Evan Yionoulis has directed new plays and classics in New York and across the U.S. She opened Manhattan Theatre Club’s Biltmore Theatre (Broadway) with Richard Greenberg’s The Violet Hour, directed his Everett Beekin (Lincoln Center Theatre) and received an Obie Award for her direction of his Three Days of Rain (Manhattan Theatre Club), having directed the premieres of all three […]

Michael John Garcés is a Los Angeles-based director and playwright.  Directing credits include For the People by Ty Defoe and Larissa FastHorse (The Guthrie Theater), the just and the blind by Marc Bamuthi Joseph and Daniel Bernard Roumain (Carnegie Hall and The Kennedy Center), The Play You Want by Bernardo Cubriá (The Road Theatre Company), The Rivers Don’t Know by James McManus […]

BROADWAY: Jitney! (Tony, Outer Critics Circle, Drama Desk, NY Drama Critics Circle, Drama League Awards), Skeleton Crew (Tony nomination, OBIE Award, Audelco Award) and his own Lackawanna Blues (Outer Critics, Drama Desk, OBIE, Helen Hayes Awards). OFF-BROADWAY: Paradise Blue, The Piano Lesson (Lucille Lortel, Joseph A. Callaway, Audelco, OBIE Awards), Othello, The Happiest Song Plays Last, My Children! […]

Dan Knechtges Broadway – Lysistrata Jones (Direction & Choreography), Xanadu (directed by Chris Ashley, Tony nomination, Drama Desk nomination), Sondheim on Sondheim (directed by James Lapine), 110 in The Shade (starring Audra McDonald) and The 25th Annual Putnum County Spelling Bee (directed by James Lapine.) Off-Broadway – TAIL! SPIN! (starring Rachel Dratch), The 25th Annual Putnum County Spelling Bee at Second Stage, which earned him a Lucille Lortel Award nomination,Merrily […]

Melia Bensussen is the Artistic Director of Hartford Stage. The recipient of an OBIE Award for Outstanding Direction, her directing work includes numerous productions at the Huntington Theatre, Trinity Rep, Merrimack Repertory Theatre, Sleeping Weazel, Actors Shakespeare Project, Baltimore Centerstage, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, La Jolla Playhouse, New York Shakespeare Festival, MCC, Primary Stages, Long Wharf, […]

Joseph Haj is the artistic director of the Guthrie Theater. Prior to joining the Guthrie in 2015, Haj served as producing artistic director at PlayMakers Repertory Company. At the Guthrie, Haj has directed Hamlet, A Christmas Carol, Dickens’ Holiday Classic (film), The Glass Menagerie, Cyrano de Bergerac (his own adaptation), West Side Story, Romeo and […]

Joshua Bergasse started his career as a young dancer on Broadway before transitioning to choreography and direction. He is the Emmy Award-winning choreographer for NBC’s musical drama Smash, which will be coming to Broadway next season. Joshua received a Tony nomination as well as the Astaire Award for his choreography of the Broadway revival of On the Town. He also […]

Saheem Ali is a New York-based theater director focused on new work. Recent credits include Dangerous House (Williamstown Theater Festival), Sugar in Our Wounds (MTC), Tartuffe (Playmakers Rep), Where Storms Are Born (Williamstown), Henry V (NYU Tisch), Twelfth Night (Public Theater), Kill Move Paradise (National Black Theater), Diaspora (Gym at Judson), Nollywood Dreams (Cherry Lane), […]

Christopher Ashley has served as La Jolla Playhouse’s Artistic Director since 2007. During his tenure, he has helmed the Playhouse’s productions of Come From Away, Chasing the Song, The Darrel Hammond Project, His Girl Friday, Glengarry Glen Ross, A Dram of Drummhicit, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Restoration and Memphis, which won four 2010 Tony Awards […]

Annie-B Parson is a choreographer and the artistic director of the OBIE and Bessie Award-winning Big Dance Theater, and with her company has created over 20 large-scale works for BAM, The Old Vic/London, Sadler’s Wells/London, The Walker, The National Theatre/Paris, Japan Society, CSC, and The Kitchen. Parson has also made choreography for rock shows, marching […]

Jo Bonney has directed the premieres of plays by: Alan Ball, Hilary Bettis, Eric Bogosian, Eleanor Burgess, Hammaad Chaudry, Culture Clash, Eve Ensler, Jessica Goldberg, Isaac Gomez, Danny Hoch, Ariel Levy & John Turturro, Ione Patricia Lloyd, Neil LaBute, Warren Leight, Martyna Majok, Lynn Nottage, Dan O’Brien, Dael Orlandersmith, Suzan-Lori Parks, Darci Picoult, John Pollono, […]

Shelley Butler has over forty Broadway, Off-Broadway and regional credits to date and has worked extensively with writers on new plays and musicals. She has directed and developed work across the country for theaters including: Ars Nova, Primary Stages, E.S.T., WP Theater, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Hartford Stage, South Coast Repertory, Denver Center Theatre Company, Yale […]

Donald Byrd is Artistic Director of Spectrum Dance Theater and a Tony-nominated (The Color Purple) and Bessie Award-winning (The Minstrel Show) choreographer. He has worked with the SDC Diversity Task Force and other SDC related ad hoc groups. During the course or his career, he has created works for Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Pacific […]

Rachel Chavkin is a director, sometime writer (and sometimes funny) artistic director of Brooklyn-based experimental collective, the TEAM (www.theteamplays.org) whose work has been seen all over New York, the U.S., and internationally (including festivals across Europe, Australia and the Hong Kong Arts Festival), and whose consensus-driven writing process was the subject of a feature length […]

Desdemona Chiang is a director and writer based in Seattle, WA and Ashland, OR. She directs in a variety of genres, including new plays, Shakespeare, and musicals. She is known for her visceral, no-nonsense approach to storytelling, with her distinct point of view as an immigrant and Asian American woman, and a specific interest in […]

Liz Diamond is a Resident Director at Yale Rep and Chair of Directing at Yale School of Drama. Productions at Yale Rep include Brecht’s Caucasian Chalk Circle, Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale, Lucinda Coxon’s Happy Now? (also at Primary Stages in New York); Marcus Gardley’s Dance Of The Holy Ghosts; Strindberg’s Miss Julie; Sunil Kuruvilla’s Fighting […]

Byron Easley a recipient of the SDC Joe Callaway Award, is a New York City born and based choreographer. Broadway: Camelot (Lincoln Center), Slave Play (Antonyo Nomination). Off Broadway: Shakespeare’s Richard III at the Public Theater, Des Moines, for Theatre for a New Audience, Bed Wetter, at the Atlantic Theater, Slave Play, at New York […]

Justin Emeka is the Resident Director for the Pittsburgh Public Theater where he has directed productions  Two Trains Running, Sweat, American Son and a virtual production of Romeo n Juliet.  He has worked at many theaters around the country including:  Yale Rep, Old Globe, Karamu House, Seattle Rep, Syracuse Stage, Langston Hughes Performance Center in Seattle, […]

Lydia Fort is a director and educator whose credits include Nina Simone: Four Women (Alabama Shakespeare Festival), Jump (Actors Express), The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity (Theater Emory), The Mountaintop (Perseverance Theatre), Bright Half Life (Diversionary Theatre ), RIP.TIED (freeFall Theatre), Frida Liberada (Urban Stages), and she was the Associate Director for King Hedley II […]

Leah C. Gardiner is an Obie Award-winning director known for the “incisive clarity” (The New York Times) of her work with physicality and text. She has directed in the U.S. and internationally, including the premieres of two Pulitzer Prize finalists, Eisa Davis’ Bulrusher and Tanya Barfield’s Blue Door, and countless other new plays by writers including debbie tucker green, Dan Deitz, Anna Deveare […]

Broadway credits include: Newsies (2012 Tony, Drama Desk, and Outer Critics Circle Awards), The Cher Show (Outer Critics nom), My Fair Lady (Tony nomination, Outer Critics nom), SpongeBob Squarepants (Tony nomination, Outer Critics nom), The King and I (Tony nomination, Outer critics nom), South Pacific (Tony, Outer Critics Circle noms.), War Paint, Amazing Grace, Casa […]

Kathleen Marshall is an award-winning theatre, film and television director and choreographer.  A nine-time Tony Award nominee, she has won the award three times for Best Choreography for the Broadway revivals of Wonderful Town, The Pajama Game and Anything Goes.  She has worked on more than 20 Broadway shows and she is the first woman […]

Michael Mayer has worked in a broad spectrum of media from theatre and opera to television and film. His Broadway credits include the Broadway revival of Funny Girl starring Lea Michele, the hit revival of Little Shop of Horrors, A Beautiful Noise, Burn This, Head Over Heels, Hedwig and the Angry Inch (Tony Award – […]

Currently the Head of Directing at the University of Washington School of Drama, Valerie Curtis-Newton also serves as the Founding Artistic Director for The Hansberry Project, a professional African American theatre lab. She has worked with professional theatres across the country including: The Guthrie Theatre, Denver Center for the Performing Arts, Seattle Rep, Playmakers Repertory […]

Robert O’Hara has received the NAACP Best Play and Best Director Award, the Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding New Play, two Obies, and the Herb Alpert Award. Broadway: Slave Play (Tony Nomination). Off Broadway: Oniell’s Long Days Journey Into Night, Shakespeare’s Richard III, Harris’ Slave Play, Salter and Guiria’s In the Continuum, McCraney’s The Brother/ […]

Lisa Portes is a director, educator, and leader dedicated to expanding the circle of people reflected in 21st century American theatre. She is a co-founder of the Latinx Theatre Commons (LTC) and serves as a champion of the LTC Carnaval of New Latinx Work. Lisa Chairs the Department of Theatre and Dance at UCSD, and […]

Lonny Price directed Glenn Close in Sunset Boulevard on Broadway and at the English National Opera, Sweeney Todd starring Emma Thompson and Bryn Terfel at the ENO and Lincoln Center, and Carousel at the ENO. His Broadway credits include Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill starring Audra McDonald (also for HBO and currently on […]

Jon Lawrence Rivera is the Founding Artistic Director of Playwrights’ Arena and recipient of the first Career Achievement Award from Stage Raw. He directed the following world premieres for Playwrights’ Arena: APARTMENT LIVING by Boni B. Alvarez, A HIT DOG WILL HOLLER by Inda Craig-Galván, SOUTHERNMOST by Mary Lyon Kamitaki, BABY EYES by Donald Jolly, […]

The New York Times has praised Bartlett Sher as “one of the most original and exciting directors, not only in the American theater but also in the international world of opera.” Nominated for the Tony Award nine times, he took home the prize in 2008 for his powerful revival of South Pacific. He has worked […]

Katie Spelman (she/her) is a choreographer and director, who will be making her Broadway choreography debut this season with The Notebook. Recent credits include Cabaret (Barrington Stage Company); the world premiere of An American Tail (CTC); Hello Kitty Must Die (Edinburgh Fringe), Day 365 – Live from the Rainbow Room with Dylan Mulvaney, Once (Writers Theatre), The Notebook (CST),  aren’t you glad […]

A five-time Tony Award winning director and choreographer most known for Crazy For You, Contact, The Scottsboro Boys, and The Producers. Her work has been honored with Olivier, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, Lucille Lortel and a record six Astaire Awards. She directed and choreographed The Producers, winner of a record-making 12 Tony Awards including […]

Maria Torres is a world-renowned director-choreographer with an extensive career that transcends theatrical and commercial industries. Torres’ Puerto Rican, Dominican, Cuban heritage inspires her artistry and led to the cultivation and creation of the “Latin Jazz” dance technique, taught and performed worldwide. Throughout her career, she has been deeply committed to a broad range of […]

Tamilla Woodard is the co-Artistic Director of Working Theater, former BOLD Associate Artistic Director at WP Theater, and the co-founder of PopUP Theatrics. She also served as the associate director of Hadestown on Broadway. This season her work includes the Lucille Lortel nominated Where We Stand by Donnetta Lavinia Grays for WP Theater and Baltimore […]

Annie Yee is a Los Angeles based and award-winning choreographer. Most recently Annie choreographed An Octoroon at the Fountain Theatre directed by Judith Moreland. Other choreography includes M. Butterfly at South Coast Repertory directed by Desdemona Chiang, where she won a Scenie Award for Best Choreography of a Play; King of the Yees at Baltimore […]

Laura Penn has been Executive Director of Stage Directors and Choreographers Society (SDC) since 2008. This year, she was appointed by President Biden to serve as a member of the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities. Most recently, she was elected to the Board of the Entertainment Community Fund. Under her leadership, SDC’s Membership has grown […]