The non-profit foundation Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation (SDCF) will honor several directors and choreographers for their work in the past year during a ceremony November 12.
The 2019 Joe A. Callaway Awards will be awarded to Tony winner Kenny Leon (A Raisin in the Sun, American Son) for directing for Much Ado About Nothing at The Public’s Delacorte Theater, part of this year’s Shakespeare in the Park season. Rick and Jeff Kuperman will receive the award for choreographing Alice By Heart at MCC Off-Broadway.
Callaway finalists for direction are Annie Tippe (Octet) and Broadway’s The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical director Stephen Brackett (A Strange Loop). The finalists for choreography are Raja Feather Kelly (Fairview, A Strange Loop) and Camille A. Brown (Much Ado About Nothing).
The 2019 Gordon Davidson Award will be presented to two-time Obie-winning writer and director Lisa Peterson (Light Shining, An Iliad) for lifetime achievement and service in regional theatre. Peterson co-wrote and directed An Iliad with Tony winner Denis O’Hare (Take Me Out).
The 2019 Zelda Fichandler Award will go to Ten Thousand Things Theater Company Artistic Director Marcela Lorca in St. Paul, Minnesota. The award recognizes directors who demonstrate recent accomplishment and potential for the future in a specific region.
The 2019 Breakout Award winner is Taibi Magar, director of Blue Ridge and The Great Leap, both staged at Atlantic Theatre Company. The SDCF previously announced it would award Joe Mantello (The Boys in the Band, Assassins) the Mr. Abbott Award at SDCF’s gala in 2020.
SDCF is the independent, not-for-profit foundation affiliated with Stage Directors and Choreographers Society (SDC). SDCF exists to foster, promote, and develop the creativity and craft of stage directors and choreographers at every level of career through its programming. SDCF creates access to the field, connects artists, and honors the theatrical legacy of artists in the field.
