Stage Directors and Choreographers Society, or SDC (originally called the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers, or SSDC) was founded in 1959 by director Shepard Traube along with a small group of theatrical luminaries who united to create a labor union devoted to protecting stage directors and choreographers. Among the founders were Abe Burrows, Harold Clurman, Agnes de Mille, Bob Fosse, Hanya Holm, Elia Kazan, Ezra Stone, and Stuart Vaughan. Shepard Traube was elected as the first President of the Executive Board, with Agnes de Mille and Hanya Holm as First and Second Vice Presidents, respectively, and Ezra Stone as Secretary.
Those leaders—and the small group of women and men who joined them—founded the Union because they recognized that directors and choreographers were the only group of theatre workers on Broadway whose work lacked union protections. Their first major battle was to secure recognition as the official collective bargaining unit for Broadway directors and choreographers.
After two failed attempts to negotiate an agreement with the League of New York Theatres, in 1962 the SDC Executive Board authorized its Members to withhold their services from all first-class productions. It was only when Bob Fosse refused to break this strike pledge when offered a contract to direct and choreograph a production of Little Me that producers recognized the Union, setting the stage for the successful negotiation of the first SDC-Broadway Agreement.
Lloyd Richards, SDC President from 1970 to 1980; the LORT contract was ratified under his leadership, elevating SDC from a Broadway organization to a national one.
The second major battle for the Union was to achieve protections for directors and choreographers with the League of Resident Theatres, which was newly organized in 1966. After two years of stalled activity, negotiations with LORT began in 1968 and continued until a contract was officially signed on April 15, 1972, by SDC President Lloyd Richards and LORT President Thomas C. Fichandler. The Union achieved a contract that elevated it from a Broadway organization to a national one. It was a victory not about size—but about vision.
SDC’s legitimacy as an employee organization (rather than an association of freelance artists and independent contractors) was confirmed in a case against producer Jay Julien, litigated for eight years and decided in 1975. With the Union winning the important distinction that its Members are employees, this landmark decision was a tremendous victory and set the precedent on which SDC continues to base its existence as a union.
Throughout its history, SDC has tackled the complex issue of intellectual property rights with such cases as Gerald Gutierrez’s The Most Happy Fella (1994), Joe Mantello’s Love! Valour! Compassion! (1997), and John Rando and John Carrafa’s Urinetown (2006). These cases signified major achievements in the Union’s fight for directorial and choreographic intellectual property rights recognition.
In 2011, SDC led a successful arbitration against the producers of Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark over the termination of the show’s original director, Julie Taymor, without cause. After intense discussions, a settlement was reached; in the terms, the producers agreed to pay Taymor what was due under her contract, sending a strong signal to the industry that SDC Members’ intellectual property would be protected by the Union.
SDC Journal, a magazine dedicated to craft, was established by the Union in 2012 to provide a glimpse into the work practices and artistic visions of directors and choreographers. Since then, the Journal has given voice to an empowered collective of directors and choreographers working in all jurisdictions and venues across the country.
Also starting in 2012, the Union began its efforts to secure coverage of development work across all of SDC’s major collective bargaining agreements—including Broadway, Off-Broadway, and LORT—thus providing benefit contributions and property rights protections for SDC Members for this vital work. In the past decade, nearly 4,000 developmental contracts have been filed.
SDC Member David Ruttura, Resident Director of Phantom of the Opera, and the show’s cast hold up “Recognition Now” buttons during a 2015 organizing campaign for associate directors.
In 2016, inspired by a conviction that labor unions best serve their foundational purpose—to protect the rights of workers—when they are engaged politically, SDC joined the AFL-CIO’s Department of Professional Employees, a coalition of national unions representing more than four million professional and technical workers. Today, the Union serves as an active member of the Arts and Entertainment and Media Industry Coordinating Committee (AEMI).
SDC has, throughout its history, recognized that the lives of directors and choreographers have meaning—not simply for the world of these artists individually and collectively, but for the industry. In 2018, the Union launched Next Stage, a two-year, three-phase research project that used quantitative and qualitative data to reveal the many ways in which these central artists in the field were struggling. Published in 2020, the research study very clearly captured the professional and financial insecurities of directors and choreographers, particularly artists of color and women, and it included tangible actions that could be taken to address these needs.
Throughout the pandemic, as rehearsal rooms turned into Zoom rooms, SDC Members demonstrated their industry leadership as they guided productions of innovative remote and digital theatrical content. SDC was steadfast in its endeavor to elevate the profile of stage directors and choreographers by setting new standards for the capture of live stage productions, including fair compensation, prominent billing, collaboration with the camera director, and consultation on captured material prior to distribution. Additionally, as Members were asked to provide in-person services at theatres around the country, SDC led a collaboration with the American Guild of Musical Artists (AGMA) and an expert medical advisory panel to develop protocols for employers to ensure artists were protected when returning to work.
From left to right, SDC Executive Director Laura Penn and past SDC Board Presidents Karen Azenberg, Susan Schulman, Ted Pappas, Julianne Boyd, and Marshall Mason.
Driven by its commitment to increased transparency around non-discrimination and anti-harassment, SDC in recent years has established Labor-Management Committees with all its major multi-employer units: Off-Broadway, LORT, and the Broadway League. Each of these committees requires employers to engage with SDC specifically on topics of equity and access, to address needs and concerns outside of the bargaining cycle and to work together to find solutions to racial and gender equity issues that may fall outside the contractual relationship.
SDC has significantly expanded the size and strength of its Membership and its covered jurisdictions since 1959. Founded with 164 Members, SDC has grown to include more than 3,400 professional directors and choreographers working across the United States. Today, SDC provides vital employment protections, including health and pension benefits, through its many collectively bargained agreements, promulgated agreements, and independent producer agreements. SDC Members file more than 2,500 employment contracts per year, and SDC has expanded its employment jurisdiction to include associate/resident directors and choreographers and fight choreographers, securing minimum terms and conditions for their employment across several of SDC’s jurisdictions.
The directors and choreographers who founded SDC might not have imagined the growth and power the Union has today. But like its Founders, today’s Membership is ready to fight for the value of directors’ and choreographers’ work and is committed to furthering the strength of the labor movement, and the Union.