Saheem Ali and Josh Prince Receive Callaway Awards From Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation

Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation announced that the 2022 Joe A. Callaway Awards will be awarded to Saheem Ali for excellence in directing for Fat Ham (The Public Theater) and Josh Prince for excellence in choreography for Trevor: the Musical (Stage 42). The Callaway Awards, along with the previously announced Gordon Davidson Award and Zelda Fichandler Award, will be presented in a virtual ceremony in February 2023.

The Callaway Awards are peer-given awards recognizing excellence in the arts of stage direction and choreography in a given New York City Off-Broadway season. Callaway finalists for excellence in directing are Knud Adams for English (Atlantic Theater Company), David Cromer for A Case for the Existence of God (Signature Theatre Company), and Rebecca Frecknall for Sanctuary City (New York Theatre Workshop). Callaway finalists for excellence in choreography are Danny Mefford for Kimberly Akimbo (Atlantic Theater Company), and Sergio Mejia for ¡Americano! (New World Stages). The Callaway Awards were first presented in 1989.

The 2021-2022 Callaway Committee was chaired by Pamela Berlin and included Maggie Burrows, Richard Hamburger, Darren Lee, Lori Leshner, Amy Saltz, Maria Torres, Christopher Windom, and Chay Yew.

Callaway Awards Committee Chair Pamela Berlin said in a statement, "The Callaway Awards are unique in being the only awards granted to directors and choreographers by a committee of their director and choreographer peers. We on the Callaway Committee this past year were excited and inspired by the dynamic and thrilling work of awardees Saheem Ali & Josh Prince as well as finalists Knud Adams, David Cromer, Rebecca Frecknall, Danny Mefford, and Sergio Mejia."

To learn more about the Callaway Awards, please visit this website: https://sdcfoundation.org/2021-2022-recipients-and-finalists/

Saheem Ali

is a proud immigrant from Kenya. He is the Associate Artistic Director/Resident Director of New York City's Public Theater. Recent productions include Goddess (Berkeley Rep), Fat Ham, Merry Wives (The Public), Nollywood Dreams (MCC), Romeo y Julieta, Shipwreck and Richard II (radio plays). Other productions: Fires in The Mirror (Signature Theater), The Rolling Stone (Lincoln Center Theater), The New Englanders (MTC), Passage (Soho Rep), Fireflies (Atlantic Theater Company), Dangerous House (Williamstown Theater Festival), Sugar in Our Wounds (MTC), Tartuffe (Playmakers Rep), Where Storms Are Born (WTF), Twelfth Night (The Public), Kill Move Paradise (National Black Theater) and Dot (Detroit Public Theater). He has workshopped new plays at Playwrights Horizons, Playwrights Realm, MCC, New York Stage & Film, Page 73 and The Lark. He is a Usual Suspect at New York Theater Workshop, Sir John Gielgud SDCF Fellow and a Shubert Fellow.

Josh Prince

began his career as an actor after graduating from the Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music. Along with numerous regional and concert engagements, he appeared on Broadway in Little Me and Saturday Night Fever, Off-Broadway in Forbidden Broadway, toured the country in Cats, and starred as "Carmen Ghia" in The Producers opposite Jason Alexander and Martin Short. Prince made his Broadway choreographic debut with the blockbuster hit Shrek, The Musical (Outer Critics Circle Nomination), which went on to tour the US, play in London's West End, and tour the UK. He is also the choreographer of the award-winning Broadway show, Beautiful - The Carole King Musical (Olivier, Helpmann, and Astaire Award nominations). Beautiful has since toured the US, UK, Japan, and Australia. He also choreographed the Disney Cruise Lines adaptation of the mega-hit animated film, Frozen, and his work can be seen in Trevor, The Musical, now on Disney+ (Lucille Lortel nomination, Chita Rivera Award, Broadway World Chicago Award). Current projects include new musicals A Walk on the Moon and Bliss.

Prince has choreographed at multiple prestigious venues in New York City, as well as across the US and UK including: New York City Center, Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, The Kennedy Center, BAM, The New Group, Stage 42, George St. Playhouse, ACT, Fifth Avenue Theater, Signature Theater (DC), The Old Vic, Royal Festival Hall, and Royal Albert Hall. He also served as Directer/Choreographer for a Canadian revival of Grease starring Janel Parrish at the Winter Garden Theater in Toronto. Prince is the proud Founding Artistic Director of Dance Lab New York - the only independent non-profit organization exclusively dedicated to promoting and advancing the art form of choreography by gifting vital resources to a diverse range of dance makers. By focusing on process over product, Dance Lab New York provides an oasis where choreographers can feel safe to take the risks that bring forth their boldest visions. www.dancelabny.org

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.

SDCF is committed to fostering an environment that is inclusive and does not discriminate on the basis of ethnicity, religion, disability, age, sexual orientation, or gender identity or expression in its programs or activities. www.sdcfoundation.org.

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