ANNOUNCING THE NEW 26/27 SEASON DIRECTING FELLOWS: MIGUEL BREGANTE AND JULIA PRECHSL
The Public is thrilled to announce the 26/27 recipients of the Directing Fellowship at The Public Theater: Miguel Bregante and Julia Prechsl.
Launched in the 25/26 season with inaugural Directing Fellow Emma Rosa Went, the Directing Fellowship is an initiative focused on identifying and supporting early career directors. The Directing Fellowship is conceived and led by Associate Artistic Director / Resident Director Saheem Ali to create more opportunities for emerging directors.
All members of the fellowship program will have guaranteed opportunities as directors or associate directors, work with The Public’s artistic programs, observe rehearsals for Public Theater productions, receive career development advice from artistic staff, and more.
The Directing Fellowship furthers The Public’s commitment to investing in the careers of promising young artists, inspired by founder Joe Papp’s invitation in 1990 to three emerging directors—George C. Wolfe, Michael Greif, and David Greenspan—to make an artistic home at The Public. They received resources and mentorship at The Public, as well as opportunities to direct mainstage productions, and went on to have extraordinary careers and an incalculable impact on the field.
The Directing Fellowship is part of a robust slate of artist development programs and residencies that engage writers, musicians, multi-disciplinary performance artists, and more in the creation of new and generative work. The Public’s programs include the Emerging Writers Group; Joe’s Pub Working Group, Vanguard Residency, and New York Voices Commissioning Program; Judith Champion New Work Series; and Jose Solís’ BIPOC Critics Lab; and residencies for playwrights, theater companies, and CUNY students. Learn more about The Public's range of artistic development programs and residencies here.
Founding Support for The Public's Directing Fellowship is provided by Barbara A. Gallay.
Generous support for the Directing Fellowship is provided by the Marquit-Grieser Fund.
ABOUT MIGUEL BREGANTE
MIGUEL BREGANTE (Directing Fellow). Spanish-Chilean director. Proud immigrant. Former Artistic Director of La Mona Ilustre Theater Company in Chile. Directing credits include Mocha Dick, La Niña de Canterville, Malé, Las Cosas También Tienen Mamá, Juan Salvador Tramoya, Los Peces No Vuelan (Chile); El Árbol de Naranjas, Inside the Invisible, Un Hijo de Nuestro Tiempo (Spain); and The Wolves, Dancing at Lughnasa, Cockroaches, Scrubland (U.S.). Recent Associate Director credits include work with Anne Bogart at La MaMa, Saheem Ali at The Public Theater and on Broadway, and Carl Cofield with the Classical Theatre of Harlem.
ABOUT JULIA PRECHSL
JULIA PRECHSL she/her (Directing Fellow) is a German theater director who created more than 35 critically acclaimed productions over the last decade on Germany’s leading stages, including productions at the Staatstheater Nürnberg, Theater Magdeburg, Staatstheater Braunschweig, Residenztheater München, Staatstheater Darmstadt, and many others. Her work was awarded multiple times in the critics’ surveys of leading industry magazines like Die Deutsche Bühne and Nachtkritik.de and received numerous festival invitations. Preschsl’s art focuses on interhuman relations and our constant desire to share life with another whilst overcoming the challenges of connection. Her productions elevate emotions into cinematic, abstract pictures and scenes that become larger than life, always developed through rigorous playfulness and artistic complicity. She experiments with classics as well as new works, often writing her own adaptations of well-known literature. She believes in the concurrency of life and theater as the medium to talk about the complexity of it. She holds a BFA and MFA in Directing for Stage from the Theaterakademie August Everding (HMTM, München) and a MA from Gallatin School of Individualized Study (NYU) with a concentration in (Play-)Writing, Gender Studies, and Cultural Leadership. Preschl is a member of the Lincoln Center Theater Directors Lab, New York City. For the upcoming season 2026/27 Preschl is directing her own adaptation of Die Geierwally on the main stage of the Münchner Volkstheater, as well as her adaptation of Der Biberpelz at the Hans Otto Theater, Potsdam. She is also proudly joining The Public Theater, NYC as their Directing Fellow for the seasons 2026/27 and 2027/28. Preschl lives in Munich, Germany and New York City, USA. www.juliaprechsl.com