“Sadly, I’m the 100th white guy standing up here tonight,” remarked Nick Bowling at the Jeff Awards ceremony last October as he accepted his trophy for best director of a musical. Then he pointed to his corecipient, Lili-Anne Brown, and said, “It’s time to change, and this is where it starts, right here.” The audience responded with the night’s only standing ovation.

Recently, these four freelance directors—and friends, judging from their easy laughter and off-the-record banter—sat down at Chez Moi, a French restaurant in Lincoln Park. While sipping water and coffee, they chatted about Chicago theater, the progress it’s made, and the progress it’s yet to achieve.

Keira Fromm: The Chicago theater community has emboldened itself to start having conversations that acknowledge the disparity, and that has forced artistic directors to try to make it better. Has that happened? Not completely, but it feels like a slow burn towards getting a little bit better.

Stalling: Even if we four directors see each other’s social media posts and we know we’re working, we might be in a bit of a bubble compared to what really is happening. The data doesn’t lie.

You all were nodding when the conversation turned to “the woman slot.” Have the rest of you experienced that, too?

Stalling: It’s hard to know if someone is seeing a woman, because I just see myself. It was not until a couple of years ago when we started having these conversations in the public sphere that I thought maybe such and such is happening because I’m a woman. I thought I had to operate a certain way and that I was lacking something and that I was supposed to be stronger or more aggressive. There was a moment when I directed through my male assistant director—isn’t that sad? I thought, OK, I’ll send my direction through him because I think it will land differently, I think it might be heard. I’ve had other instances where a male artistic director could literally repeat what I just said and it would be heard differently—all the time. They’re brief moments that were large enough to make me aware of my gender in that moment.

Lili-Anne Brown

The Total Bent 2/7–3/10: Thu-Sat 8 PM, Sun 3 PM, Den Theatre, 1331 N. Milwaukee, haventheatrechicago.com, $35.

Lottery Day 3/29–4/28: Wed-Thu 7:30 PM, Fri 8 PM, Sat 2 and 8 PM, Sun 2 and 7:30 PM, Goodman Theatre, 170 N Dearborn, 312-443-3800, goodmantheatre.org.

Keira Fromm

Dada Woof Papa Hot Through 2/16: Thu-Sat 7:30 PM, Sun 3 PM, Theater Wit, 1229 W. Belmont, 773-975-8150, aboutfacetheatre.com, $38, $20 students and seniors.

Marti Lyons

Short Shakespeare! Macbeth 2/16–3/16: Sat 11 AM, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, 800 E. Grand, 312-595-5600, chicagoshakes.com, $34, $22 18 and under.

Vanessa Stalling

Photograph 51 Through 2/17: Wed-Fri 7:30 PM, Sat-Sun 2 and 7:30 PM, Court Theatre, 5535 S. Ellis, 773-753-4472, courttheatre.org, $50-$74, $37.50-$55.50 students.