One of the most prominent theater directors in the landscape today, Leigh Silverman made her Broadway directorial debut in 2006 with Lisa Kron’s “Well.” She brought David Henry Hwang’s play “Chinglish” to life in 2011. In 2014 Silverman helmed Jeanine Tesori and Brian Crawley’s musical “Violet” and received a Tony nomination for her direction.

Women and Hollywood recently chatted with Silverman about her latest play, “Harry Clarke,” a one-man show starring Billy Crudup (“Jackie”). The actor portrays the shy Philip, who leads a double life as cocky Londoner Harry Clarke. Silverman told us about the close working relationship she developed with Crudup and playwright David Cale, the challenges of directing a solo play, and how #MeToo has affected theater.

“Harry Clarke” will play at the Vineyard Theatre until December 23.

This interview has been edited.

W&H: Can you please talk about what it’s like being a female theater director today?

LS: These are complicated times. I really like talking about gender and gender parity. I also like talking about diversity and the need to support all unrepresented voices. We as theater makers have to get over the fantasy that we are a “progressive industry” when in fact theater has historically been a predominantly white, all-boys club. I believe theater could be a place of real change — but it will require rigorous honesty about who we are before we can actually be a place of change.

What I look forward to the most is a time when answering a question about what it’s like to be a female theater director gets replaced with a question about craft.

W&H: Has the #MeToo movement seeped into the theater industry?

LS: Theater is no different than any other industry. There have been years of appalling incidents and institutions have failed us — like at the Met, like at the [New York City] Ballet, like in Hollywood. There are people who spoke up, who said something happened, and they were told, by word or deed, essentially that this is the way that it is. We’ve all been living inside a broken system and we believed this was the only way we could operate. In that way, we are all to a small degree at fault for thinking this was normal.

The thing that is so revelatory about this moment is that there could actually be a new normal and new world order in relation to sexual harassment. I imagine if an actress, actor, director, or playwright went to a producer or theater administrator right now and said, “I am being harassed,” and had evidence, there is no way the theater could be silent and do nothing. Hopefully indifference and apathy will be a thing of the past. It’s a complete reversal — a cracking open of the world as we’ve seen it.

On one hand, we have all this amazing progress, yet also we’re living inside a society that seems to be fundamentally moving backwards every single day. It’s so confusing. Our political system and the people in charge are literally clawing their way into the dark ages. It’s numbing.

W&H: You’re known for bringing a feminist perspective to the plays you direct, like with “Sweet Charity” and “Violet.” How did that perspective translate to “Harry Clarke”?

LS: The feminist perspective is really the only way I see the world and my work. Billy Crudup is portraying complicated men and women and he’s doing it all with such subtlety and nuance. It was essential to me that every character — man and woman — feels fully dimensional, human, and deeply complicated.

W&H: What was it like reading “Harry Clarke” for the first time?

LS: I’d worked with David [Cale] and seen him do a number of his own plays. He’s masterful. He is truly the gold standard of solo shows. So I read this piece and was just blown away, but I was also terrified of the challenge. David said he wanted to put a one-man thriller on stage, which, frankly, seemed impossible. I was very worried the style might overtake the story-telling and overwhelm the real emotion in the play. It turned out to be a total delight to investigate and explore and dramatize.

W&H: Do you like directing solo shows? How does the experience compare to directing an ensemble?

LS: It’s a strange experience directing solo shows. It’s very intense in a different way than directing a full cast. But this was a dream experience because the triangulation that happened between Billy and David and I was so extraordinary. I’m so inspired by both of them.

When you direct a play, you get a group of actors to agree with your vision about what the play’s about. There’s a central conflict and you stage that and then you make that event happen night after night with some small variation.

In a solo show, the conflict is between the storyteller and themselves and as the story unfolds, the conflict erupts. Really, the most important and hardest part of rehearsal can only happen when you have an audience there to catalyze that conflict. As we worked through previews, [Crudup] started to understand more and more the performative muscle that’s needed and the strange experience of having a different scene partner, the audience, every night. It’s so vulnerable and not a thing you can prepare for when you’re in a rehearsal room.

W&H: Harry Clarke is a man with a double life. Have you ever known anyone quite like this character in real life?

LS: Harry likes to be the “foreigner,” the only person in the room with an accent, getting special attention because he’s British. He says at the end of the play, “I went to England — I didn’t like it very much. Everybody sounded like me.” He really thrives as the stranger in a strange land.

There are times in our lives where we can pretend to be somebody else or fully transform into a new person. First day of summer camp, going to college, or when I moved to New York and didn’t know anyone. Those are all Harry Clarke moments. When you don’t know anyone and you can be anyone from anywhere. It’s a new life starting. It can be so liberating and that’s why Philip needs to be Harry, he needs Harry to free him from his own insecurities and fear.

W&H: What are your hopes with “Harry Clarke”? Do you think it will prompt more writers to tell stories about real issues of identity crisis?

LS: I’m interested if it will. Part of what is so great about the show is that nobody writes like David. There’s a line in the play where Harry says Sade is incredibly astute about people. I think that is one of the autobiographical parts of the play. David is an astoundingly astute observer of human nature and that’s why he was able to write this play. He understands all our weaknesses.

W&H: Lastly, what is next for you?

LS: I am working on a musical with Jeanine Tesori and David Henry Hwang called “Soft Power” that will premiere at the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles in April.