Leslie Ishii Will Receive Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation Zelda Fichandler Award
The award is presented annually, with a focus each year on a different region.
Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation has announced the recipient and finalist for its annual Zelda Fichandler Award. The Fichandler Award recognizes directors and choreographers who have demonstrated great accomplishment to date with singular creativity and deep investment in a particular community or region, and is named for Zelda Fichandler, the founding artistic director of Arena Stage in Washington, D.C. The award is presented annually, with a focus each year on a different region; all of nominees for this year’s Fichandler Award were directors and choreographers from the Western United States.
The 2024 Zelda Fichandler Award will be presented to Leslie Ishii, director, arts educator, activist, and community builder based in the Western region. She will receive an unrestricted award of $5,000 from SDCF. Snehal Desai has been named as a finalist. Leslie and Snehal will be recognized in a virtual ceremony open to the public in Spring 2025.
The selection committee for the 2024 Fichandler Award was chaired by director M. Graham Smith, who was joined on the committee by directors and choreographers Sara Bruner, Karina Gutiérrez, Jeffrey Lo, and Chip Miller.
M. Graham Smith shared this statement honoring Leslie’s and Snehal’s work, “The committee was inspired by the many remarkable artistic and civic accomplishments of this year’s nominees for the Zelda Fichandler Award for the Western Region. Each of them is extending and transforming Zelda’s legacy in bold and unique ways. It is with great joy that we recognize Leslie Ishii as the 2024 Fichandler Award winner for her sustained record of service in the Western region spanning a remarkable variety of theatre making, community building, and advocacy achievements. The committee also honors Snehal Desai as this year’s finalist; his artist vision and bold leadership galvanizes our confidence in a robust future for our field. As we lift up their work with this award, we are reminded how they continually lift up and serve our field. Reflecting together on Zelda’s pathbreaking, we know that both Leslie and Snehal will be beacons to future generations of directors.”
Said Leslie of receiving this award, “Amidst the Los Angeles fires, where I have been visiting with my spouse and community throughout this holiday season, I share that I am heart-sick for those suffering over lives, homes and evidence of histories lost. At the same time, I am extremely grateful for my safety and a roof still over my head. As myself and our colleagues work to support each other through this disaster of historic proportions, I am so proud of our theatre community which has reached out to check each other’s status and to support with volunteering, donating, and making sure we each have updated information and support to receive resources if needed. With this disaster, we see our future unfold before us here in Los Angeles and recognize even more those who have repeatedly struggled with climate change.
Community care is always my priority and I observe as we are tested each day with warnings and evacuations, each of us are ever prepared as we lead with the trust that has been built over productions, seasons, and years throughout our careers. I believe Zelda would be proud of us leading and working as the largest ensemble ever and how we are already imagining our future and how we can rebuild it truly honoring the leaders, elders, and descendants of the sacred homelands of the Gabrielino-Tongva, Chumash, and Indigenous of this region. We have an opportunity to create processes and models that work to cure and bring forth transformative systemic change for healing justice, resilience, and our collective liberation. I am deeply humbled and honored to receive the 2024 SDC Foundation Zelda Fichandler Award and I hear Zelda whispering in my ear to lead from Alaska to the Lower 48 to keep working with our colleagues and communities for our sustainability as we are called to tell the true stories and histories that support reclamation of our health and well-being.”
To read more about the awardee and finalists, visit this website page: https://sdcfoundation.org/2024-zelda-fichandler-award-recipient-and-finalist/
Comments
Videos