HIGHLIGHTS FROM

STAGE DIRECTORS AND CHOREOGRAPHERS FOUNDATION 2019

“MR. ABBOTT” AWARD GALA AND SDC 60TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION

HOSTED BY DAVID HYDE PIERCE AND DIRECTED BY JERRY MITCHELL

  

(March 26, 2019) Last night Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation (SDCF), the non-for-profit foundation of Stage Directors and Choreographers Society (SDC), hosted the annual “Mr. Abbott” Award gala and celebrated the 60th anniversary of SDC.

The celebration began at the Metropolitan Club where James Lapine (2015 “Mr. Abbott” Award winner) presented Victoria Traube with a Special “Mr. Abbott” Award for her extraordinary passion and commitment to, and profound understanding of, the work of directors and choreographers who bring theatre to life.

The SDC 60th Anniversary festivities continued down the street at the French Institute and the Alliance Française (FIAF) hosted by David Hyde Pierce.

The big question of the evening was – What is in the sealed Agnes de Mille letter? On December 2, 1963 Ms. de Mille sent a letter to the Union for safe-keeping, explaining that it contained the outline for a new theatrical work which she described as follows:

“Under separate cover, I am mailing you a manuscript in a sealed envelope. Please file it unopened, with the date carefully noted. It is the outline for a play, and I have no means of copyrighting except this way. The material is eminently stealable and I’m discussing the matter with people of equal ambitions.”

The letter – marked “Please file unopened,” and sealed with wax, was found by SDC staff when the office moved on March 25, 2015. SDC Member choreographers were selected through a competitive process to create new works that imagined the contents of Ms. de Mille’s letter during a turbulent year, which included Dr. Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech and the death of President John F. Kennedy. Ultimately, the letter remained sealed and was returned to the de Mille family, a secret for her descendants to keep.

Jerry Mitchell (2013 “Mr. Abbott” Award winner) directed the tribute performance in honor of Ms. de Mille, one of SDC’s legendary founders, featuring premiere commissioned choreography works by SDC Members Al Blackstone, Raja Feather Kelly, Kitty McNamee, Jenn Rose, and Katie Spelman.

 Laura Osnes performed both at the Met Club and FIAF, first singing “I Have Confidence” (The Sound of Music) and then “The Heather on the Hill” (Brigadoon) at FIAF.

The many people on hand to pay tribute to Victoria Traube and celebrate SDC’s 60th Anniversary included: Event Chairs Philip J. Smith, Robert E. Wankel, Theodore S. Chapin, and Mark Brokaw, who were joined by Mrs. George Abbott and George Abbott’s granddaughter Amy Davidson, SDCF Board of Trustees President Sheldon Epps, Kathleen Marshall (2005 “Mr. Abbott” Award winner), Jack O’Brien (2002 “Mr. Abbott” Award winner), Nicole Fosse, Kathryn Grody, Lynne Meadow (2003 “Mr. Abbott” Award winner), Victoria’s family, friends and Concord Music Publishing, North America executives Sean Flahaven, Scott Pascucci, Steve Smith and Jake Wisely, and more.

Proceeds from the gala will benefit Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation (SDCF), whose mentorship programs, community forums, and public events develop and promote the creativity and craft of directors and choreographers and foster a cross-generational, national theatre community.

To support and attend:
For information on sponsorship and table purchases, please write SDCF at MrAbbott@SDCFoundation.org

# # #

Victoria Traube is Senior Vice President, Business Affairs and General Counsel of Concord Music. She is responsible for the business and legal affairs of The Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization, Concord’s theater, motion picture and television projects, Boosey & Hawkes and the former Imagem pop catalogue. 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 Sam Cohn, whose clients included Mike Nichols, James Lapine, Nora Ephron, Peter Hall, Tommy Tune, Arthur Penn, Arthur Miller, Peter Stone, Herb Gardner, Bill Irwin, Meryl Streep, Sigourney Weaver, Mandy Patinkin, Patrick Stewart, Lily Tomlin, Penn and Teller, and many others. 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 is a Trustee of The God Bless America Fund and a board member of Dramatists Guild Copyright Management, Inc. She served as Theatre Chair of the American Bar Association’s Forum on the Sports and Entertainment Industries, Chair of the Entertainment Law Committee of the Association of The Bar of The City of New York, and a board member of the SDC Foundation. She is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania Law School, where she was a member of The Law Review, and Radcliffe College. She has taught seminars and panels on theater and motion picture law and business affairs at Columbia Law School, Wesleyan University, New York University, SDC Foundation, and the ABA Forum on the Sports and Entertainment Industries, among others. Her father was Shepard Traube, director and producer, who was the first President of SDC and one of its founders with Agnes de Mille, Hanya Holm, and Ezra Stone. Her mother was Mildred Traube, the Executive Secretary of SDC from 1968-1984. The rights of directors and choreographers were the subject of discussion at the Traube family dinner table beginning in her early childhood. 2


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