This season on Broadway, it’s women who are running the show. Out of the 38 shows opening in 2023–24, 16 are directed by women, which is very close to equal with male directors. That's also the highest number of female directors that have ever opened a show on Broadway in a single season. Granted, the news isn’t all positive in the area of representation. Of 38 shows, seven plays were written by women, six musicals featured female book writers, four musicals were composed by women, and five had female lyricists. As these smaller numbers show, the theatre industry has a long way to go towards equal representation. Luckily, there are artists pushing for parity.

In honor of Women’s History Month, Playbill wanted to celebrate this historic season on Broadway for female directors. We gathered four women who are leaders in their own shows for a special roundtable conversation: Amber Iman, who is starring in Lempicka and is also the co-founder of Black Women on Broadway and the Broadway Advocacy Coalition; Hell's Kitchen choreographer Camille A. Brown who also runs her own dance company, Camille A. Brown & Dancers; Water for Elephants director Jessica Stone (whose Kimberly Akimbo is also currently running on Broadway); and playwright Heidi Schreck, who is adapting Uncle Vanya and whose play What the Constitution Means to Me is the most-produced play in America this season. 

In the wide-ranging and honest discussion, they discussed their career progression and how they learned to trust their own voices, despite those who doubted them. Watch their conversations in the video above.