Jessi D. Hill Awarded Second Denham Fellow Award

The Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation is proud to announce the recipient of the 2008 Denham Fellowship. The Denham Committee, comprised of board members Edie Cowan, Tisa Chang, Paul Lazarus, Sharon Ott and Mary Robinson, decided to name director Jessi D. Hill as the second Denham Fellow and award her $3,000 in support of her production of Angel Eaters at Flux Theatre Ensemble in New York, New York.

Jessi D. Hill holds a MFA from the Yale School of Drama and a BA from the University of Northern Colorado. She was a Mary Jean Parson Directing Scholarship award winner at Yale, the Artistic Director of Stage Left Theatre in Chicago, and the Director-in-Residence and Literary manager for the Ensemble Studio Theatre in New York City. In addition to her work as a freelance director, Ms. Hill has recently completed a four month stint as Staff Repertory Director for The Acting Company, also in New York.

The Denham Fellowship was established in October 2006, when the SDCFoundation received a bequest from the estate of Mary Orr Denham. Mrs. Denham’s directive for the funds was that they be used to establish a fellowship in honor of her late husband, Reginald H. F. Denham. Further, she instructed that the Foundation “shall make an annual award to aspiring young directors, and particularly women directors, to further develop their directing skills.” Mary Orr Denham wrote the short story, “The Wisdom of Eve”, on which the film “All About Eve” is based. Reginald H.F. Denham directed many plays on Broadway and in London and was also a prolific playwright and screenwriter. Mr. Denham was one of the founding members of the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers and served on the original Executive Committee of the SDCFoundation in 1965.

Since 1965, the Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation (SDCF) has been the only national organization dedicated exclusively to supporting the craft and artistry of stage directors and choreographers.  Among its core initiatives are the Observership Program (for Broadway, Off-Broadway, and Regional Theatre with Mentor Directors or Choreographers including Kathleen Marshall, Walter Bobbie, Rob Ashford, Doug Hughes, Wendy C. Goldberg and Chay Yew), the Mildred and Shepard Traube Fellowship (for Broadway Observerships), the Mike Ockrent Fellowship  (for an aspiring Broadway director), the Gielgud Fellowship (for an Assistant Director of Classical theatre), the Director/Choreographer Network (a monthly series of informational discussions followed by networking opportunities), the Director/Dramatist Exchange, the One-on-One Conversation Series, the “Mr. Abbott” Award for Lifetime Achievement, the Joe A. Callaway Award, and craft publications, The Journal for Stage Directors and Choreographers and Stage Directors Handbook.

For further information about the SDCF and its programs, go to www.sdcfoundation.org

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