2026 DRAMA DESK SPECIAL AWARD

Greg Cuellar and the company of Initiative were honored with a 2026 Drama Desk Special Award for the world-premiere production at The Public Theater.

Written by Else Went and directed by Emma Rosa Went, the five-hour epic was developed over nearly nine years with its original company. Cuellar originated the role of Riley.

In recognizing Initiative, the Drama Desk praised the production as "epic yet intimate" and its cast as an "extraordinary ensemble," honoring the company's long-term collaboration and its ability to use the shared language of Dungeons & Dragons to "conjure community, produce ambitious art, and captivate audiences."

The Special Award recognized playwright Else Went, director Emma Rosa Went, and ensemble members Olivia Rose Barresi, Brandon Burk, Greg Cuellar, Harrison Densmore, Carson Higgins, Andrea Lopez Alvarez, Jamie Sanders, and Christopher Dylan White.

Initiative was also nominated for the Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Ensemble and ranked #5 on Vulture's Best Plays and Musicals of 2025.

OUTSTANDING ENSEMBLE NOMINATION

The company of Initiative were nominated for the 2026 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Ensemble for the production’s world premiere at The Public Theater.

The nomination recognized the original ensemble following six years of development together.

Cuellar attended the 41st Annual Lucille Lortel Awards with the company at NYU Skirball in New York City.

“the fantastically malleable Greg Cuellar, reminiscent of a young Alan Rickman”

“Barresi and Cuellar hold each other up with palpable tenderness, each one crafting a long, poignant arc from innocence through the fogs and thorns of experience. A scene in which Riley (who naturally becomes the Dungeon Master in the game) narrates a solo campaign for the suffering Clara is profoundly moving in its generosity.”

“The seven actors… thrive on the meticulously detailed self-consciousness of teenhood.”

“There’s gorgeous confidence, sensitivity, and specificity in their characterizations.”

“Greg Cuellar has a great chaos onstage, depicting an appetite for pain that we see is dangerously attractive, to adults as well as kids…” — Helen Shaw, The New Yorker (via bluesky)

“Cuellar’s steady presence and comedic timing is the perfect foil for Barresi’s world-weariness. Sometimes fraught, sometimes misguided, but always with a baseline of love, scenes between the two feel like crawling into a comfortable spot on the sofa.” — Austin Fimmano, New York Theatre Guide

“Riley (Greg Cuellar, in a remarkable performance of precocity and self-doubt).” — Thom Geier, Culture Sauce

“Greg Cuellar’s charisma shines so bright you will root for him days after the show.” — Laurie Graff, Splash Magazines

“Greg Cuellar’s Riley and Carson Higgins’s Lo, create a devastating portrait of internalized homophobia as violence – their locker room confrontation, is almost unwatchable in its psychological precision.” - David Roberts, Theatre Reviews Limited

“Riley (Greg Cuellar, captivating)…” — Raven Snook, Time Out New York