What were the obstacles that you faced as a woman director—have their been specific roadblocks you would attribute to this lack of representation? Did you feel like you had to work harder than your male peers?

No. The biggest thing you don’t know is which rooms you’re not being invited to. When people talk about the “boy’s club,” that is something I definitely have palpably experienced. That’s so layered. It really crystalized with what [Vice President] Pence said, that he would never have dinner one on one with a woman who wasn’t his wife. That’s the epitome of the boy’s club.

So you just made your own way?

Well yeah, I began doing that straight out of school. You have to as a young artist. I had a couple friends who ended up assisting very quickly on Broadway. I don’t know if their careers are any more potent than mine after all these years later. After graduating college, I just started creating my own work which became the TEAM… My sense, speaking to a lot of female friends, is that it’s hard to develop the muscle to say I want this. There was that New York Times piece about why Hillary Clinton didn’t call Trump out when he was stalking her during that debate. Women systemically are taught to politely receive, to not make waves, to not be seen as a bitch or an angry woman. Having the muscle to say clearly— “I want to do this,” has taken me years to say confidently.

For those young women who might be looking to you as a role model, is there a piece of advice you received that you would pass on?

Too often advice is an act of ego on the behalf of the advice-giver who wants to feel wise. I love tips, but at the end of the day you figure it out. Another way of putting it, my greatest mentors are people I’ve never spoken to in my life but whose work influenced me. Shared experiences are much more useful than advice.

Controversy over the casting erupted around the show and led to its closing. When Josh Groban decided to leave the show, it was projected that the ticket sales would drop to under a million a week. First, Okieriete “Oak” Onaodowan from the hit show Hamilton, who is African-American, was hired to do a limited run. But producers asked him to leave early in order to replace him with a more famous white actor, Mandy Patinkin. This sparked an outcry from the community that this was a social justice issue--yet another example of how black actors are treated in the entertainment industry. Actor’s Equity gave the show an award for “extraordinary excellence in diversity on Broadway” —this show was an example for color-conscious casting, so how did you navigate that controversy? Do you think it was a social justice issue?

What I can say is nothing is without context. We are in a wildly traumatic moment as a country. I can say, 100 percent, there was nothing racially motivated from the production’s perspective. At the same time, in the final days of performances, I was struck by how successful the show really was. We ran almost a year which is no small potatoes for Broadway. A lot of young women got to see Denée Benton as Natasha. I know how seriously she took that responsibility. She’s one of the most extraordinary artists I’ve ever encountered and she has a Tony nomination now. Mimi, our set designer, was the first Asian-American woman to win the Tony for set design. Do I wish it would have run for another ten years? Yes because I think it was that good.