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NDT (New Directions
Theater) began life as a collective of actors, directors, and writers under the aegis of Interborough Repertory Theatre and
was one of the longest-running companies of its kind in New York theater, producing such memorable productions as the New
York premiere of Michael Weller's Ghost on Fire, the first New York revival of Don Rifkin's acclaimed The Delusion
of Angels, and the world premieres of John Attanas's Hermione:Tales of Sexual Frustration and Richard Willett's
The Godsend, which won New Directions an OOBR as one of the outstanding productions of its season. The team
of director Eliza Beckwith and playwright Richard Willett burst on the scene with the critically acclaimed Triptych
(1999), which sold out its first run and came back for another (2000). The company followed Triptych with highly
praised productions of Olga Humphrey's F-Stop (2000) and Richard Willett's Random Harvest (2001). In
2003, NDT premiered Richard Willett's The Flid Show starring able-bodied television star Laurence Lau in the role
of a nightclub singer born without arms as a result of the drug thalidomide. In 2005, fortuitous circumstances allowed
NDT to stage a slightly rewritten version of the play starring Mat Fraser, an actual thalidomide survivor from England. Frustrated
by the lack of press coverage for the superb Laurence Lau production, the company more than made up for it when the new
Flid Show and Mat Fraser became the talk of the town. NDT has also recently produced two student workshops on
college campuses -- The Flid Show was developed at Alfred University in New York, and 9/10 was
workshopped at Prince George's Community College in Maryland -- and Eliza and Richard both hope to continue this work with
students.
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Eliza Beckwith has been busy recently directing developmental readings of new plays and directing The Night They Lit
Up Wrigley for Upstate Productions at the Church Performance Space in Mt. Vision, New York, to coincide with Induction
Weekend at the Baseball Hall of Fame in nearby Cooperstown. She directed four plays in Ensemble Studio Theatre's Marathon
of One-Act Plays (The Once Attractive Woman by Christine Farrell, Little Airplanes of the Heart by Steve
Feffer, Ukimwi by Tom Coash, The Moon Bath Girl by Graeme Gillis). In 2012 Eliza directed the world premiere
of Tiny Bubbles by Richard Willett for New Directions Theater. Also with NDT: The Delusion of Angels by
Don Rifkin; Cute Lonely Guys Looking for You by John Attanas; Anapest by Lee Wochner; F-Stop by
Olga Humphrey; and Hot Air, Triptych, Random Harvest, and the critically acclaimed The
Flid Show all by Mr. Willett. Other NYC credits: Anchors by Tony Zertuche (Living Image) at the Kirk Theatre;
Cabaret: Evangelia Kingsley's Never Say Never, Dance Me to the End of Love, Places to Live: Traveling Music for
the Restless (The Metropolitan Room/Don't Tell Mama). Eliza has also directed Blithe Spirit by Noel Coward
and Death to the Book Club by Olga Humphrey at Alfred University, her alma mater, where she has been a visiting professor,
and 9/10 by Richard Willett at Prince Georges' Community College. She began her New York theater career backstage
with the original production of Little Shop of Horrors, where she was the wardrobe mistress and "Stage Right
Finale Plant," has also worked as a professional chef, and runs the Trophy Committee for the National Horse Show. In addition to being the co-artistic director of NDT (with Mr. Willett), Eliza is a
proud member of Ensemble Studio Theatre and SDC, the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society, a theatrical union.
Richard Willett is the author of the plays Triptych, Random Harvest, The
Flid Show, and Tiny Bubbles, which have been presented off-off-Broadway and at theaters across
the country. Honors include an Edward F. Albee Foundation Fellowship; a Tennessee Williams Scholarship; grants from the
Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the Arch and Bruce Brown Foundation, and the New York State Council on the Arts, among others;
and placement twice in the Top 50 of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' Nicholl Fellowships competition
and as a finalist for the Sundance Screenwriters and Episodic Labs. He was also a finalist for the Cynosure Diversity
Screenwriting Awards, the Stage 32 Diverse Voices Springboard, and won the Lonely Seal Film Festival award for the best script
with a disabled lead character. His plays Triptych, 2B, and The Flid Show have
all been published by United Stages, and his newest play, A Terminal Event, the winner of a Julie
Harris Playwright Award and a finalist for the Woodward/Newman Drama Award, received its world premiere in June 2022
at the Victory Theatre in Los Angeles. Richard is currently developing a one-woman show about Ingrid Bergman with
actress Annemette Andersen and director Henning Hegland in New York, London, and Copenhagen.
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