In each issue of SDC Journal, SDC’s Executive Director Laura Penn speaks to the publication’s themes and messages, musing on the intersection between the industry, the work of our Members, and the crafts of stage direction and choreography.

Winter 2024

In the fall of 2020, SDC + SDCF published On the Edge: The Lives and Livelihoods of Stage Direct ...

Fall 2023

When I came to SDC some 15 years ago, I knew very little about choreography. I had done what man ...

Fall 2022

Anniversaries provide opportunities for celebration. We pause to partake of the ritual of well-d ...

Spring 2022

Amid all that we do, that we can find time to consider the larger questions is impressive; it is ...

Spring/Summer 2021

Now is a moment of disruption—disruption across the field. An extended, painful disruption that ...

Spring 2020

Fall 1997, well past midnight: I was sitting with my fellow members of the Theater panel in the ...

Winter 2020

Hazard and hope. Meeting with hazard and hope. This is how Aaron Frankel remembered the “smoke-f ...

Fall 2019

By the time this issue hits your mailbox, Network for Cultural and Arts Policy (NCAP) will be we ...

Summer 2019

Someday, I may go back and see how many of these letters I have written while flying across the ...

Spring 2019

We are on the eve of the 60th anniversary of SDC. I just imagined this issue of SDC Journal sitt ...

Fall 2018/Winter 2019

“Communication is oxygen.” That’s not my slogan—it’s a core value for employees working for Word ...

Summer 2018

Remember bulletin boards? Not cork boards-the online kind. According to Techopedia, “A Bul ...

Spring 2018

Seattle’s influence as a theatrical leader has been constant since the founding of the regional ...

Winter 2018

I spend my days thinking about directors and choreographers. Lately, I’ve been gratified to find ...

Fall 2017

Please save me from googling. I begin this letter for each issue by reviewing the magazine and c ...

Summer2016

Summer 2017

Everything goes in cycles, right? There was a time, in the early years of my career, when a “com ...

Winter/Spring 2017

Winter/Spring 2017

April 2017 will mark 58 years since the founding of Stage Directors and Choreographers Society. ...

Fall2016

Fall 2016

With the energy and input of the SDC Journal Editorial Advisory Committee, we plan our issues of ...

Summer2016

Summer 2016

We are activists here at SDC. Our day-to-day work includes advocating for of directors and chore ...

Spring2016

Spring 2016

Nearly 20 years ago in Seattle, Tony Kushner gave a speech at Meany Hall on campus at the Univer ...

Fall2015

Fall 2015

As we prepare to send this issue of SDC Journal to the printer, I am headed to Ohio for parents’ ...

Summer2015

Summer 2015

When I began at SDC in 2007, I asked the staff and Executive Board leadership for a list of thos ...

Spring2015_DonaldSaddler_WEB

Spring 2015

SDC has been at 1501 Broadway for 40+ years. Can you imagine what’s in the back room filing cabi ...

Winter2015_GeoffreyHolder_WEB

Winter 2015

“Have the courage to follow your most idiosyncratic instinct. Find that most radical, insurmount ...

Fall2014_StuartVaughn_WEB

Fall 2014

In August of 1986, I said goodbye to my friends and colleagues at Arena Stage and set course for ...

Summer2014_MargaretWebster_WEB

Summer 2014

‘Tis the season. Let the summer rituals begin. For many theatres and theatre artists the season ...

Spring2014_MossHart_WEB

Spring 2014

Moss Hart was one of the founders of SDC. As someone who overcame a childhood of abject poverty ...

Winter2014

Winter 2014

As we enter a new year it feels cliché to talk about how fast time is moving, but there is somet ...

Fall2013_HanyaHolm_WEB

Fall 2013

On April 17, 1959, Hanya Holm sat with Shepard Traube and Agnes de Mille to witness the signing ...

Summer2013_AugustWilson_WEB

Summer 2013

Nelson Mandela once said, “It always seems impossible until it’s done.” It seems impossible to i ...

Spring2013_ArthurPenn_WEB

Spring 2013

Most of us want the work we do to make a difference, to contribute somehow to those we connect w ...

Winter2013_BillBall_WEB

Winter 2013

When I was in junior high school, my mom put me on a one-hour Greyhound bus ride to San Francisc ...

Fall2012_AgnesdeMille_WEB

Fall 2012

For this second edition of the SDC Journal we feature a moment with Agnes de Mille on our final ...

Summer2012_Signing_WEB

Summer 2012

When I first arrived at SDC in the spring of 2008, it was on the eve of the Union’s historic 50t ...