SUNNIE ERASO
A W A R D E E
SUNNIE ERASO is a Colombian/Chinese/American director and performer based in Chicago who spends her days caring a lot about new work development and puppets. Directing credits include G L O R Y (Foaming @ the Mouth), Flatland (Improv Playhouse), Spring Awakening (Northwestern), and assisting at Lookingglass Theatre Company, Drury Lane, and Marriott Theatre. Original projects include Voyager, an interactive toy theatre piece crafted within a cardboard spaceship, and STAR, a puppet performance piece about Gwen Stefani and Asian femininity, co-created with Kristen Waagner. Elsewhere, she has supported new musical development at Northwestern’s American Music Theatre Project and the O’Neill; developed new plays with Goodman New Stages, Lookingglass, and Jackalope as a performer; and regularly delights in making creatures and things out of cardboard in her living room.
ROMAN SANCHEZ
A W A R D E E
ROMAN SANCHEZ is a theatre director whose work includes The Grown-Ups (Sunstone Theatre), Dance Nation and Hot & Cold Showers: An Evening of Grand Guignol (Yale Cabaret), Yet Another Non-Profit Christmas Carol (Longshadr Productions),Transitions (Linfield University) Doubt (Lime Arts Productions), and Radioman (Dell’Arte International), among others. He is a recipient of the Princess Grace Honoraria, Yale’s Dexter Wood Luke Prize, the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival National Arts Impact Award, and the Herb Alpert Emerging Young Artist Award. MFA David Geffen School of Drama at Yale. SDC Associate Member.
DIEGO ALEJANDRO GONZÁLEZ
F I N A L I S T
DIEGO ALEJANDRO GONZÁLEZ [he.any] is an NYC theatermaker from the MX/TX border. 2025/26 Mercury Store Directing Fellow, 2023/24 Drama League Assistantship Recipient, 2024 SDCF PDP Shadow on Broadway’s Hadestown. Next: Sweeney Todd (Director, Village Light Opera); Water by the Spoonful (Director, Morningside Theater). Credits: Great Comet (Director/Choreographer, UVA Drama & NYU TIsch); The Baker’s Wife (Director/Choreographer, VLOG). Assoc./Assist.: In The Heights (TUTS); Bernarda Alba (Syracuse U Drama), La Broa’ (Trinity Rep). Diego was formerly Creative Director of Dance Lab NY, and has collaborated with Ars Nova and The Public (PUBLIC WORKS). Diego is the Co-Creator of BORDERLANDS. SDC Associate Member.
diegogzz.com @diego.on.my.mind
RACHEL DICKSON
F I N A L I S T
RACHEL DICKSON secured her MFA in acting from the University of Illinois-Urbana/Champaign, then moved in the world primarily as an actor, director and teaching artist in the Chicago and Houston markets. She holds her Master of Social Work degree from the University of Houston and is the founding leadership of Driven Theatre Company which focuses on issue-based works. She has performed in over sixty productions and is a standing participant with Stage Directors and Choreographers Union, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., and Dramatist Guild. Rachel is also proud to be a 2025 BIPOC Arts Network & Fund (BANF) Artist Awardee in Houston, TX.
Rachel currently serves as the BOLD Associate Artistic Director at The Ensemble Theatre where she has directed dynamic productions representative in Choir Boy by Tarell Alvin McCraney, Flex by Candrice Jones, Beatbox by T. Shepherd and D. Wolf and awarded Best Director for Pipeline by Dominique Morisseau. Other notable representative works include: Mud Row by Dominique Morisseau, Cullud Wattah by Erika Dickerson-Despenza, Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill by L. Robertson (Stages): Dutch Masters by G. Keller (Northern Stage, Vermont); Grand Concourse by Heidi Schreck (Main Street Theatre); world premiere City of Good Abode by Joshua Ford(Jewish Community Center); Sarah and Joshua: A Juneteenth Musical by Thomas Meloncon(Miller Outdoor Theatre); Moliere’s The Imaginary Invalid, The Wiz, Sarah Ruhl’s Eurydice (Texas Southern University); Diary of Anne Frank(UH-Downtown); Lend Me a Tenor by Ken Ludwig(Prairie View A&M); Courage of Mandy Kate Brown by Kate Pogue(Stages KOS).
ABOUT THE ABE BURROWS AWARD
Established by the James and Deborah Burrows Foundation and supported by a generous matching contribution from Thomas Kail, the Abe Burrows Award is given annually to a director or director/choreographer who is working as an assistant director. This award comes with an unrestricted $10,000 grant meant to be used to aid the awardee in whatever way allows them to fully focus on their assisting work.. The award will allow both recipients to fully focus on their work as an assistant director to an SDC Member between August 2026 and December 2027. The award honors Abe Burrows, a Tony Award-winning director who cared deeply about fostering and supporting the next generation of directors. As a director and writer, Burrows is known for his work on How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, for which he won Tony Awards for Best Director, Best Book, and Best Musical, as well as the Pulitzer Prize with his collaborator Frank Loesser. His additional Broadway credits include Guys and Dolls and Can-Can. Read more about Abe Burrows below.
ABOUT ABE BURROWS
Born December 18, 1910 in New York City, Abe Burrows graduated New Utrecht High School in Brooklyn and later attended both City College and New York University. His career in radio and television writing began with This is New York (1938), followed by the Rudy Vallee Program (1940), Duffy’s Tavern (1940-1945), and the Abe Burrows’ Show (1946-1947). Burrows then turned to writing for the stage. Burrows wrote, doctored, or directed such shows as Guys and Dolls (1950); Make a Wish (1951); Two on the Aisle (1951); Three Wishes for Jamie (1952); Can-Can (1953): Silk Stockings (1955); Say, Darling (1958); How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (1961); Cactus Flower (1965); Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1966); Forty Carats (1970); Good News (1974 Revival); Four on a Garden (1971): and many others. With his collaborator Frank Loesser, Burrows won a Pulitzer Prize for How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. In addition to the Pulitzer Prize, he won four Tony Awards. Burrows died on May 17, 1985.