Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation Announces Liz Diamond as New SDCF Board President

Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation (SDCF), the not-for-profit foundation of Stage Directors and Choreographers Society (SDC), has announced that has been elected SDCF President, joining Board Officers Ellenore Scott (Vice-President and Secretary) and (Treasurer).  Also newly elected to the Board of Trustees are Jonathan Parker and Barbara Whitman, who join fellow SDCF Trustees Maggie Burrows, Justin Emeka, Laura Penn, , and Victoria Traube.

Says Diamond, “I have witnessed the impact of the work of Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation to support the development of young directors and choreographers, and have seen mid-career artists become freshly inspired, and more visible, thanks to opportunities SDCF provides for continued advancement. Through professional development, fellowships, and educational programs, and via its dedicated efforts to support artists in financial need, the SDCF empowers directors and choreographers at every stage of their artistic lives. Our whole field is lifted up by the work of the SDCF, and I am honored to serve this invaluable organization.”

“I am thrilled by Liz's appointment, as well as by Jonathan Parker and Barbara Whitman joining the Board this year,” said Dani Barlow, SDC Foundation Director. “The work SDCF does to support directors and choreographers throughout their careers continues to be essential to the future of the field. With Liz's leadership and the guidance of all our exceptional Board members, we will continue to provide strong, thoughtful, and necessary resources to artists across the country.”

SDCF launched its revitalized SDCF Professional Development Program in November 2022. This program provides vital opportunities to emerging and early-career directors and choreographers. SDCF also administers the New Futures Residency for mid-career directors and choreographers interested in artistic leadership and illuminating Black experiences on stage. SDCF offers in-person and virtual public programs such as one-on-one conversations, panels, networking opportunities, and the SDCF Podcast Series. SDCF awards include the “Mr. Abbott” and the for Lifetime Achievement, in addition to the Zelda Fichandler, Barbara Whitman, Abe Burrows, Breakout, and Joe A. Callaway Awards. SDCF also created and administers an Emergency Assistance Fund which has provided support to SDC Members and Associate Members.

Founded in 1965, Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation (SDCF) celebrates, develops, and supports professional stage directors and choreographers throughout every phase of their careers. We work to build a theatrical community that reflects the cultural, racial, and gender diversity of our nation by creating opportunities for artists of all backgrounds to bring their full, authentic selves to their work as creative leaders in the theatre. Visit our website: sdcfoundation.org

SDCF Board of Trustees

, Board President

is a Resident Director at Yale Rep and Chair of Directing at the School of Drama at Yale University.  Liz has directed productions at Yale Rep since 1991, notably including world and American premieres of plays by Suzan-Lori Parks, Marcus Gardley, Seamus Heaney, and new translations of classic texts by Euripides, Molière and Brecht.  She has also directed new plays and classical works at A.R.T., the Public, Arena Stage, the Women's Project, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and other New York and regional theatres, and has won the OBIE and the Connecticut Critics Circle Awards for Outstanding Direction. Liz serves on the Boards of the Krymov Lab NYC, Heartbeat Opera, and has served as a Visiting Professor at the Shanghai Theatre Academy in China.  Most recently, Liz directed Caryl Churchill's Escaped Alone at Yale Rep, Kisses Through the Glass by , and her own translation of Stravinsky's The Soldier's Tale at Carnegie's Zankel Hall.

Ellenore Scott, Vice President + Secretary

Ellenore Scott (she/her) is a BIPOC, New York based choreographer and director. Through her work, Scott values lifting diverse voices in her community while creating a joyous space where the creative process can bring as many people in as possible. Her Broadway credits include Grey House, Funny Girl, Mr. Saturday Night. Her Off-Broadway credits include Little Shop of Horrors, Titanique (Lucille Loretel Nomination). Other choreography credits include: So You Think You Can Dance?, Single All the Way (Netflix). In 2023, Scott co-directed The Lonely Few, a world premiere rock musical at The Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles, CA that transferred to Off-Broadway's MCC Theatre in Spring of 2024. Scott's work has also been seen at The Bushwick Starr, The Old Globe, Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival, McCarter Theatre, Cherry Lane Theatre, Asolo Repertory Theatre, Cape Fear Regional Theatre and . In 2020, Scott was a finalist for the SDC Breakout Award for the first ever TikTok Music Ratatouille: The TikTok Musical which raised over $2 million for The Entertainment Fund. As a performer, Scott appeared in numerous television shows (Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Smash, The Blacklist, Glee! to name a few) and was a finalist and All-Star on So You Think You Can Dance? Scott is the Artistic Director of ELSCO Dance, a contemporary-fusion dance company. Scott is thrilled to be joining the Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation Board as a Trustee. @helloellenore 

, Treasurer

is a Professor and serves as the Director of the School of Theatre and Dance at the University of Houston. Prior to her current appointment, she was the Chair of the Department of Theatre at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia. She began her career in academia as a Professor at the Savannah College of Art and Design. She led two major west coast theatres (Berkeley Repertory Theatre and ) for 21 years before shifting her focus to academia. She has directed at major theatres across the US, including the Manhattan Theatre Club, The Public Theatre, the Huntington Theatre, , Utah Shakespeare Festival, the Mark Taper Forum, Ford's Theatre, Arena Stage and many others. Her directing work has received many awards, including several Bay Area Theatre Critics' Award, Hollywood Dramalogue Awards, the Elliot Norton Award, Seattle Footlight Awards, and an Obie Award (with Theatre X- Milwaukee for A FIERCE LONGING). She accepted the Tony Award for Berkeley Rep as Outstanding Regional Theatre in 1998. She has also directed operas at Seattle Opera, San Diego Opera, and Opera Colorado. Her directing work in academic theatre has twice received citations for Outstanding Direction by the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival (for FAHRENHEIT 451 at Savannah College of Art and Design) and SHE KILLS MONSTERS: VIRTUAL WORLDS (with Dorie Barton and Wes Seals) at VCU. She was a long time Executive Board Member of SDC and received the President's Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Union in 2019.

Maggie Burrows

Maggie Burrows is a theater and film director living in New York City. She received her B.A. from Yale University, where she was a nominee for the Sudler Prize for Excellence in the Arts. She is a member of the Lincoln Center Directors Lab, the inaugural 2018-2019 BOLD Resident Director at Northern Stage, and the recipient of the 2018 Boris Sagal Directing Fellowship at Williamstown Theatre Festival. In 2020, in collaboration with the Roald Dahl Story Company, Maggie co-conceived and produced James and the Giant Peach with Taika and Friends to benefit Partners in Health. Select theater credits: TRAYF (Geffen Playhouse), On Your Feet! (The Muny), Indecent (Juilliard), Damsels (Williamstown Theatre Festival), The Sound of Music (Northern Stage), Spacebar (Wild Project). Film work includes her short Condolences and a GOTV video for Michelle Obama's When We All Vote organization.

Justin Emeka

Justin Emeka is the Resident Director at Pittsburgh Public Theater where he recently directed August Wilson's Two Trains Running.  He has worked at many theaters around the country including:  Yale Rep, Old Globe, Karamu House, Seattle Rep, , Philadelphia Theater Company, Seattle Theater Group and Classical Theater of Harlem. He has taught or directed at Juilliard, NYU Grad Acting, Skidmore, University of Washington and presented workshops to many different theater programs.   Some of his favorite directing projects include:   A Midsummer Night's Dream, Romeo n Juliet, Wedding Band, The Bluest Eye, Death of a Salesman, Paradise Blue, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, Sweat, Sunset Baby and Macbeth.  He is a member of Equity and SDC and holds an MFA in Directing from the University of Washington.  At Oberlin College he is an Associate Professor of Theater and Africana studies.

Jonathan Parker

Jonathan Parker is a retired employee benefits consultant from The Segal Company, a firm headquartered in New York City.  During his 35-year career at Segal, Mr. Parker worked extensively as an advisor to health and pension funds covering theatre professionals, including SDC directors and choreographers. Since retiring, Jonathan has been active as a volunteer, working with several organizations, including the English Speaking Union, the African Services Committee, and New York University.  His primary role has been as a conversation partner with immigrants from around the world, helping them improve their English language skills. In addition, he has worked as a mentor in a professional career development program.

Mr. Parker is a graduate of Yale University, where he majored in psychology, and devoted much of his time to a cappella singing.  Throughout his adult life, theatre-going has been a second “profession,” for which he has incredible passion.  In 2001, he was a recipient of the Working Theater's Bridge Award, which recognizes “extraordinary New Yorkers for bridging the gap between the arts, labor and community.”  Mr. Parker contributed an essay to the article, “What Does a Director Do?”, which appeared in the Fall2017 issue of the SDC Journal.  Jonathan takes great pride in having played Schroeder in the second cast of his high school production of You're A Good Man Charlie Brown.

Laura Penn

Laura Penn has been Executive Director of Stage Directors and Choreographers Society (SDC) since 2008. This year, she was appointed by President Biden to serve as a member of the President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities. Most recently, she was elected to the Board of the Entertainment Community Fund.

Under her leadership, SDC's Membership has grown more than 100%, a result of her work expanding jurisdictions; leading bold and successful negotiations; and furthering the Union's Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) initiatives and political engagement. She serves on the General Board of the Department for Professional Employees, AFL-CIO (DPE) and is an active member of DPE's Arts, Entertainment, and Media Industry Coordinating Committee (AEMI). She is co-Chair of the Coalition of Broadway Unions and Guilds, the first woman to hold a leadership position with this coalition of 18 influential unions representing workers on Broadway.

Laura serves on the Tony Awards Administration Committee and is a Tony Voter. She served as a panelist for the New York State Council for the Arts, for more than a decade was a site evaluator for the National Endowment for the Arts, was Vice President of the League of Resident Theatres, and was two-term Chair of the Seattle Arts Commission. Recognized with Seattle's Distinguished Citizen Medal, she is an advocate for civic dialogue and public participation and has been dedicated throughout her career to the idea that artistic excellence and community engagement are intrinsically connected. Laura previously served as an arts executive for Intiman Theatre and and began her career at D.C.'s Arena Stage, Living Stage Theatre Company. She currently teaches Labor Relations in the graduate program at the School of Drama at Yale.

' extensive career as a director, choreographer, educator, and began as a critically acclaimed performer. She is a celebrated choreographer in the performing arts, renowned for her dynamic and innovative contributions to Broadway, film, and international stages. Starting her career as a critically acclaimed performer, Maria has seamlessly transitioned to a leading force behind the scenes, with her choreographic vision prominently showcased across numerous high-profile projects. Currently, she is co-choreographing the highly anticipated musical Take the Lead, demonstrating her ongoing commitment to innovative dance storytelling. Her past choreographic highlights include pivotal roles in the six-time Tony-nominated Swing! and the Oscar-nominated film Enchanted. Maria's choreography for Idlewild, featuring the music duo OUTKAST, has also been widely acclaimed.

Her extensive work includes choreographing Disney's Golden Mickeys, Best of Both Worlds, and Man of La Mancha. In 2018, she was nominated for an Ovation Award for Best Choreography for Luis Valdez's Zoot Suit. Additionally, she is a and Carbonell nominee for Four Guys Named Jose, The Donkey Show, and Celia—a celebrated musical tribute to the iconic Cuban singer Celia Cruz. Maria collaborated with Diane Paulus on The Donkey Show and Disney's Golden Mickeys, further adding to her diverse portfolio of innovative theatrical experiences. She has served as the Associate Choreographer for Broadway's On Your Feet, the Oscar-nominated Enchanted, the musical film Idlewild, and the Tony Award-winning In The Heights. Her work on So You Think You Can Dance in the US and Canada earned her a Choreography Medal Award. Her other television credits include choreography for Amazon's The Tick, CBS's EVIL, and AMC's TURN: Washington Spies.

Internationally, Maria has directed and choreographed the UK's Magic Of Salsa Kingdom and the Off-Broadway sensation Latin Heat. At Jacob's Pillow, she led the Dance Theatre Afro Latin Immersion program, significantly influencing emerging dancers. She also recently directed and choreographed Sol of El Barrio and served as a dance consultant for Summer: The Donna Summer Musical on Broadway. She also worked with Tony Award-winner Hinton Battle as the associate director of The Hinton Battle Experience. Her leadership roles include serving as an Executive Board member of both the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society (SDC) and the Choreography Guild, as well as a Trustee of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation (SDCF). She also holds a position as Board Executive and Artist's Associate at The Rosetta LeNoire's Amas Musical Theatre. Maria's educational and creative efforts are highlighted by her creation of the Latin Jazz dance technique, which integrates cultural rhythms with contemporary dance. A Dance Magazine Honoree, her significant contributions to dance, and her life story are also archived in the Jerome Robbins Dance Oral History Project at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. Additionally, she is now artist-in-residence at the Performing Arts Library at Lincoln Center for the Legacy Project.

Victoria Traube

Victoria Traube is an entertainment lawyer who became a consultant to Concord Theatricals and Concord Originals on September 1, 2024.   Previously, she was Executive Vice President, Business and Legal Affairs of Concord Theatricals, North America for 29 years, where she was responsible for the business and legal affairs of Concord Theatricals, Rodgers & Hammerstein, and Concord's motion picture and television division. She started work at The Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization in 1995 when it was still owned by the Rodgers & Hammerstein families. From 1987 through mid-1995, she was Vice President and Head of New York Motion Picture and Theatre Business Affairs for International Creative Management, Inc., where she worked with .  Before that she was Senior Counsel and Director of Business Affairs for Home Box Office, Inc. and an associate at the New York law firm of Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison.

She received a special Mr. Abbott Award in 2019 from Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation. She is a member of the Honorary Advisory Committee of Stage Directors and Choreographers Society, a Trustee of Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation, and a Trustee of The God Bless America Fund.  She previously served as Theatre Chair of the American Bar Association's Forum on the Sports and Entertainment Industries and Chair of the Entertainment Law Committee of the Association of The Bar of The City of New York. She co-wrote the theatre chapter in “The Essential Guide to Entertainment Law: Dealmaking” (2018 Juris Publishing).

She has taught seminars and spoken on panels on theatre and motion picture law and business affairs at Columbia Law School, Wesleyan University, New York University, the SDC Foundation, and the ABA Forum on the Sports and Entertainment Industries, among others.

She is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania Law School and Radcliffe College.

Barbara Whitman

Barbara Whitman is a theatrical producer who made her Broadway debut producing A Raisin in the Sun, starring Sean Combs, Phylicia Rashad, Audra McDonald, and Sanaa Lathan. Other Broadway credits include Good Night, Oscar starring Sean Hayes, A Strange Loop (Tony Award and Drama Desk Award, Best Musical and Pulitzer Prize),  Diana – The Musical, Burn This starring Adam Driver and Keri Russell, Angels in America (Tony and Drama Desk Award, Best Play Revival), 1984, The Glass Menagerie starring Sally Fields, War Paint starring Patti LuPone and Christine Ebersole, The Humans (Tony Award, Best Play), Oh, Hello starring Nick Kroll and John Mulaney, Fully Committed starring Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Fun Home (Tony Award, Best Musical), Hedwig and the Angry Inch (Tony and Drama Desk Award, Best Musical Revival), Of Mice and Men starring James Franco, If/Then starring Idina Menzel, Hands on a Hardbody, Red (Tony and Drama Desk Awards, Best Play), Next to Normal (Pulitzer Prize), Hamlet starring Jude Law, 33 Variations starring Jane Fonda, Mary Stuart, Legally Blonde – The Musical, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.  National tours include Fun Home, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, If/Then, Murder for Two, Next to Normal, Legally Blonde – The Musical, …Spelling Bee, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and Frost/Nixon.  A native New Yorker, Barbara attended NYU's Gallatin School and received an MFA in Theatre Management and Producing from Columbia University. She's a member of the Broadway League, and Columbia University's School of the Arts Dean's Council.  Upcoming productions include Ceilidh by Scott Gilmour and Claire McKenzie.  

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