Harold Prince To Guest For 50th Anniversary Installment of SDC's One-on-One Conversation Series 10/5

Stage Directors and Choreographers Society (SDC) announces that the 50th Anniversary installment of the One-on-One Conversation Series will feature Tony-Award winning Director, and Chairman of SDC's 50th Anniversary Honorary Committee, Hal Prince,. The moderator for the event will be Robert Marx of the Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation. The event will be held on Monday October 5th, 2009 at 5pm at The Mainstage Theatre in the Playwrights Horizons Building, 416 West 42nd St. Tickets are $20 and are available through Ticket Central (www.TicketCentral.com).

SDC's One-on-One Conversation Series explores the careers and creative processes of the Theatre's foremost Directors and Choreographers. These evenings provide the rare opportunity to interact with masters of the theatre, and hear them speak on a broad range of topics. Each 90-minute session is an in-depth interview of artists by a moderator, with questions from an audience of Directors, Choreographers, students, theatre artists and theatre enthusiasts.

Hal Prince directed the original productions of Cabaret, Sweeney Todd, A Little Night Music, The Phantom of the Opera, She Loves Me, Company, Follies, Candide, Pacific Overtures, Evita, Parade, and LoveMusik. He is currently working on a glamorous new musical, Paradise Found, with Richard Nelson, Ellen Fitzhugh, Jonathan Tunick and Susan Stroman, and music by Johann Strauss II. He is the recipient of a National Medal of Arts for the year 2000 from President Clinton for a career spanning more than 40 years, in which "he changed the nature of the American musical." The recipient of 21 Tony Awards, he was a 1994 Kennedy Center Honoree.

This One-on-One Conversation Series is part of SDC's year-long celebration of the Union's 50th Anniversary. It began in April with a Founders Luncheon at Sardi's and continues with special events being held at Regional theatres throughout the country and programs such as the One-on-One Conversation with Hal Prince. The most prominent celebration of the year will be the 50th Anniversary Gala to be held on Sunday November 8th at Tribeca Rooftop in New York City. The gala will be a fundraiser for the Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation's Observership and Fellowship Programs

SDC is a national theatrical labor union whose mission is to foster a national community of professional stage Directors and Choreographers by protecting the rights, health and livelihoods of all of its members; to facilitate the exchange of ideas, information and opportunities, while educating the current and future generations about the role of Directors and Choreographers and providing effective administration, negotiations and contractual support.

Harold Prince directed the original productions of Cabaret, Sweeney Todd, A Little Night Music, The Phantom of the Opera, She Loves Me, Company, Follies, Candide, Pacific Overtures, Evita, Parade, and LoveMusik. Before becoming a director, Mr. Prince's productions included The Pajama Game, Damn Yankees, West Side Story, Fiddler on the Roof, Fiorello! and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. Among the plays he has directed are Hollywood Arms, The Visit, The Great God Brown, End of the World, Play Memory and his own play, Grandchild of Kings. He prepared a new version of Phantom, which is running in Las Vegas at the Venetian Hotel. He is currently working on a glamorous new musical, Paradise Found, with Richard Nelson, Ellen Fitzhugh, Jonathan Tunick and Susan Stroman, and music by Johann Strauss II. His opera productions have been seen at Lyric Opera of Chicago, the Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Dallas Opera, Vienna Staatsoper and the Theater Colon in Buenos Aires. He served as a trustee for the New York Public Library and on the National Council of the Arts of the NEA. Recently, he became an officer with the Order of Arts and Letters from the French Government for "contributing significantly to furthering the arts in France and throughout the world." He is the recipient of a National Medal of Arts for the year 2000 from President Clinton for a career spanning more than 40 years, in which "he changed the nature of the American musical." The recipient of 21 Tony Awards, he was a 1994 Kennedy Center Honoree.

Robert Marx is Vice-President/Managing Director of the Fan Fox & Leslie R. Samuels Foundation in New York City. He was director of the theatre programs at both the NY State Council on the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts in Washington, D.C., and was the first executive director of Lincoln Center's NY Public Library for the Performing Arts. He has worked with major theatres, opera companies and international arts festivals from Los Angeles to Salzburg, and has also co-produced plays Off-Broadway, collaborating with stage directors Peter Hall, Bartlett Sher, Anne Bogart, RoBert Woodruff, and the playwright/director Richard Nelson. His essays on theatre and opera have been published in major newspapers and magazines ranging from The New York Times to Opera News, as well as in collections of critical writing. He often appears on public programs at Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, BAM and Symphony Space, and since 1995, has been a featured intermission commentator and Opera Quiz panelist on the Metropolitan Opera's international radio broadcasts.

Photo Credit: Walter McBride/Retna Ltd.