SDC Announces Garry Hynes And Martha Clarke As Winners Of 2009 Calloway Awards

The Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation has announced that the winners of the 2009 Joe A. Callaway Awards for excellence in the crafts of directing and choreography are director Garry Hynes for The Cripple of Inishmaan and choreographer Martha Clarke for Garden of Earthly Delights. The Cripple of Inishmaan was produced by the Atlantic Theater and Druid Theatre companies and Garden of Earthly Delights was produced by Rhoda Herrick in association with David Grausman and Barbara Foy.

Garry Hynes founded Ireland's Druid Theatre Company in 1975 and has worked as its Artistic Director from 1975 to 1991, and from 1995 to date. From 1991 to 1994 she was Artistic Director of The Abbey Theatre, Dublin. Some of her many productions include: The Cripple of Inishmaan (Irish Tour, UK Tour and Atlantic Theater, New York); DruidSynge (Galway Arts Festival, Dublin, Edinburgh International Festival and Inis Meáin 2005; Minneapolis and Lincoln Center Festival New York 2006); Sharon's Grave, Sive, The Beauty Queen of Leenane, The Leenane Trilogy (Royal Court co-productions); The Weir (Gate Theatre, Dublin); Juno (Encores New York City Center); Translations (McCarter/Manhattan Theater Club, New York); Mr Peters' Connections (Signature Theatre, New York); Crimes of the Heart (Second Stage, New York); My Brilliant Divorce (West End); 16 Wounded (Broadway); A Streetcar Named Desire (Kennedy Center, Washington); King of the Castle, The Plough and the Stars, The Power of Darkness, Portia Coughlan (The Abbey Theatre). Miss Hynes has received honorary doctorates from the University of Dublin (2004), the National University of Ireland (1998) and the National Council for Education Awards (1988), and a Tony Award for Direction for The Beauty Queen of Leenane (1998). She is a recipient of many other theatre awards, including The Irish Times/ESB Irish Theatre Award for Best Director and a Special Tribute Award for her contribution to Irish Theatre (2005).

Martha Clarke, a MacArthur Award winner, was a founding member of Pilobolus Dance Theatre and has choreographed for the Nederlans Dans Theater, American Ballet Theatre, Rambert Dance Company and The Martha Graham Company, among others. As a director, Clarke's many original productions include Garden of Earthly Delights, Vienna: Lusthaus, Miracolo d'amore, Endangered Species, An Uncertain Hour, The Hunger Artist and Vers la flame. She directed the premiere of Christopher Hampton's Alice's Adventures Underground at the Royal National Theatre in London; The Magic Flute for the Glimmerglass Opera and the Canadian Opera Company; Cosi fan tutte for Glimmerglass; Tan Dun's Marco Polo for Munich Biennale, the Hong-Kong Festival and the New York City Opera; and Gluck's Orfeo and Euridice for the English National Opera and the New York City Opera; A Midsummer Night's Dream for The American Repertory Theatre and created Belle Epoque for Lincoln Center Theater. Clarke has received grants from the Guggenheim Foundation as well as the National Endowment for the Arts. She has received the Drama Desk Award, two Obie Awards and the L.A. Critics Award. Her Kaos, presented at the New York Theatre Workshop, was awarded the first Tony Randall Foundation Award in 2006. In 2007, the NEA awarded a grant to re-envision her Garden of Earthly Delights under a program dedicated to the remounting of American masterworks.

Created in 1989, the Callaway Awards were endowed by actor/director/teacher Joe A. Callaway and are presented annually in recognition of outstanding work in Off- and Off-Off-Broadway productions during the New York City theatre season from September 1 - August 31.

The Callaway Committee consists of 13 SDC Director and Choreographer Members:
Melvin Bernhardt, Leslie (Hoban) Blake, Linda Burson, Hope Clarke, Edie Cowan, Susan Einhorn, John Going, Bick Goss, Gus Kaikkonen, Sue Lawless, Michael Montel, Tony Parise, and Melanie Sutherland. The Committee selected the winners from the following eight finalists for 2009-five directors and three choreographers-whom they culled from hundreds of eligible artists:

Directors
Mark Brokaw, Distracted (Roundabout at Laura Pells Theatre)
Garry Hynes, The Criple of Inishmaan (Atlantic Theater Company at Linda Gross Theater)
Michael Parva, Irena's Vow (Baruch Performing Arts Center)
Daniel Sullivan, Twelfth Night (The Public at Delacorte Theater)
Kate Whoriskey, Ruined (NY City Center Stage 1)

Choreographers
Martha Clarke, Garden of Earthly Delights (Minetta Lane Theatre)
Bill T. Jones, Fela! (37 Arts)
Wendy Seyb, The Toxic Avenger (New World Stages)

Ms. Hynes and Ms. Clarke received their awards in a presentation immediately preceding the Annual Membership meeting of the SDC at Playwrights Horizons last Monday night.

Previous Callaway Award winners include Joe Mantello, Graciela Daniele, George C. Wolfe, Susan Stroman, Scott Elliott, Frank Galati, Julie Taymor, Moisés Kaufman, Jack O'Brien, Gabriel Barre, Devanand Janki, Daniel Sullivan, Christopher Gattelli and Doug Hughes.

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.

Founded in 1965, SDCF exists to foster, promote and develop the creativity and craft of stage directors and choreographers. SDCF's goals are to provide opportunities to practIce The crafts of direction and choreography; to gather and disseminate craft and career information; to promote the profession to emerging talent; to provide opportunities for exchange of knowledge among directors and choreographers; and to increase the awareness of the value of directors' and choreographers' work.