The Abe Burrows Award at the SDCF 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.
S U N N I E E R A S O
PHOTO CREDIT: Collin Quinn Rice
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.
R O M A N S A N C H E Z
PHOTO CREDIT: Leticia Guerra
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.
D I E G O A L E J A N D R O G O N Z Á L E Z
PHOTO CREDIT: Whitney Browne
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
R A C H E L D I C K S O N
PHOTO CREDIT: Timothy Eric
F I N A L I S T
Bio soon to come.
ABOUT THE ABE BURROWS AWARD
Established by the James and Deborah Burrows Foundation and supported by a generous matching contribution from Thomas Kail, the award is given to two early-career directors. The Abe Burrows Award is given annually to directors or director/choreographers who work as an assistant director. 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.