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 […]

John Rando directed the Broadway hit production of Back to the Future, US first national tour, and also on London’s West End (fourth year) which won the 2022 Olivier Award for Best Musical. In 2001 John won the Best Director Tony Award and Outer Critics Circle Award for Urinetown, the Musical. His other Broadway credits include On the Town (Tony […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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), […]

As a director, artistic director, educator and actor, Vivienne has had the great fortune of collaborating with extraordinary theatre artists of many generations from all sides of the table. The proud recipient of the 2016 Zelda Fichandler Award, she is currently in her tenth season as Producing Artistic Director of PlayMakers Repertory Company in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. From […]

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, […]

Anne Bogart is a theater and opera director and a Professor at Columbia University where she runs the Graduate Directing Program. She is the author of six books: A Director Prepares; The Viewpoints Book; And Then, You Act; Conversations with Anne, What’s the Story and The Art of Resonance. Recent theater productions include Existentialism; Eastland; The […]

Susan V. Booth (Goodman Theatre Walter Artistic Director) joined Goodman Theatre in the fall of 2022, having previously served as Artistic Director of Atlanta’s Tony Award-winning Alliance Theatre, premiering new work that went on to national, international and commercial life. She has directed at the Goodman, Hartford Stage, National Playwrights Conference, The Contemporary American Theater Festival, La […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

Recent: Stokely (NYSF), Tarell Alvin McCraney’s We Are Gathered (Arena Stage) and Jelly’s Last Jam (Pasadena Playhouse). Co-Author and Director of Something to Live For (BroadwayWorld Best New Musical – Pittsburgh Public), The Three Musketeers (Oregon Shakespeare and The Acting Co.), Tarell McCraney’s Choir Boy, Steppenwolf, Studio DC. LA: August Wilson’s Gem of the Ocean […]

Steven Hoggett is an award-winning choreographer and director based in London. He has worked extensively on Broadway, in London’s West End and for some of the most prestigious non-profit theatre companies in the world. Some of his recent work includes movement direction for the global phenomenon Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Sweeney Todd, Angels in […]

JoAnn M Hunter is a choreographer/director. JoAnn’s credits include over 25 first class productions on Broadway, the West End, Australia and Asia. To name a few, ALW’s Cinderella/Bad Cinderella, Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor…, School of Rock, Spring Awakening (assoc.), and Thoroughly Modern Millie (assoc.)  Most recent in NY, Love Life at City Center Encores. She has directed Native Gardens by Karen Zacarias, […]

Tinashe Kajese-Bolden is a multi-award-winning director, actor, and artistic leader committed to forging pathways where artistic innovation meets equity, access, and joy. Originally from Zimbabwe, she was named the Jennings Hertz Artistic Director of the Alliance Theatre in 2023—becoming the first woman of color to lead the institution. Her leadership includes building a new state-of-the-art […]

Tony and Emmy-nominated director and playwright, and recipient of the National Medal of Arts from President Obama, Moisés Kaufman co-founded Tectonic Theater Project in 1991. Broadway: Paradise Square (10 Tony Award nominations), the revival of Harvey Fierstein’s Torch Song, Rajiv Joseph’s Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo with Robin Williams, the revival of The Heiress […]

Lorin Latarro directed Candace Bushnell’s one woman show, Is There Still Sex in the City, Queen of the Night (Drama Desk Award), Joy.  Choreography includes Broadway’s Chess, Once Upon a Mattress, Tommy, Heart of Rock and Roll, Into the Woods, Waitress, Doubtfire, Liasons Dangereuse, Waiting for Godot, La Traviata (Met Opera), Oliver, Assassins, …Rosewater (Encores), […]

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 – […]

Jess (she/her) is a proud first generation Asian American, director and social justice advocate specializing in risky new plays and musicals about America. She has directed and developed work in New York and all over the country at theatres such as Second Stage (On the Evolutionary Function of Shame), Roundabout, MTC, Atlantic, Little Island, Ma-Yi […]

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 is a two-time OBIE Award-winning writer and director. Select credits include: Good Night, Oscar on Broadway and the West End. Off-Bway: An Iliad, Light Shining in Buckinghamshire, The Trestle at Pope Lick Creek, Slavs, The Waves (NYTW); The Model Apartment, Shipwrecked, (Primary Stages); The Fourth Sister, The Batting Cage (Vineyard); King Liz, Ernest Shackleton […]

Sam Pinkleton is a director and choreographer. He most recently directed Cole Escola’s Oh, Mary! (currently running on Broadway at the Lyceum Theater) and choreographed Stephen Sondheim and David Ives’ Here We Are at The Shed. His recent work as a director includes Morgan Bassichis’ Can I Be Frank? (La MaMa) Noah Diaz’ You Will Get […]

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, […]

Ellenore Scott (she/her) is a BIPOC, New York based choreographer and director. Through her work, Ellenore values lifting diverse voices in her community while creating joyous spaces where artists thrive. Ellenore recently co-directed the Off-Broadway NYTimes Critic’s Pick The Lonely Few at MCC with Trip Cullman, marking her NYC directorial debut. Broadway choreography credits: Funny […]

Leigh Silverman is a two time Tony nominee and has directed over 60 world premiere new plays and musicals. Broadway: Yellow Face (Roundabout); Suffs (Tony nom); Grand Horizons (Williamstown, 2ST); The Lifespan of a Fact; Violet (Tony nom), Chinglish; Well. Recent Off-Broadway credits include: Harry Clarke (West End, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Vineyard/Audible); Merry Me (NYTW); Suffs (Public); The […]

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 […]

Annie Yee is an award winning and Ovation nominated choreographer from Los Angeles. She has been recognized with multiple awards from Stage Scene LA, Stage Raw and Broadway World. Annie has danced her entire life with training and performance in many genres of dance from jazz, modern, Chinese dance and opera style, hula, lyrical, circus […]

Laura Penn has been Executive Director of Stage Directors and Choreographers Society (SDC) since 2008. In 2023, she was appointed by President Biden to the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities, and she serves as Secretary of the Board of the Entertainment Community Fund. Under her leadership, SDC’s Membership has grown more than 100%, a […]