one of New York’s premiere Off Broadway venues perhaps best known for its annual Marathon of One-Act Plays, announced today that Estefanía Fadul and Graeme Gillis have been appointed the new Co-Artistic Directors of the 55-year-old theater company.

Gillis, who has been serving as Interim Artistic Director since William Carden retired in 2022 and is a long-time member of EST, will begin planning the 2023/2024 season with director/producer Fadul who will officially join the company in March.

Over the past five decades, EST has developed thousands of new American plays and has grown into a company of over 600 actors, directors, playwrights, and designers. EST was founded and led by Curt Dempster beginning in 1968; he was succeeded as Artistic Director by William Carden in 2007. Fadul and Gillis mark the first co-leadership structure for the company.

EST’s current season kicked off in the fall with the 38th Marathon of One-Act Plays which has been a landmark New York theatre festival since 1977. The spring season will continue with a soon-to-be-announced production from the EST/Sloan Project in late March, along with the First Light Festival, an annual festival of readings and workshops developing plays about science and technology, and the continuation of Youngblood’s Sunday Brunch series, a monthly collection of fully produced new short plays from EST’s collective of emerging professional playwrights.

Fadul is a Colombian-born, New Hampshire-raised, NYC-based director and creative producer whose recent directing includes the world premieres of Eva Luna adapted by Caridad Svich from the novel by Isabel Allende (Repertorio Español), The Garbologists by Lindsay Joelle (Philadelphia Theatre Company), and others.

Gillis is from Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. First hired at Ensemble Studio Theatre by founder Curt Dempster, he’s served in many roles, most recently as Interim Artistic Director during the theatre’s leadership transition, and before that as Associate Artistic Director under William Carden.

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