Daniel Aukin
for excellence in directing for Stereophonic (Playwrights Horizons)
Daniel Aukin is a New York-based Director. Broadway: David Adjmi’s STEREOPHONIC, Sam Shepard’s FOOL FOR LOVE. Recent Off Broadway: David Adjmi’s STEREOPHONIC and Mia Chung’s CATCH AS CATCH CAN (Playwrights Horizons) and Emily Feldman’s THE BEST WE COULD (MTC); also, world premieres of new plays by Joshua Harmon, Abe Koogler, Dan LeFranc, Amy Herzog, Melissa James Gibson, Itamar Moses, Michael Friedman, Mark Schultz, Mac Wellman, Quincy Long and Maria Irene Fornes including BAD JEWS (Roundabout), 4000 Miles (Lincoln Center), THE FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE (The Public) and [sic] (Soho Rep). He has won three Obie Awards for his work and was Artistic Director of Soho Rep (1998-2006) and a founding member of Physical Plant based in Austin, Texas. Tony, Drama Desk, Drama League and OBIE Awards.
nicHi douglas
for excellence in choreography for (pray) (National Black Theatre & Ars Nova)
nicHi douglas is a Lucille Lortel, AUDELCO, and Princess Grace Award-winning Brooklyn-based experimental theater & dance maker who is interested in leading community care centered creative processes. you can refer to her/them/him/us using any pronouns said with Respect. she is currently a HARP Resident Artist at HERE Arts Center where she is creating a new dance theater piece called ONLY I. they are an Assistant Arts Professor at NYU/Tisch where they teach dance & movement methodologies. Recent theater: (pray) (NBT/Ars Nova, Playwright/Director/Choreographer) (won the 2024 Lortel for Best Director, Best Musical, and Best Ensemble), The Cotillion (The Movement Theatre Company + New Georges, Choreographer), WEIGHTLESS (WP Theater, Choreographer), SKiNFoLK: AN AMERICAN SHOW (Bushwick Starr + NBT, Choreographer). Upcoming: RECONSTRUCTING (Still Working But the Devil Might Be Inside) at BAM. www.mynameisnichi.com
Callaway Finalists
Saheem Ali is a proud immigrant from Kenya, currently serving as the Associate Artistic Director/Resident Director of New York’s Public Theater. He received Tony, Drama Desk and Lucille Lortel nominations, as well as the Joe A. Callaway award for his direction of Fat Ham. He most recently directed Good Bones at the Public and has two upcoming musicals: Goddess, also at the Public, and Buena Vista Social Club at the Schoenfeld Theatre on Broadway. His production of Merry Wives (Shakespeare in the Park) was recorded for PBS Great Performances and was the subject of the HBO documentary Reopening Night. Other productions include Goddess (Berkeley Rep), Nollywood Dreams (MCC), Romeo y Julieta, Shipwreck and Richard II (radio plays), Fires in the Mirror (Signature Theatre), The Rolling Stone (Lincoln Center Theater), Passage (Soho Rep), Sugar in Our Wounds (MTC), Tartuffe (Playmakers Rep), Where Storms Are Born (Williamstown) and Kill Move Paradise (National Black Theatre). He is a Sir John Gielgud SDCF Fellow, a Shubert Fellow and the recipient of an Obie Award for Sustained Excellence in Directing.
Sam Pinkleton is a director and choreographer currently represented on Broadway with Cole Escola’s Oh, Mary! Recent work as a director includes La Cage Aux Folles (Pasadena Playhouse – current), Morgan Bassichis’ Can I Be Frank? (La MaMa), Noah Diaz’ You Will Get Sick with Linda Lavin (Roundabout), The Wizard of Oz (ACT San Francisco), Untitled DanceShowPartyThing (Virgin Voyages – with Ani Taj), Liz Swados’ Runaways (City Center Encores / Shakespeare in the Park), and Head Over Heels (Pasadena Playhouse – with Jenny Koons). As a choreographer his work includes Stephen Sondheim’s final musical Here We Are (The Shed/Upcoming National Theater, UK), the Broadway productions of Macbeth; Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812 (Tony Nomination); Amélie, Significant Other, Machinal, and Heisenberg as well as the original productions of Jeanine Tesori and David Henry Hwang’s Soft Power (The Public Theater/CTG), Todd Almond’s Kansas City Choir Boy (with Courtney Love), and Anne Washburn’s Mr. Burns, a Post-Electric Play (Playwrights Horizons). Opera: A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Deutsche Oper Berlin), Trouble in Tahiti (Dutch National Opera). Film/TV: Joshua Oppenheimer’s The End (starring Tilda Swinton), Dying for Sex. Nominated for Tony, Drama League, and Lortel Awards. He does not own any dance shoes.
Patricia Delgado (she/her), first generation Cuban-American, was born in Miami, Florida. She was a principal dancer with the Miami City Ballet, and has performed works by George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, Twyla Tharp, Paul Taylor, Christopher Wheeldon, Alexei Ratmansky, Justin Peck, Liam Scarlett, Pam Tanowitz, Jamar Roberts, Lauren Lovette, John Heginbotham, Andrea Miller and Jodi Melnick among others as well as the classical works including Juliet in John Cranko’s “Romeo and Juliet”.
She performed as Maggie Anderson in the musical “Brigadoon”, at Encores! And starred in the music video “The Dark Side of the Gym” for The National and also appeared as a guest performer on The Tonight Show. She is a repetiteur for Justin Peck and has staged his works on Boston Ballet, Ballet Arizona, and for members of The American Ballet Theatre, The Juilliard School, and in Germany at the Semperoper Ballett.
She is a member of the dance faculty at The Juilliard School.
She was an Associate Producer on the 2020 Broadway revival of West Side Story and Associate Choreographer on the feature film West Side Story, directed by Steven Spielberg. She was named a “Mujeres Imparables” by Telemundo in February 2022. And is a member of the Advisory Committee at the Jerome Robbins Dance Division, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. She cofounded and is artistic advisor of Adriana Pierce’s queer the ballet.
She is currently Co-Choreographer on The Buena Vista Social Club Musical and the recipient of the Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Choreography for this Broadway-bound production.
She and her husband, Justin Peck welcomed their daughter, Lucia Isabella into this world in March, 2021.
Justin Peck is a two-time Tony Award winning choreographer, director, filmmaker, and dancer based in New York City. He is currently the acting Resident Choreographer of New York City Ballet. Peck has created and developed over 50 dance and theater works for stages around the world, including work for Broadway, the Palais Garnier, Lincoln Center, the Sydney Opera House, & Brooklyn Academy of Music. He has created extensively for film, most notably choreographing Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story (2021). In 2024, Peck directed and choreographed the original Broadway musical Illinoise. Honors include the Tony Award for Best Choreography for Carousel (2018) and Illinoise (2024), the National Arts Award (2018), the Golden Plate Honor from the Academy of Achievement (2019), the Bessie Award for Rodeo (2015), and the World Choreography Award for the film West Side Story (2021).
Graciela Daniele. LCT: Hello Again, Chronicle of a Death Foretold, A New Brain, Elegies, Dessa Rose, Marie Christine, Bernarda Alba, The Glorious Ones, The Gardens of Anuncia. Ms. Daniele has directed on Broadway, at Lincoln Center Theater, The Public and regional theaters, earning ten Tony Award nominations and six Drama Desk nominations. Broadway includes Chita Rivera: The Dancer’s Life, Annie Get Your Gun, Once on This Island, The Pirates of Penzance, Dangerous Game, Ragtime, The Goodbye Girl, Zorba, The Rink (with Liza Minnelli and Chita Rivera), The Mystery of Edwin Drood and most recently has choreographed The Visit. Recipient of the 1998 “Mr. Abbot” Award for Outstanding Achievement by a Director/Choreographer. In 2021, Ms. Daniele was the recipient of a Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement.
Alex Sanchez is a New York City based Director and Choreographer. Currently the musical stager of the new musical PARADISE SQUARE. New York choreography credits: pre Broadway Roman Holiday (GFI productions). GIANT,The Public Theater, FAR FROM HEAVEN, Playwrights Horizon, WHERE’S CHARLEY & FIORELLO, New York City Center Encores!, and RED EYE OF LOVE, co-choreographer, Amas Musical Theater. Regional choreography credits: The Old Globe, The Goodman Theater, PaperMill Playhouse, Goodspeed Opera House, Williamstown Theater Festival, Guthrie Theater, Stratford Shakespeare Festival, Dallas Theater Center, Chicago Shakespeare Theater,The Marriott Theatre, Berkshire Theater Group, Glimmerglass Opera, St. Louis Muny, Alabama Shakespeare Festival. Kansas City Starlight, Riverside Theater, Woodminster Amphitheater and SDC Dancebreak. Alex is the 2015 co-recipient of the SDC Joe A. Calloway Award for Best Choreography. Two time winner of the Broadway World Award 2011 & 2012. He has a been nominated for a Lucille Lortel Award, Connecticut Critic Circle Award and 7 Joseph Jefferson Awards. Alex was also honored by Dance Magazine “25 Artists to Watch in 2016”. Alex performed in 10 Broadway shows and was a soloist ballet dancer with Ballet Chicago.
Website: Alexsanc.com