While the Resident Artist’s primary relationship will be with the Artistic Director, the SDCF Resident Artist will also collaborate with the artistic team on any significant projects happening throughout the season. Theaters applying to host the Resident Artist will use the application to detail the collaborations and potential projects most appropriate for their theatre, which will be shared with applicants, and create preliminary expectations for potential Resident Artists.
While SDCF will support a one-year residency, it is our hope that the relationship between artist and institution grows beyond the one-year commitment. In support of that goal, the host theatre must pledge to hire their Resident Artist to direct or choreograph at their institution within three years of the residency’s completion. The host theatre will need to provide additional payment applicable to the appropriate SDC contract; if not an SDC Member, then SDCF will expect prevailing rates to apply as the award provided is not intended to supplant artists’ fees.
We also understand that some portion of this residency may take place virtually, depending on the circumstances of a theatre’s given region. Also, in designating this program for mid-career artists, the Resident Artist will likely have other artistic and/or personal obligations throughout the year of their residency. To support the Resident, the host theatre will be flexible in providing leave and virtual work time for these prior obligations. The start date of the yearlong residency will have some flexibility within the 2023-24 season and we be decided upon between the host theatre and the resident artist.
The host theatre should be supporting both BIPOC artists and engaging with the local BIPOC community. Host theatre applicants should not use this program to take first steps towards diversifying the staff.
SDCF will select the host theatre by end of May 2023 and will then open an application process for the Resident Artist. If you would like to apply to be the Resident Artist, please wait until that application is released in May before contacting SDCF with questions.
An SDCF committee will evaluate the host theatre applications and will conduct interviews with the host theatre finalists’ Artistic Directors in May. Once selected, the host theatre will participate in the selection process for identifying their Resident Artist. The SDCF committee includes Justin Emeka, Lydia Fort, Kent Gash, Anne Kauffman, and Chay Yew.
Applications for Host Theatres are now closed. Applications for Resident Artists will open in July. Updated: June 2023.
For host theatre eligibility requirements and to preview application questions, click here.
To access the application click here.
Background:
This New Futures Residency is named for Lloyd Richards, whose career blazed a trail through our industry. Starting as an actor in 1940s New York, in 1956, Sidney Poitier arranged an interview for Richards with producers to direct Lorraine Hansberry’s new play A Raisin in the Sun. Richards’ work on the production garnered his first of five Tony nominations for Best Direction of a Play; he later won the award in 1987 for his work on Fences. Richards led the National Playwrights Conference (NPC) at the Eugene O’Neill Theatre Center for more than 30 years, developing work with hundreds of playwrights. From 1979-91, he was Artistic Director of Yale Repertory Theatre and Dean of the Yale School of Drama.
Richards was the first Black director to be nominated for and then to win the Tony Award for Best Direction. Aside from his first nomination for Raisin in the Sun, the other four honored his work directing August Wilson’s plays on Broadway. Richards’ collaborations with Hansberry and Wilson sustained his deepest beliefs about our industry: “We must each bring the wonder of our particular cultural heritage to the context of the here and the now. That is American Theatre—theatre which reaches into the ethnic memory of each of us and is informed by its wisdom, form, and artistry, and brings that to the context ‘now,’ where we all dwell, and informs the now, which provokes and enriches us all.”
In addition to his artistic accolades, Richards was a staunch advocate for artists’ rights as workers. A founding member of SDC, Richards served as president from 1970 to 1980. He received the National Medal of Arts in 1993; he died in 2006.
For Lloyd Richards’ full biography, click here.
The 2023 Lloyd Richards New Futures Residency is made possible with support from The Diana King Memorial Fund presented by The Charles and Lucille King Family Foundation, the Miranda Family Fund, Jujamcyn Theaters, Concord Theatricals, and support through the SDCF fellowship funds named for Shepard and Mildred Traube and Sir John Gielgud, and many generous individuals.
About Lloyd Richards:
This New Futures Residency is named for Lloyd Richards, whose career blazed a trail through our industry. Starting as an actor in 1940s New York, in 1956, Sidney Poitier arranged an interview for Richards with producers to direct Lorraine Hansberry’s new play A Raisin in the Sun. Richards’ work on the production garnered his first of five Tony nominations for Best Direction of a Play; he later won the award in 1987 for his work on Fences. Richards led the National Playwrights Conference (NPC) at the Eugene O’Neill Theatre Center for more than 30 years, developing work with hundreds of playwrights. From 1979-91, he was Artistic Director of Yale Repertory Theatre and Dean of the Yale School of Drama.
Richards was the first Black director to be nominated for and then to win the Tony Award for Best Direction. Aside from his first nomination for Raisin in the Sun, the other four honored his work directing August Wilson’s plays on Broadway. Richards’ collaborations with Hansberry and Wilson sustained his deepest beliefs about our industry: “We must each bring the wonder of our particular cultural heritage to the context of the here and the now. That is American Theatre—theatre which reaches into the ethnic memory of each of us and is informed by its wisdom, form, and artistry, and brings that to the context ‘now,’ where we all dwell, and informs the now, which provokes and enriches us all.”
In addition to his artistic accolades, Richards was a staunch advocate for artists’ rights as workers. A founding member of SDC, Richards served as president from 1970 to 1980. He received the National Medal of Arts in 1993; he died in 2006.
For Lloyd Richards’ full biography, click here.