Christopher Jackson, Condola Rashad, and More Set for SDCF's MR. ABBOTT Award Ceremony Honoring Kenny Leon

The Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation (SDC Foundation), the not-for-profit foundation of Stage Directors and Choreographers Society (SDC), announces talent for the star-studded "Mr. Abbott" Award Gala at espace in New York City on March 27.

Leading artists who have collaborated with Mr. Leon on Broadway, at True Colors Theatre Company in Atlanta, and on television are slated to participate in the evening's entertainment. Christopher Jackson, whom Mr. Leon directed in Holler If Ya Hear Me, will join Stick Fly's Condola Rashad; Phylicia Rashad, who won a Tony Award for her work in A Raisin in the Sun; Shanice Williams of The Wiz Live! for NBC/Storyline Entertainment; blues musician Bill Sims Jr. of America's Blues; Tony Award winner Ruben Santiago-Hudson (Jitney); and community leader, NBA legend, and four-time MVP Julius "Dr. J" Erving for the festivities.

Lydia R. Diamond (Stick Fly) pens the evening's script, and Kamilah Forbes (The Apollo) directs a special tribute performance honoring Kenny Leon.

Forbes stated, "This is an incredible group of artists coming together to recognize the amazing contribution Kenny has made to the field through his body of work. I am thrilled to be part of it."

Mr. Leon receives the award in recognition of the outstanding artistry and creativity of his forty-year (and counting) career.

SDC Foundation Director David Roberts stated, "Kenny's career is extraordinary not only in terms of his own success, but also when you think about the artists he has worked with along the way and the careers he has launched and continues to impact. His vision and commitment to a more diverse and varied American theatre embodies the Foundation's mission to create access and connections for directors and choreographers across the country."

Derek McLane (Hairspray Live!) will design the decor, and Daryl Waters will music direct the tribute performance. Dancing to follow with music by DJ Reborn (BAM's Poetry 2013: Gamechangers).

The gala is co-chaired by Neil Meron and Craig Zadan of Storyline Entertainment along with SDC Executive Board Members Oz Scott and Michael Wilson; honorary co-chairs are Robert Greenblatt of NBC Entertainment, Samuel L. Jackson and LaTanya Richardson, 2013 "Mr. Abbott" Award winner Jerry Mitchell, John Stamos, and Denzel and Pauletta Washington.

Proceeds from the gala will benefit Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation, whose mentorship programs, community forums, and public events develop and promote the creativity and craft of directors and choreographers and foster a cross-generational, national theatre community.

Host Committee members include: Mrs. George Abbott, Karen Azenberg, Mark Brokaw, Valerie Mosley, Susan H. Schulman, Leigh Silverman, The Broadway League, Creative Artists Agency, Penn State University School of Theatre, Pryor Cashman LLP, The Shubert Organization, Temple University, True Colors Theatre Company, University of Rochester.

The "Mr. Abbott" Award, presented by SDC Foundation on behalf of directors and choreographers to one of their peers, is named in honor of the late renowned stage director George Abbott.

The evening's festivities will include an open bar and dinner followed by a tribute performance and dancing. For more information, please visit www.SDCFoundation.org or call (646) 524-2227.

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Kenny Leon is a Tony Award-winning Broadway and film director. His Broadway credits include the 2014 revival of A Raisin in the Sun (Tony Award Winner for Best Direction of a Play and Best Revival), The Mountaintop starring Samuel L. Jackson and Angela Bassett, Stick Fly produced by Alicia Keys and Nelle Nugent, August Wilson's Fences starring Denzel Washington and Viola Davis (which garnered ten Tony nominations and won three Tony Awards including Best Revival), the 2004 revival of A Raisin in the Sun with Sean P. Diddy Combs, Audra McDonald, and Phylicia Rashad, Gem of the Ocean, Radio Golf, and the 2014 premiere of Holler If Ya Hear Me, a new musical created using the music of Tupac Shakur. Off-Broadway credits have included critically-acclaimed productions of Thulani Davis' Everybody's Ruby at The Public Theater and Lydia Diamond's Smart People at Second Stage, among others. Leon's recent TV and film work includes Hairspray LIVE! and The Wiz LIVE! both for NBC/Storyline Entertainment, In My Dreams for HallMark Hall of Fame, The Watsons go to Birmingham for Walden Media and Hallmark, episodes of Private Practice and Ghost Whisperer, A Raisin in the Sun for Sony Pictures Television, and the Sony and Lifetime TV adaptation of Steel Magnolias. Leon was awarded the 2010 Julia Hansen Award for Excellence in Directing by the Drama League of New York.

Prior to co-founding True Colors Theatre Company, he served 11 years as Artistic Director of the ALLIANCE THEATRE, where he produced the premieres of Disney's Elaborate Lives: The Legend of Aida, Pearl Cleage's Blues for an Alabama Sky and Alfred Uhry's The Last Night of Ballyhoo. Other directorial credits include Toni Morrison's opera Margaret Garner, the world premiere of Flashdance: The Musical, and the complete August Wilson Century Cycle at the Kennedy Center. He has directed extensively throughout the US, including at Chicago's Goodman Theatre, Boston's Huntington Theatre, Baltimore's Center Stage, Los Angeles' Center Theatre Group, and New York's Public Theater. Leon is also the Co-Founder of the National August Wilson Monologue Competition for high school students, a national education program teaching reading comprehension, public speaking, and performance techniques through the work of the two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright. Mr. Leon is an alumni of Clark Atlanta University.

For more information about the "Mr. Abbott" Award and other SDC Foundation programs, please visit http://sdcfoundation.org/recognition-advocacy/the-mr-abbott-award/.

About SDC FOUNDATION

For 50 years, Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation has developed and promoted the creativity and craft of directors and choreographers. SDC Foundation's mission is to create access to the field, to connect artists, and to honor the theatrical legacy of these artists. The centrality of the director's role in theatre and the impact that they have on other artists' careers-from playwrights to designers to actors-makes SDC Foundation's services essential to the theatre industry's health and continued vitality.

Through mentorship programs, community forums and public events, SDC Foundation constructs paths for early-career directors and choreographers from all backgrounds to interact with established artists around the country, puts mid-career artists in the room together to debate and solve issues they face in the business, and reaches beyond the theatre industry to tell the story of what directors and choreographers contribute to the art form. In a discipline that can often feel isolating, SDC Foundation serves the needs of artists at all stages, building a cross-generational theatre community. www.sdcfoundation.org