Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation is Accepting Nominations For the 2023 Zelda Fichandler Award

Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation (SDCF), the not-for-profit foundation of Stage Directors and Choreographers Society (SDC), announced that nominations for the Zelda Fichandler Award, for a director or choreographer who is transforming theatre in the Eastern Region, are now being accepted through August 21, 2023.  Named for a giant of the regional theatre movement, the Zelda Fichandler Award recognizes directors and choreographers who are in the heart of their creative lives; who demonstrate great accomplishment to-date and promise for the future; and who have made prominent achievements in the field with singular creativity and artistry and deep investment in a particular place outside of the New York arena. The Award is not to honor lifetime achievement. The goal of the Fichandler Award is to encourage those artists who have made a commitment to creating regional theatre.

Established in 2009, the Zelda Fichandler Award is SDCF’s first award devoted to regional theatre in the United States. With this award, SDCF acknowledges the profound impact the founders of regional theatre have had on the field, honoring their legacy through the recognition of the extraordinary individuals who are transforming the national arts landscape with their unique and creative work.

The Fichandler Award is given annually on a rotating basis to a different region in the United States. In 2023, it will be given to a director or choreographer who has made, and who continues to make, a significant contribution to the community through extraordinary work in theatre in the Eastern Region of the United States, comprised of Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Vermont, Virginia, Washington D.C., and West Virginia.

Nominations will be accepted from all sources through Monday, August 21, 2023. Nominators need not be SDC Members, but nominees must be SDC Members, in good standing, who are not previous recipients of the Award. Late nominations and self-nominations will not be accepted.  A short nomination form and detailed guidelines are available on the SDCF website. The Award will be presented at an awards ceremony in the coming year.

The Fichandler Award recipient receives an unrestricted award of $5,000 from SDCF. Recent Zelda Fichandler Award recipients include Loretta Greco, then of Magic Theatre in San Francisco, CA (2018); Marcela Lorca of Ten Thousand Things Theater in St. Paul, MN (2019); Kamilah Forbes of the Apollo Theater in New York, NY (2020); Mark Valdez, an LA-based director, writer, and cultural organizer (2021), Ron OJ Parson Chicago-based director (2022).