Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation (SDCF), the not-for-profit foundation of Stage Directors and Choreographers Society (SDC), has announced that Jonathan Moscone of the California Shakespeare Theater is the first recipient of the Zelda Fichandler Award, which recognizes an outstanding director or choreographer who is transforming the regional arts landscape through his singular creativity and artistry in theatre. It heralds both accomplishment to date and promise for the future, and artistic vision and deep investment in a region outside of New York.
The award will be presented on Sunday, December 6 at SDC's 50th anniversary west coast celebration. Gordon Davidson, founding artistic director of Los Angeles's Center Theatre Group, will present the award, which carries with it a $5,000 cash prize.
Named after Zelda Fichandler, one of the founders of the American regional theatre movement, the Award, established as part of SDC's current 50th anniversary season is SDCF's first award devoted to regional theatre, where the majority of professional theatre directors and choreographers in the United States now work. By establishing this Award, SDCF recognizes the profound impact of the founders of regional theatre and honors their legacy.
"I am a little stunned and very honored to get this award. I am grateful to SDC for recognizing the work of those of us in the regional theater, and I hope to do well by this award, and to live up to ideals of Zelda Fichandler as I continue my work at California Shakespeare Theater," said Mr. Moscone.
Jonathan Moscone will soon begin his tenth season as Artistic Director of California Shakespeare Theater where his work has earned him Bay Area Critics Circle and Dean Goodman Choice Awards for Best Direction and Production. His productions of Man and Superman, The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, Ghosts (Berkeley Rep), Twelfth Night, and The Seagull have all been named among the ten best productions by the San Francisco Chronicle and other area newspapers. He recently directed Eurydice at Milwaukee Rep and the world premiere of
Richard Nelson's How Shakespeare Won the West for Huntington Theatre; other regional credits include
Berkeley Repertory Theatre,
Intiman Theatre, San Jose Repertory Theater,
Dallas Theatre Center,
Goodspeed Musicals, Triangle Opera, Portland Stage Company, and Magic Theatre. He is the recipient of a Stanford Graduate School of Business Center for Social Innovation Fellowship and currently serves on the board of LoveLife Foundation and on the advisory board of Redwood High School, both in Oakland. He has also served as a grant review panelist for the Massachusetts Cultural Council, Theater Communications Group, and the National Endowment for the Arts.
The Fichandler Selection Committee is comprised of industry professionals; this year's committee included Stephen Albert, Alison Carey, Michael Garces, Loretta Greco, Sherry Kramer, Marc Masterson,
Tom Moore,
Sharon Ott, and
Laird Williamson.
The Award will serve as a complement to the "
Mr. Abbott" Award, presented annually in New York to recognize lifetime achievement, and the Joe A. Callaway Award, given for excellence in direction and choreography in non-Broadway productions in New York. The three awards are the only awards given to theatre directors and choreographers by their peers.
The Award will be given regionally on a rotating basis. This year it will be awarded to a director or choreographer who has made and who continues to make a significant contribution to theatre in the Western region (which comprises Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Texas, Utah, Washington, Wyoming). In subsequent years the Award will honor achievement in three other designated regions: Central, Eastern, and Southern.
Zelda Fichandler dedicated her early career to the establishment of America's regional theatre movement. In 1950 she founded Washington D.C.'s
Arena Stage and in 1968 she produced The Great White Hope, which became the first production to transfer from a regional theatre to Broadway, winning the Tony and the Pulitzer Prize, and launching the careers of
James Earl Jones and
Jane Alexander. Her production of Inherit the Wind toured Soviet St. Petersburg and Moscow and
Arena Stage was the first American theatre company sponsored by the State Department to do so. Like many other regional theatres afterward,
Arena Stage cultivated an evolving but resident company over the decades that included some of America's best actors:
Robert Prosky,
Frances Sternhagen,
George Grizzard,
Philip Bosco,
Ned Beatty,
Roy Scheider,
Robert Foxworth,
Jane Alexander,
James Earl Jones,
Melinda Dillon,
Dianne Wiest,
Max Wright,
Marilyn Caskey,
Harriet Harris, and
Tom Hewitt. In 1975 it was the first regional theatre to be recognized by the
American Theatre Wing and the Broadway League with the Regional Theatre Tony Award for outstanding achievement. When Ms. Fichandler retired as producing artistic director of
Arena Stage in 1990, she had achieved the longest tenure of any non-commercial producer in the annals of the American theater. Ms. Fichandler is Chair Emeritus of New York University's acclaimed graduate acting program where she personally taught, guided, and inspired more than 500 acting students, including
Marcia Gay Harden,
Rainn Wilson,
Billy Crudup,
Debra Messing,
Peter Krause, and
Michael C. Hall. She has received the
George Abbott Award,
The Acting Company's
John Houseman Award, the
Margo Jones Award, and the National Medal of Arts, and in 1999 she became the first artistic leader outside of New York to be inducted into the Theatre Hall of Fame.
Founded in 1965, Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation exists to foster, promote and develop the creativity and craft of stage directors and choreographers. SDCF's goals are to provide opportunities to pract
Ice The crafts of directing 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.
Stage Directors and Choreographers Society 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.
