Leigh Silverman is a two time Tony nominee and has directed over 60 world premiere new plays and musicals. Broadway: Yellow Face (Roundabout); Suffs (Tony nom); Grand Horizons (Williamstown, 2ST); The Lifespan of a Fact; Violet (Tony nom), Chinglish; Well. Recent Off-Broadway credits include: Harry Clarke (West End, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Vineyard/Audible); Merry Me (NYTW); Suffs (Public); The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe (Shed,Taper); Hurricane Diane (NYTW); Soft Power (CTG/Curan/Public); Sweet Charity (New Group). Encores: Violet; The Wild Party; Really Rosie and Sutton Foster’s streaming concert, Bring Me to Light.  Audible projects include Yellow Face, Harry Clarke and Dykes to Watch Out For which was named Best of the Year.  She received a 2011 Obie Award and 2019 Obie for Sustained Excellence.

Ellenore Scott (she/her) is a BIPOC, New York based choreographer and director. Through her work, Scott values lifting diverse voices in her community while creating a joyous space where the creative process can bring as many people in as possible. Her Broadway credits include Grey House, Funny Girl, Mr. Saturday Night. Her Off-Broadway credits include Little Shop of Horrors, Titanique (Lucille Loretel Nomination). Other choreography credits include: So You Think You Can Dance?, Single All the Way (Netflix). In 2023, Scott co-directed The Lonely Few, a world premiere rock musical at the Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles, CA that will transfer to Off-Broadway’s MCC Theatre in Spring of 2024. Scott’s work has also been seen at The Bushwick Starr, The Old Globe, Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival, McCarter Theatre, Cherry Lane Theatre, Asolo Repertory Theatre, Cape Fear Regional Theatre and Seattle Repertory Theatre. In 2020, Scott was a finalist for the SDC Breakout Award for the first ever TikTok Music Ratatouille: The TikTok Musical which raised over $2 million for The Entertainment Fund. As a performer, Scott appeared in numerous television shows (Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Smash, The Blacklist, Glee! to name a few) and was a finalist and All-Star on So You Think You Can Dance? Scott is the Artistic Director of ELSCO Dance, a contemporary-fusion dance company. Scott is thrilled to be joining the Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation Board as a Trustee. @helloellenore

Sharon Ott is the Director of the School of Theatre and Dance at the University of Houston where she also serves as the Executive Director of the Houston Shakespeare Festival. Before coming to UH she was the Chair of the Dept. of Theatre at Virginia Commonwealth University and prior to that was a Professor at the Savannah College of Art and Design. She has directed at major theatres across the US, including the Manhattan Theatre Club, the Public Theatre, the Huntington Theatre, South Coast Repertory, Utah Shakespeare Festival, the Mark Taper Forum, Ford’s Theatre, Arena Stage and many others. Her directing work has received many awards, including several Bay Area Theatre Critics’ Award, Hollywood Dramalogue Awards, the Elliot Norton Award, Seattle Footlight Awards, and an Obie Award (with Theatre X- Milwaukee for A FIERCE LONGING). She accepted the Tony Award for Berkeley Rep as Outstanding Regional Theatre in 1998. She has also directed operas at Seattle Opera, San Diego Opera, and Opera Colorado. Her directing work in academic theatre has twice received citations for Outstanding Direction by the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival (for FAHRENHEIT 451 at Savannah College of Art and Design) and SHE KILLS MONSTERS : VIRTUAL WORLDS (with Dorie Barton and Wes Seals) at VCU. She was a long time Executive Board Member of SDC and received the President’s Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Union in 2019. She is currently the President of the National Theatre Conference.

Christopher Ashley is the Artistic Director of Roundabout Theatre Company. His Broadway credits include Come From Away (Tony Award), Diana: The Musical, Escape to Margaritaville, Xanadu, Leap of Faith (Drama Desk Award nomination), Memphis (Tony, Outer Critics Circle Award nominations), All Shook Up, and The Rocky Horror Show (2000 – Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle nominations). Additional New York stage credits: Blown Sideways Through Life, Jeffrey (Lucille Lortel and Obie Awards), The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told, Valhalla (Lucille Lortel nomination – Outstanding Direction), Regrets Only, Wonder of the World, Communicating Doors, Bunny Bunny, The Night Hank Williams Died, and Fires in the Mirror (Lucille Lortel Award), among others. His film credits include Come From Away for Apple TV+, Diana on Netflix, the feature films Jeffrey and Lucky Stiff, and the American Playhouse production of Blown Sideways Through Life for PBS.
From 2007 to 2026, Mr. Ashley was the Rich Family Artistic Director of the Tony Award-winning La Jolla Playhouse in San Diego, CA, where he directed world-premiere productions of Working Girl, The Heart, The Untitled Unauthorized Hunter S. Thompson Musical, Babbitt, Come From Away, Diana, Escape to Margaritaville, Memphis, The Darrell Hammond Project, Hollywood and Chasing the Song. He has also directed productions of Come From Away in London, Toronto, Australia and on national tour. Other tours include Escape to Margaritaville, Memphis, Xanadu, All Shook Up and Seussical: The Musical. Mr. Ashley is the recipient of the Princess Grace Award, the Drama League Director Fellowship and an NEA/TCG Director Fellowship.

Maggie Burrows is a theater and film director living in New York City. She received her B.A. from Yale University, where she was a nominee for the Sudler Prize for Excellence in the Arts. She is a member of the Lincoln Center Directors Lab, the inaugural 2018-2019 BOLD Resident Director at Northern Stage, and the recipient of the 2018 Boris Sagal Directing Fellowship at Williamstown Theatre Festival. In 2020, in collaboration with the Roald Dahl Story Company, Maggie co-conceived and produced James and the Giant Peach with Taika and Friends to benefit Partners in Health. Select theater credits: TRAYF (Geffen Playhouse), On Your Feet! (The Muny), Indecent (Juilliard), Damsels (Williamstown Theatre Festival), The Sound of Music (Northern Stage), Spacebar (Wild Project). Film work includes her short Condolences and a GOTV video for Michelle Obama’s When We All Vote organization. Upcoming: Man of God (Williamstown Theatre Festival), Legally Blonde (The Muny), Zoe Sarnak and Alexis Scheer’s Shook, and Mark Sonnenblick’s new musical Devotion.

Justin Emeka is the resident director of Pittsburgh Public Theater, as well as a tenured professor of Theatre and Africana studies at Oberlin College.  As a director, writer, actor, and Capoeirista he specializes in new approaches to “classic” texts, as well as imaginative stagings of contemporary playwrights.   Off-Broadway credits include A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Romeo and Juliet at Classical Theatre of Harlem; Regional theatre productions include:  American Son at Pittsburgh Public Theatre;  Sweat at Philadelphia Theatre Company; Sunset Baby at Dobama Theatre; Stick Fly at Intiman Theatre in Seattle;  Paradise Blue, Detroit ’67 and Julius X at Karamu House; A Raisin in the Sun at the Oberlin Summer Theater Festival.   At Oberlin College, he started one of the first Capoeira Angola collegiate programs and directed plays including Death of a Salesman, The Bluest Eye, Macbeth, The Compromise, Follow Me to Nellie’s and Wedding Band.  He received his MFA in Directing from the University of Washington where he also served as the Artistic Director for the Ethnic Cultural Theater and directed The Glass Menagerie, Dutchman, and Unfinished Women Cry in No Man’s Land While a Bird Dies in a Gilded Cage.  At Juilliard, he directed A Doll’s House pt. 2 and at NYU he adapted Molière’s “Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme” into “The Boougie Gentleman”. He received awards in playwriting from the Seattle Arts Commission, and screenwriting from the Washington State Film Commission.  For Routledge press, he has published the chapters “Seeing Shakespeare through Brown Eyes” and “Playing with Race in the New Millennium”.

Jonathan Parker is a retired employee benefits consultant from The Segal Company, a firm headquartered in New York City.  During his 35-year career at Segal, Mr. Parker worked extensively as an advisor to health and pension funds covering theater professionals, including SDC directors and choreographers.

Since retiring, Jonathan has been active as a volunteer, working with several organizations, including the English Speaking Union, the African Services Committee, and New York University.  His primary role has been as a conversation partner with immigrants from around the world, helping them improve their English language skills. In addition, he has worked as a mentor in a professional career development program.

Mr. Parker is a graduate of Yale University, where he majored in psychology, and devoted much of his time to a cappella singing.  Throughout his adult life, theater-going has been a second “profession,” for which he has incredible passion.  In 2001, he was a recipient of the Working Theater’s Bridge Award, which recognizes “extraordinary New Yorkers for bridging the gap between the arts, labor and community.”  Mr. Parker contributed an essay to the article, “What Does a Director Do?”, which appeared in the Fall, 2017 issue of the SDC Journal.  Jonathan takes great pride in having played Schroeder in the second cast of his high school production of You’re A Good Man Charlie Brown.

Laura Penn has been Executive Director of Stage Directors and Choreographers Society (SDC) since 2008. During her tenure, the Union has focused on strengthening the rights of the Membership, expanding jurisdiction, and amplifying the leadership role of directors and choreographers in the industry. She has led bold and successful negotiations, elevated the Union’s profile, and launched strong new initiatives that support SDC Members wherever they live and work.

Recognized for her advocacy on behalf of theatre, the arts, and the labor movement, she serves as Secretary of the Board of the Entertainment Community Fund and was a member of the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities under President Biden. A member of the Tony Awards Administration Committee, she is Co-Chair of the Coalition of Broadway Unions and Guilds, the first woman to hold a leadership position with this coalition of 18 influential unions representing workers on Broadway. She serves on the General Board of the Department for Professional Employees, AFL-CIO (DPE) and is an active member of DPE’s Arts, Entertainment, and Media Industry Coordinating Committee (AEMI).

Previously, Laura served as a panelist for the New York State Council for the Arts and was a site evaluator for the National Endowment for the Arts for more than a decade, Vice President of the League of Resident Theatres, and a two-term Chair of the Seattle Arts Commission. Recognized with Seattle’s Distinguished Citizen Medal, she is an advocate for civic dialogue and public participation and has been dedicated throughout her career to the idea that artistic excellence and community engagement are intrinsically connected. Laura served as an arts executive for Intiman Theatre and Seattle Repertory Theatre and began her career at D.C.’s Arena Stage, Living Stage Theatre Company.

She currently teaches Labor Relations in the graduate program at the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale.

Bio as of March 2026

Maria Torres is an award-winning director, choreographer, and cultural storyteller whose work fuses Latin rhythm, theatrical movement, and untold histories. She is a Dance Magazine Honoree whose choreography appears in feature films including Enchanted and Dance with Me, television programs such as So You Think You Can Dance, and multiple Broadway productions including Swing! and On Your Feet! She is the co-choreographer of the musical Take the Lead, directed and choreographed Celia the Musical, and has served as Associate Choreographer on The Donkey Show with Diane Paulus, Disney’s The Golden Mickeys, and as Associate Director for the Hinton Battle Experience with Tony winner Hinton Battle.

Maria’s film and television work also includes a featured acting and dance role in El Cantante and a cameo while serving as Associate Choreographer for Enchanted. She received the Choreography Medal Awards for two of her standout pieces on So You Think You Can Dance and continues to create work that blends technique, narrative, and cultural imagination.

A respected leader in the field, Maria is an Executive Board Member of SDC, a Trustee of SDCF, and a member of the Choreography Guild. Her creative career began as a critically acclaimed performer, and her commitment to mentorship and representation now extends through her nonprofit, the Maria Torres Emerging Artists Foundation (MTEAF), which supports emerging talent through education, training, and artistic development.

Across every project, Maria brings deep storytelling, collaborative spirit, and lived cultural experience, championing voices that have long been overlooked while shaping the next generation of artists.

Victoria Traube is Executive Vice President, Business and Legal Affairs of Concord Theatricals, North America.   She is responsible for the business and legal affairs of Concord Theatricals, Rodgers & Hammerstein, and   Concord’s motion picture and television division. 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.  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 received a special Mr. Abbott Award  in 2019 from Stage Directors And Choreographers Foundation. She is a member of the Honorary Advisory Committee of  Stage Directors and Choreographers Society, a Trustee of Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation, a Trustee of The God Bless America Fund, and a board member of Dramatists Guild Copyright Management, Inc.  She previously served as Theatre Chair of the American Bar Association’s Forum on the Sports and Entertainment Industries and Chair of the Entertainment Law Committee of the Association of The Bar of The City of New York. She co-wrote the theatre chapter in “The Essential Guide to Entertainment Law: Dealmaking” (2018 Juris Publishing).

She has taught seminars and spoken on panels on theatre and motion picture law and business affairs at Columbia Law School, Wesleyan University, New York University, the SDC Foundation, and the ABA Forum on the Sports and Entertainment Industries, among others.

She is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania Law School, where she was a member of The Law Review, and Radcliffe College.

Barbara Whitman’s Broadway producing credits include Appropriate, Good Night, Oscar starring Sean Hayes, A Strange Loop (Tony and Drama Desk Awards, Best Musical; Pulitzer Prize), Angels in America (Tony and Drama Desk Award, Best Play Revival),  The Humans (Tony Award, Best Play), Fully Committed starring Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Fun Home (Tony Award, Best Musical), Hedwig and the Angry Inch (Tony and Drama Desk Awards, Best Musical Revival), Hands on a Hardbody, Red (Tony and Drama Desk Awards, Best Play), Next to Normal (Pulitzer Prize), and  The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. A native New Yorker, Barbara attended NYU’s Gallatin School and received an MFA in Theatre Management and Producing from Columbia University.  She currently serves on the Board of SDC Foundation, as well as Columbia University’s School of the Arts Dean’s Council. Current productions include Ceilidh by Scott Gilmour and Claire Mackenzie and the revival of Spelling Bee.