THE SHEPARD AND MILDRED TRAUBE FELLOWSHIP
Director-choreographer Rachel Goldman was selected as SDCF’s 2017 Shepard and 
Mildred Traube Fellow. The Fellowship will be with director-choreographer Jerry Mitchell on the pre-production, workshop, and the pre-Broadway try out of the Broadway-bound Pretty Woman.
Traube Fellow Rachel Goldman is a New York-based director-choreographer, whose work has been seen across the country and who is a member of SDCF’s 2017-2018 Observership Class. She grew up in Los Angeles, CA, and studied at Los Angeles Ballet Academy, in addition to privately studying voice and acting. In high school, Rachel was given the opportunity to choreograph for the musical productions she was in, and it was there that she discovered her passion for theater choreography. In her time at Webster University, she continued on this path assisting and choreographing over ten theatrical productions. Rachel’s choreography for Jesus Christ Superstar with the Young Artists Ensemble was nominated for the Youth Arts Awards as Best Choreography. www.rachelgoldmandance.com.
The Shepard and Mildred Traube Fellowship was established in 1999 in celebration of the 40th anniversary of SDC, and to honor the legacy of Shepard and Mildred Traube. Shepard Traube was one of SDC’s founders and Mildred Traube served for many years as the SDC’s Executive Secretary. The Traube Fellowship supports the development of future Broadway artists by providing early-career directors and choreographers with the opportunity to assist or observer a master director of choreographers at work on a Broadway production.
THE DENHAM FELLOWSHIP
Director Shirley Jo Finney was selected as SDCF’s 2017 Denham Fellow for her production of Runaway Home by Jeremy Kamps. Runaway Home made its world premiere at The Fountain Theater in Los Angeles, CA, and ran from September 13 – November 5, 2017.
Denham Fellow Shirley Jo Finney is an award-winning international director and actress. She has worn her director’s hat in some of the most respected regional theater houses across the country including: The McCarter Theater, The Pasadena Playhouse, The Goodman Theater, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Cleveland Playhouse, Fountain Theater, LA Theater Works, Crossroads Theater Company, Actors Theatre of Louisville’s Humana Festival, Sundance Theater Workshop, Mark Taper Forum, Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, and the State Theater in Pretoria, South Africa. Ms. Finney has received many prestigious awards over the years for her special talent and eye for storytelling and for creating exciting ensembles. Her awards include the L.A. Stage Alliance Ovation Award, The Los Angeles Drama Critics Award, LA Weekly Award, The NAACP Award, and the Santa Barbara Independent Award for her directing work. Finney helmed the acclaimed international all South African Opera entitled Winnie, based on the life of political icon Winnie Mandela. Most recently, Ms. Finney directed and developed the critically acclaimed world premiere of Citizen: An American Lyric by the award-winning PENN poet, Claudia Rankin. Other recent works include Facing Our Truth, The Trayvon Martin Project at the Kirk Douglas Theatre in Los Angeles, the Lark Play Development Center’s rolling world premiere of the road weeps, the well runs dry by Marcus Gardley at the Los Angeles Theater Center, and Tarell Alvin McCraney’s Brother/Sister Plays.
Ms. Finney is also an established television and film director. She has directed several episodes of Moesha and she garnered an international film award for her short film, Remember Me. She was honored with the UCLA Department of Stage, Film and Television’s Distinguished Alumni Award, the Black Alumni Association’s Dr. Beverly Robinson Award for Excellence in the Arts, and The African American Film Marketplace Award of Achievement for Outstanding Performance and Achievement and Leader in Entertainment.
She is an alumnus of the American Film Institute’s Director Workshop for Women, holds an MFA from UCLA , and is a Member of Stage Directors and Choreographers Society, the Directors Guild, and Screen Actors Guild. She has been Artist in Residence at both Columbia College in Chicago and UCSB, and a guest director at at USC and UCLA. Ms. Finney is also an accomplished actress with many television and film credits to her name. She is best known for her portrayal in the historic title role of Wilma Rudolph, the first female 3-time gold medalist in the made – for-TV bio picture Wilma.
The Denham Fellowship was established by Mary Orr Denham in 2006 with a bequest to SDC Foundation in honor of her late husband, Reginald H. F. Denham. It is an annual cash award given to women directors to further develop their directing skills, and supports a particular proposed project. Past recipients include May Adrales, Tea Alagic, Rachel Alderman, Kathleen Amshoff, Jessi D. Hill, Joanie Schultz, Bridget Leak, Hannah Ryan, and Diane Rodriguez.
The Sir John Gielgud Fellowship
Director Flordelino Lagundino was selected as SDCF’s 2017 Sir John Gielgud Fellow at Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival assisting Davis McCallum on Richard II and Suzanne Agins on The Heart of Robin Hood.
Flordelino Lagundino is a NYC-based director, actor, producer. In August 2018, he will begin work as the James W. Harris Family Artistic Director at Park Square Theatre in St. Paul, MN. Flordelino was a recipient of the 2017 Drama League New York Directing Fellowship, and recently acted in the Ivey Award-winning production (Best Ensemble) of Vietgone at Mixed Blood Theatre, MN. He is the former artistic director of Generator Theater and of Leviathan Lab, a company member of Theater Akimbo, and is a graduate of the Brown/Trinity Repertory Company MFA program in directing and The University of Texas at Austin MFA program in acting. He has directed at Perseverance Theatre, Pan Asian, Syracuse Stage, Leviathan Lab, New Dramatists, Juneau Symphony, Oregon Shakespeare Festival (Midnight Project), Arena Stage (Student Playwright’s Project), International Theater and Literacy Project, Yale Cabaret, Juneau Arts and Humanities Council, Brown University, Worcester State University, University of Alaska-SE, Tsunami Theatre, and Washington Theater Festival. As an actor, Flordelino has worked at The Old Globe, The Kennedy Center, Mixed Blood Theatre, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, The Shakespeare Theater Company, Pan Asian Rep, African Continuum Theatre Company, The Folger Theatre, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, ZACH Theatre, Perseverance Theatre, 2G, Leviathan Lab, Imagination Stage, Tsunami Theatre Company, The Last Frontier Theatre Conference, Young Playwrights’ Theatre, Austin Script Works, Source Theater Festival, and was a guest artist with Living Stage Theatre Company. Flordelino was the recipient of directing fellowships at Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Arena Stage, The Kennedy Center. He has taught at Brown University, The University of Texas at Austin, The New School, and the University of Alaska-Southeast.
In 1996 this Fellowship originated from a generous contribution from Sir John Gielgud to provide opportunities for early career directors to study the artistic processes of master directors of classical plays. Past recipients include Chika Ike, Tlaloc Rivas, Tyne Rafaeli, Desdemona Chiang, Elyzabeth Gorman, Saheem Ali, and Susanna Gellert.
THE CHARLES ABBOTT FELLOWSHIP
Director Julia Locascio was selected as SDCF’s first 2018 Abbott Fellow. During the Fellowship Julia assisted Curt Columbus on his production of Ragtime at Trinity Rep.
Julia Locascio is a New York and London based theatre and opera director. She frequently collaborates with composers and writers on new work. Currently Julia is developing Woman on Paper, a devised work about Georgia O’Keeffe and Alfred Stieglitz that translates O’Keeffe’s paintings into body mapped 3D projection, and ADA by Emily Holyoake, a new play about computing visionary Ada Lovelace with music by the all-female electrorock trio Haiku Salut. Other directing includes: site-specific productions Cymbeline and Lemon Cake (adapted from Aimee Bender’s The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake); Jim Manganello’s Charlie Blows a Bulb (Edinburgh promenade street performance); Will Eno’s Oh, the Humanity; Polly Pen’s The Flitch; and Sarah Ruhl’s Eurydice. Julia has overseen large-scale productions across the US and UK as a resident assistant and staff director and designer, including The Kite Runner (West End), Salomé and Dido, Queen of Carthage (Royal Shakespeare Company), War Horse (US national tour), and Sleep No More (Punchdrunk). BFA NYU; MFA Birkbeck, University of London. She received the Tier 1 Exceptional Talent Visa from Arts Council England.
Director Christine O’Grady was selected as SDCF’s second 2018 Abbott Fellow. During the Fellowship Christine assisted Joseph Haj on his production of Westside Story at The Guthrie.
Christine O’Grady is a theatre director, choreographer, and proud member of SDC based in New York City. She is particularly fond of developing fresh takes on musical theatre favorites and her goal is for each production to answer the vital question, “why now?” while still honoring the tradition from which it grew. For certain projects this may mean teaming up with a fellow director so she can focus on Musical Staging or Choreography. She is best known for the cinematic way she makes bodies–and furniture–dance about the stage, and enjoys having the time to capture a story’s essence so the narrative cna be propelled forward without delay. She is currently preparing to launch the one-woman show SING, BIBI, SING!: The Untold Tales of Bibi Osterwald (starring Osterwald’s granddaughter, Elise Arndt) and continuing development of the new Robin Hood musical, The Outcast of Sherwood Forest. Throughout her career, she has had the great fortune of working with amazing mentors and creative partners. Jerry Mitchell, Diane Paulus, Karole Armitage, and Jack Cummings, III. She is an Adjunct Professor at Marymount Manhattan College currently teaching Scene Into Song and Directing for Musical Theatre, which she piloted in the Fall of 2017. She holds a BS in Communications from Boston University and an MFA in Theatre (Directing Concentration) from Arizona State University.
The Charles Abbott Award: Established by a wide group of friends and colleagues of Charles Abbott to honor him upon his retirement as Artistic Director of Maine State Music Theatre, the goal of the Charles Abbott Fellowship is to help early-career directors and director-choreographers of promise develop their skills in directing musical theatre by allowing them access to the entire rehearsal process as a master artist directs a classic American musical in a regional theatre of national recognition. This Fellowship will continue to present a new generation of gifted artists with a remarkable education in – and unique understanding of – the directorial skills necessary to create musical theatre, the workings of regional theatre, and the leadership of those artists shaping the regional arts landscape.
THE KURT WEILL FELLOWSHIP
Established in 2013 by the Kurt Weill Foundation for Music and SDC Foundation, the Kurt Weill Fellowship helps nurture early-career directors and choreographers by acquainting them with the stage work of Kurt Weill or Marc Blitzstein under the guidance of a master director or choreographer. The Fellowship provides the opportunity to assist or observe a master director or choreographer at work on a production, selected by the Kurt Weill Foundation, of a theatrical work composed by Weill or Blitzstein, including musical theater, opera, operetta, and dance works.
Through these Fellowships, early-career directors and choreographers observe the techniques, approaches and insights of master artists and thereby expand their artistry, enrich leadership and collaboration skills, and further their knowledge of mounting a musical production. In addition, the Fellows gain greater understanding of Kurt Weill’s and Marc Blitzstein’s theatrical catalogue and an ability to draw on this in future work.
The Kurt Weill Fellowship operates as a component of the SDC Foundation’s Observership Program; as such, only the current season’s Observership candidates are eligible for this Fellowship.