Joe Mantello(I)

Has twice won Broadway's Tony Award: in 2003 as Best Director (Play) for "Take Me Out." and in 2004 as Best Director (Musical) for a revival of "Assassins." He has also received two other Tony nominations: in 1993, as Best Actor (Featured Role - Play) for "Angels in America: Millennium Approaches," and in 1995, as Best Director (Play) for "Love! Valour! Compassion!".

For some reason, I was deeply ashamed of the theater early on. I think it had to do with this growing sense I was gay, although I couldn't have put a word to it back then. Where I grew up, boys played sports. When [my teacher] Mrs. Windsor wrote in my yearbook, 'Have you ever considered a career in the theater?' it was literally like she wrote the word 'faggot.'