The fellowship will fund the development of a new work by a female writer-director. It will culminate in a writing residency, a living stipend and a professional reading of the new work at The Drama League Theater Center.

The fellowship is the first of its kind in the nation and is named in honor of the late director Beatrice Terry, an alumna of The Drama League Directors Project. Terry worked as an associate/assistant director on Broadway; her credits included Spring Awakening, Memphis, La Bete, Leap of Faith and God of Carnage.

She helmed several shows in New York, including The Germ Project with New Georges and Lesbian Pulp-O-Rama! She was the author of several plays and musicals for children, as well as the adult satires Ronbenet and Over a Barrel.

"The loss of Beatrice Terry to the theater community is incalculable," Drama League artistic director Roger T. Danforth said in a statement. "Her breadth of talent and creative imagination are sorely missed. Thankfully, Michael and Bea's partner, the playwright Gretchen Michelfeld, have joined us to establish this permanent tribute, a fellowship to support the work of women directors who, like Bea, are redefining the boundaries between writer and director."

The first recipient of the fellowship will be selected by members of the Drama League staff and an advisory board following the establishment of the Terry Fellowship.   The Terry Fellowship Advisory Board includes Jonathan Groff; David Hyde Pierce; Philip Lehl; Annie Potts; Lear deBessonet; Michael Mayer; New Georges artistic director Susan Bernfield; Dana Harrel, producing director of La Jolla Playhouse; Lisa McNulty, artistic line producer at Manhattan Theatre Club; Ellen Rusconi, producing director of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation; and playwright Gretchen M. Michelfeld, who is also the widow of Beatrice Terry.

Visit dramaleague.org for more information.