Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation Awards Two Directing Fellowships

Director Joshua Chase Gold has been selected to be the 2016 SDCF Charles Abbott Fellow. He will be assisting Charles Abbott on his production of South Pacific at Walnut Street Theatre in Philadelphia, PA.

Established by a wide group of friends and colleagues of Charles Abbott to honor him upon his retirement as Artistic Director of Maine State Music Theatre, the goal of the Charles Abbott Fellowship is to help early-career directors and director-choreographers of promise develop their skills in directing musical theatre by allowing them access to the entire rehearsal process as a master artist directs a classic American musical in a regional theatre of national recognition. This Fellowship will continue to present a new generation of gifted artists with a remarkable education in - and unique understanding of - the directorial skills necessary to create musical theatre, the workings of regional theatre, and the leadership of those artists shaping the regional arts landscape.

Joshua Chase Gold is honored to be the recipient of the 2016 SDCF Charles Abbott Fellowship. Some of his directing work has been seen at the Orlando Repertory Theatre, Theatre Row, Aurora Fox Arts Center, New York International Fringe Festival, United Solo Theatre Festival, Hudson Theatre, and the West Village Musical Theatre Festival. Joshua has also spent time assistant directing at the Denver Center Theatre Company and Pasadena Playhouse. He has guest directed and taught at the University of Central Florida, Fordham University, Stevens College, and St. John's University. For six years, Joshua was co-Artistic Director of Counting Squares Theatre, where his productions of Bent and Woyzeck earned him one of the 2008 New York Independent People of the Year Awards. Joshua has helped develop and directed The Unthinkable Pinks, Spanky & Spry, A Fistful of Bees, Into the Wild Blue, and The Best Day of Your Life. A candidate for his MFA in Directing, Joshua's thesis, David Adjmi's Marie Antoinette, will open at Brooklyn College on December 8. For more, visit www.joshuachasegold.com.

Director Diane Rodriguez was chosen as the 2016 SDCF Denham Fellow for her production of her play, The Sweetheart Deal, which she will also direct in a co-production between El Teatro Campesino and the Latino Theatre Company in Los Angeles. The Sweetheart Deal, which takes place in 1970 - in the midst of the largest Chicano social movement of the century, led by Cesar Chavez - sheds light on the struggles of farm workers, their family members and their allies and explores the political tension between the personal and public.

Established by Mary Orr Denham in 2006 with a bequest to SDC Foundation in honor of her late husband, Reginald H. F. Denham, the Denham Fellowship is an annual award to women directors to further develop their directing skills. Past recipients include May Adrales, Tea Alagic, Rachel Alderman, Kathleen Amshoff, Jessi D. Hill, Joanie Schultz, Bridget Leak, and Hannah Ryan.

Diane Rodriguez is an OBIE winning theatre artist, regional theatre director and Associate Artistic Director of Center Theatre in Los Angeles. In Spring of 2017, her latest play, THE SWEETHEART DEAL will be produced at the Los Angeles Theatre Center by the Latino Theatre Company. She will direct. THE SWEETHEART DEAL has been developed at New Harmony Playwrights Project and the Atlantic Theatre's Latino MixFest in New York City. Diane has directed and developed the work of many playwrights including Nilo Cruz, LynnNottage, Lloyd Suh, Jacqueline Lawton, Sean Lewis, Erik Patterson (LA Weekly Best Director Nomination for "Sick"), Annie Weisman, Oliver Mayer, Octavio Solis, Jessica Goldberg, John Leguizamo (Arizoni Award Best Director Nomination Award for "Spic O Rama), Dan Guerrero, Richard Montoya, Roger Smith, Culture Clash (Arizoni Best Director Nomination for "Border Town"), among others. She has directed at City Theatre in Pittsburg, PA, Mixed Blood, South Coast Repertory, San Jose Repertory, Hartford Stage, Sundance Theatre Lab; in Arizona at Actors Theatre of Phoenix, the Phoenix Theatre, Borderlands Theatre; in Los Angeles at Playwright' s Arena, the Fountain Theatre, East West Players, Center Theatre Group, Pasadena Playhouse, Cornerstone Theatre and Ojai Playwrights Conference, among others. Diane will direct her own play, "The Sweetheart Deal" in April of 2017 in Los Angeles at the Los Angeles Theatre Center for the Latino Theatre Lab in Association with El Teatro Campesino. This production is part of the Latino Theatre Commons, El Fuego Project.

For 50 years, Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation has developed and promoted the creativity and craft of directors and choreographers. SDCF'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 theater and the impact that they have on other artists' careers-from playwrights to designers to actors-makes SDCFs services essential to the theater industry's health and continued vitality.

Through mentorship programs, community forums and public events, SDCF 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 theater industry to tell the story of what directors and choreographers contribute to the art form. In a discipline that can often feel isolating, SDCF serves the needs of artists at all stages, building a cross-generational theater community. Go to www.sdcfoundation.org.