As I mentioned in SDC Journal’s Spring/Summer Issue, in honor of SDC’s 65th anniversary, last April the Union surveyed Members, asking each of us to identify directors and choreographers whose work has inspired us and transformed the American theatre. More than 500 directors and choreographers were nominated. The list was rigorously discussed by a cross-section of SDC Members, and 65 artists—“65 for the 65th”—were selected to be honored on social media and in a book that we will publish in 2025.
The first honoree, featured in June, was director, Founding Member of SDC, and former SDC President Lloyd Richards, whom I had the opportunity to assist when I was a student at Yale School of Drama. Lloyd’s first of five Tony nominations for Best Director—he won in 1987 for August Wilson’s Fences—was for the premiere of Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun in 1959, the same year the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers, as it was then known, was established as a national independent labor union by the presiding justice of the New York State Supreme Court.
Looking at the full list of Member-nominated directors and choreographers, I saw that those who had been impactful for me as a director just starting out and those whose work continues to inspire me today had also been important to others. The list also included people whom I had somehow failed to mention on my survey, but whose influence I clearly recognized.
Although not all of us have the opportunity to spend time in the room with other directors or choreographers, through seeing their work, or reading about their productions or creative processes, or hearing them speak at an SDC Foundation or other event, we learn from those artists who came before us. And we learn from our contemporaries.
This issue of SDC Journal contains articles about and interviews with directors and choreographers written and conducted by other directors and choreographers who were fortunate enough to spend time in their rehearsal rooms. From Awoye Timpo’s interview with Ruben Santiago-Hudson, to Kate Pitt’s article about Joe Haj’s recent direction of Shakespeare’s Richard II, Henry IV, and Henry V in rep at the Guthrie, to Camden Gonzales’s conversation with Sonya Tayeh, its content provides inspiring insights into the creative processes and artistic paths of these extraordinary directors and choreographers.
The issue also includes the stirring words of George C. Wolfe and Jack O’Brien, 2024 Tony Award winners for Lifetime Achievement, and acceptance remarks from the recipients of SDC Foundation’s Gordon Davidson and Zelda Fichandler Awards, Anne Bogart and Raymond O. Caldwell, respectively, who acknowledge the legacy of their awards’ namesakes as they accept an honor which confirms their own impact on the field. Zelda’s far-reaching influence is also highlighted in Lucy Gram’s consideration of two recently published books about her life in this centennial year of her birth.
As each of us moves through our artistic lives, it’s important and revitalizing to take time to recognize and celebrate those who have contributed to the art form, the field, and our own trajectories, either through their unique creative gifts or through their personal generosity as mentors. It’s also valuable to acknowledge with humility our own place in the theatrical lineage and our responsibility to pay it all forward to the next generation in this ephemeral art we practice.
In Solidarity,
Evan Yionoulis
Executive Board President