David Cromer for his distinguished direction of The Band’s Visit (Atlantic Theatre Company) Recent credits include: The Treasurer (Playwrights Horizons), Man from Nebraska (Second Stage); the Off-Broadway premiere of The Band’s Visit (Atlantic Theatre Company); The Effect (Barrow Street Theatre); Come Back, Little Sheba (Huntington Theatre); Angels in America (Kansas City Rep); and Our Town at the Almeida Theatre in London, which he also directed in Chicago, New York (Barrow Street Theatre), Los Angeles, Boston and Kansas City. Additional New York Credits include: Women or Nothing at Atlantic, Really Really at MCC, The House of Blue Leaves and Brighton Beach Memoirs on Broadway, When the Rain Stops Falling and Nikolai and the Others at Lincoln Center Theater as well as Tribes, Orson’s Shadow (Barrow Street) plus Adding Machine, which was a BST production at the Minetta Lane. Originally from Chicago, his credits there include Sweet Bird of Youth (The Goodman), A Streetcar Named Desire, Picnic and The Price (Writers Theatre), Cherrywood, Mojo, and The Hot l Baltimore (Mary-Arrchie), The Cider House Rules (co-directed with Marc Grapey at Famous Door), and Angels in America (The Journeymen), among others. For his work he has received a Drama Desk, three Obies, three Lortels, four Jeff Awards and in 2010 was made a McArthur Foundation Fellow.

Rachel Rockwell for her distinguished choreography in Ride The Cyclone (MCC Theater) RACHEL ROCKWELL (Director/Choreographer) is a Chicago-based director/choreographer. Some of her recent credits include: Ride The Cyclone at MCC (Lortel and Drama League nominated); October Sky at the Old Globe, which won the Craig Noel Award for Best Musical, the World Premiere of Something Wicked This Way Comes at Delaware Theatre Company, and the World Premiere of Diary of A Wimpy Kid for the Children’s Theatre Company of Minneapolis. Other Chicago directing/choreography credits include: Ride the Cyclone (Jeff Award for Best Director), Shakespeare In Love at Chicago Shakespeare Theatre; Brigadoon (Jeff Award – Best Musical and Best Choreography, Goodman Theatre); Billy Elliot (Jeff Award for Best Choreography), Ragtime (Jeff Award – Best Musical and Best Director) at Drury Lane Theatre; and Enron (Jeff Award nomination – Best Play, mid-size, TimeLine Theatre Company). Rachel was named Chicagoan of Year in Theatre by the Chicago Tribune in 2012, and Best Director by Chicago magazine in 21011. In 2017, she was awarded the Guy Adkins Award for Excellence in Musical Theatre.

 Finalists:

This season’s finalists for directing were Jesse Berger for The Government Inspector (Red Bull Theater Co.), Rebecca Taichman for How to Transcend A Happy Marriage (LCT), and Daniel Sullivan for If I Forget (Roundabout). The finalist for choreography was Gerry McIntyre for Spamilton (The Triad Stage 72).