I hope this issue finds you, as I am, back in rehearsal, in a room with a great play whose investigation brings you rewarding artistic
challenges and joy in collaboration.
Even in person, despite all our close work with actors and designers, directing and choreographing remain mostly solitary ventures. Although we enjoy seeing the fruits of each other’s labors, we rarely actually get to see each other work. SDC and the SDC Foundation aim to connect directors and choreographers with each other, through Union service and Foundation events, and also through the stimulation of reflection and conversation promoted by such ventures as this publication.
Celebrating its 10th anniversary this year, SDC Journal was created by the Union to further unite us by providing a glimpse into the work practices and artistic visions of our fellow directors and choreographers. It regularly features articles about the crafts of direction and choreography as well as interviews with Member practitioners from across the country who share their insights and artistry with its readers. Over the past few issues, I have dedicated a portion of my letters to the current moment and some to reflecting back—though, recently, mostly just back to March 12, 2020. This anniversary gives us an opportunity to consider a longer horizon.
The current issue brings together a collection of interviews and articles published since SDC Journal’s inaugural issue in 2012 and offers a sample of the kinds of inspiring pieces that have been the hallmark of the publication over the past decade, including interviews with the late Hal Prince and Dame Gillian Lynne and a feature which tackles the proverbial question: “What Does a Director Do?” There’s also Mary B. Robinson’s wonderful piece about the founding of SDC. The featured selections were chosen for their enduring resonance; some may also prompt you to consider how the context of our theatremaking has evolved since their first appearance.
SDC Journal was always intended to look ahead as well as to what came before. Then SDC President Karen Azenberg’s letter from September of 2012, published again in this issue, announced its purpose:
to give voice to an empowered collective of directors and choreographers working in all jurisdictions and venues across the country, encouraging Member advocacy and highlighting Member achievement. We hope you will find the new SDC Journal provocative and forward-thinking, as over time we will explore the full breadth of these two enigmatic crafts, examining various styles and approaches of creating theatre both in the past and present, and always with an eye to the future.
In looking ahead today, we find ourselves in a moment of cautious hope: that the recovery of our industry will proceed apace, and that the theatre will be able to help close the social distance of the past few years which has been so damaging to our nation’s psyche. It is a hope tempered by a recognition of the many challenges we face and the knowledge of the sustained effort that will be necessary on multiple fronts to achieve the goals we have for ourselves and our communities.
Before the midterm elections, after surveying the Membership, SDC issued a voter’s guide with questions to consider in evaluating candidates. Arts and Culture was among the issues Members identified as most pressing in our current political moment, along with: Censorship, Climate Change, Gun Control Legislation, Health Care and Reproductive Rights, Human Rights, Organized Labor, and Racial Justice.
As you might recall, in July of 2020, following unanimous approval by the Executive Board and an overwhelmingly affirmative vote by Members Union-wide, for the first time in our 60-year history SDC endorsed a presidential candidate, Joe Biden. On September 30 of this year, President Biden issued an Executive Order on Promoting the Arts, the Humanities, and Museum and Library Service, setting forth initiatives to stimulate their advancement and deeming them
essential to the well-being, health, vitality, and democracy of our Nation. They are the soul of America, reflecting our multicultural and democratic experience. They further help us strive to be the more perfect Union to which generation after generation of Americans have aspired. They inspire us; provide livelihoods; sustain, anchor, and bring cohesion within diverse communities across our Nation; stimulate creativity and innovation; help us understand and communicate our values as a people; compel us to wrestle with our history and enable us to imagine our future; invigorate and strengthen our democracy; and point the way toward progress.
It is an honor to be a part of the community of workers in the art of theatre, seeking to have the impact President Biden so eloquently describes, and, with you all, to have the opportunity to practice the crafts of direction and choreography, which are so well celebrated in these pages.
In Solidarity,
Evan Yionoulis
Executive Board President