While the Resident Artist’s primary relationship will be with the Artistic Director, the SDCF Resident Artist will also collaborate with the senior 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 potential Resident Artist applicants, so the applicants know what to expect from their time at the theater.
While SDCF will support a one-year residency, it is our hope the relationship between artist and institution builds and 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 stipend 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 host theatre should be supporting both BIPOC artists and engaging with the local BIPOC community. Applicants should not use this program to take first steps towards diversifying the staff.
SDCF will select the host theatre by mid-March 2022 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 later in March 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 late-February to early March. Once selected, the host theatre will participate in the selection process for identifying their Resident Artist. The SDCF committee includes Justin Emeka, Kent Gash, Anne Kauffman, Chay Yew, and advisor Scott Richards.
UPDATE 5/18/22: Host theater applications are now closed.
To read host theatre eligibility requirements & preview the applications questions, click here
To apply, click here – be sure you have read the eligibility information before applying
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 grant is made possible with support from Rockstar Games, as well as support through the SDCF fellowship funds named for George C. Wolfe, Mike Ockrent, Shepard and Mildred Traube, Sir John Gielgud, and Reginald H.F. Denham; as well as 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.