This Breakout Award is given to a director or choreographer for a production or selection of work that signals a shift in a career and the beginning of critical recognition — a “rising star” moment.
2021 Breakout Award Winner – Jon Rua
Jon Rua’s career crosses the stage & screen. The Co-Creative Director/Choreographer of the sold out 2019 Madison Square Garden NYE PHISH concert, Jon continues to innovate movement on stage & screen. With such work as Coheed & Cambria (“Old Flames”), West Side Story at Milwaukee Rep, The Muny’s Aida & Jesus Christ Superstar, the Co-Choreographer for individual production numbers in Broadway’s The Cher Show, SpongeBob Squarepants, SpongeBob Musical Live on Nick, Isn’t It Romantic, plus projects with Amway, Travelers Insurance, The Beacons Jams at The Beacon Theater, ABC’s Celebrity Wife Swap, NBA, NYMF, Broadway Bares. In 2022, keep an eye out for The Hombres at Two River Theater and Godspell at PCLO.
TEENAGE SOUL, a dance narrative written, choreographed, and performed by Jon Rua, has been commissioned by Milwaukee Rep and has begun its developmental process with the hopes of public performances as soon as 2023! His short film ‘Unknown’ will be released in 2022, as Jon continues to write his own series.
A multidisciplinary artist, as an Actor, Jon has four Tony Nominated Broadway shows under his belt originating roles such as “Charles Lee” in the Tony & Grammy Award Winning hit musical Hamilton where he also served as the “Hamilton” Standby, “Patchy the Pirate” in SpongeBob Squarepants, ‘Jesus Pena’ in the docu-based musical Hands on a Hardbody, as well as starring as “Sonny” & “Graffiti Pete” in In The Heights. Other theater credits include “Rooster” in The Muny’s Annie; Matthew Lopez’s ‘Somewhere’ at the Old Globe, nominated for a Craig Noel Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Play; Kung Fu at the Signature Theater; Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity at Second Stage Theater, and The Hombres at Two River Theater in 2022. On the screen, Rua has guest starred on Blacklist, Blue Bloods, Law & Order, and in films such as Fall to Rise, First Reformed, and Isn’t It Romantic.
Finalists for 2021 Breakout Award
Billy Bustamante
Billy is a NYC-based Performer, Director/Choreographer and Photographer. His Directing/choreography credits include Whisper House w/ The Civilians, The Adding Machine, LaChiusa’s The Wild Party, Utah Shakespeare Festival, Prospect Theatre Co., Arden Theatre, Virginia Stage Company, Goodspeed, Lincoln Center & National Asian Artists Project. Broadway performing credits include Miss Saigon (Engineer alt.), The King And I (Lun Tha u/s). Off-Broadway/ Regional: Soft Power and Here Lies Love at the Public Theatre, Center Theatre Group, Arena Stage, Old Globe and Paper Mill Playhouse. Billy studied musical theatre at Philadelphia’s University Of The Arts and is a proud member of SDC, AEA and SAG/AFTRA. He is co-founder of Broadway Barkada, and is on faculty at Jen Waldman Studio and Circle In the Square Theatre School. Billy is passionately committed to the development of new artists and building a more equitable world. WWW.BillyBustamante.com Insta: @BillyBCreative
Alex Sanchez
Alex Sanchez is a New York City based Director and Choreographer. Currently the musical stager of the new musical PARADISE SQUARE. New York choreography credits: pre Broadway Roman Holiday (GFI productions). GIANT,The Public Theater, FAR FROM HEAVEN, Playwrights Horizon, WHERE’S CHARLEY & FIORELLO, New York City Center Encores!, and RED EYE OF LOVE, co-choreographer, Amas Musical Theater. Regional choreography credits: The Old Globe, The Goodman Theater, PaperMill Playhouse, Goodspeed Opera House, Williamstown Theater Festival, Guthrie Theater, Stratford Shakespeare Festival, Dallas Theater Center, Chicago Shakespeare Theater,The Marriott Theatre, Berkshire Theater Group, Glimmerglass Opera, St. Louis Muny, Alabama Shakespeare Festival. Kansas City Starlight, Riverside Theater, Woodminster Amphitheater and SDC Dancebreak. Alex is the 2015 co-recipient of the SDC Joe A. Calloway Award for Best Choreography. Two time winner of the Broadway World Award 2011 & 2012. He has a been nominated for a Lucille Lortel Award, Connecticut Critic Circle Award and 7 Joseph Jefferson Awards. Alex was also honored by Dance Magazine “25 Artists to Watch in 2016”. Alex performed in 10 Broadway shows and was a soloist ballet dancer with Ballet Chicago. Website: Alexsanc.com
Past Recipients
2020 – Jenn Rose
Jenn Rose
Jenn Rose is an award winning choreographer working in theater, concert dance, and film. Jenn values a fearless approach of working, striving for innovation, and collaboration. She has choreographed over 20 regional theatre productions including You’re A Good Man Charlie Brown (Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park), Cabaret (Arden Theatre Co), Ain’t Misbehavin’ (Milwaukee Repertory Theatre), Avenue X (11th Hour Theatre Co), Black Nativity (Theatre Horizon), and Honk! (Two River Theatre). Commissioned choreography includes The Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2019, SDCF commission to honor the legacy of Agnes de Mille at the 2019 Mr. Abbott Award Gala, Steps On Broadway Conservatory Program, Dancebreak Showcase 2018, Ballet Fleming, Ursinus College, and Drexel University. She is the recipient of the Barrymore Award for Excellence in Theatre Choreography. Jenn Rose is the founder of Loose Screws Productions, a collaborative company committed to creating short films with a focus on storytelling through movement. This ever evolving body of work can be viewed at www.iamjennrose.com
Finalists for 2020 include James Alonzo, Ines Braun, Joshua William Gelb, and Ellenore Scott. You can click on each person’s name to see their work.
2019 – Taibi Magar
Taibi Magar
Taibi Magar is an Egyptian-American director based in New York, and a graduate of the Brown/Trinity MFA program. Most recently she directed The Prince of Providence (Trinity Rep), and We Live in Cairo (A.R.T.). Other NY credits: Blue Ridge starring Marin Ireland and The Great Leap starring BD Wong (Atlantic Theater Company); Is God Is (Soho Rep, 2018 Obie Award;) Master (The Foundry, NYT Critic’s Pick); Underground Railroad Game (Ars Nova, NYT Critic’s Pick). Regional: A.R.T., Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, Alley Theatre, The Guthrie Theater, and Seattle Repertory Theatre, among others. International: Hamburg Festival, Edinburgh Festival, Malthouse Theatre (Melbourne), and Soho Theatre (London). Other: She is the recipient of a Stephen Sondheim Fellowship, Oregon Shakespeare Festival Fellowship, Public Theater Shakespeare Fellowship, and TFANA Actors and Director Project Fellowship. Taibi is an alumni of the Lincoln Center Directors Lab and a NYTW Usual Suspect. Upcoming: Spring Awakening, (TUTS), Noura (The Guthrie) Twilight: Los Angeles 1992 (Signature Theatre). In New York Taibi has directed and developed work for The Foundry, New York Theatre Workshop, Ars Nova, TFANA, WPTheatre, Rising Phoenix Repertory and INTAR Theatre. Most recently, she received the Kaplan Fellowship for young artists. Taibi has directed and taught at many academic institutions, including Juilliard, Fordham University, Brown University and New York University.
Raja Feather Kelly
2018 – Raja Feather Kelly
Choreographer/Director Raja Feather Kelly is artistic director of the feath3r theory, a Brooklyn-based dance-theatre-media company. His dance-theatre works include: Ugly (Bushwick Starr); I, I Am A Dancer (Ars Nova); Another Fucking Warhol Production (The Kitchen, ADF, nominated ‘Most Innovative Dance Performance of 2017’ by Dance Magazine); Bleu Movie (BAM, Baryshnikov Arts Center); Tropico (Danspace); Drella (I Love You Faye Driscoll, Invisible Dog); and Andy Warhol’s 15: Color Me, Warhol (Dixon Place). Theatre Credits include: The Sandbox, Drowning, Funnyhouse of a Negro, The Death of the Last Black Man in the Whole Entire World, Everybody (Signature); Fairview (Soho Rep); Everyday Afroplay (JACK); Freedom Riders (Acorn Theatre); Gurls (Princeton University); Electric Lucifer (The Kitchen); Lempicka (Williamstown Theatre Festival); The House That Will Not Stand (New York Theatre Workshop); Fireflies (Atlantic Theatre Company). Kelly has been awarded two Princess Grace Awards and the inaugural Dance Magazine Harkness Promise Award. Other honors include a 2017 Princess Grace Foundation Choreography Award, a Bessie Schonberg Fellowship at The Yard, a 2019 Choreography Fellowship at the Center for Ballet and the Arts at NYU, a HERE Arts Fellowship, a New York Foundation for the Arts Choreography Fellowship, and the 2016 Solange MacArthur Award for New Choreography.
Lee Sunday Evans
2017 – Lee Sunday Evans
Lee Sunday Evans is a director and choreographer of works for the theater. She won a 2015 OBIE Award for A Beautiful Day in November on the Banks of the Greatest of the Great Lakes. Her work has been presented and developed at: Clubbed Thumb, Baryshnikov Arts Center, Sundance Theater Institute, CATCH, 59E59, The New Ohio, Brooklyn Arts Exchange, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, The Culture Project, Robert Wilson’s Watermill Center, Guild Hall, Emerging America Festival/Huntington Theater, Williamstown Theater Festival, Dixon Place, LaMama, Coatesville VA Medical Center. As the Resident Director for CollaborationTown, she is currently developing The Rise and Fall of the Trilobite Kingdom a new musical for young audiences commissioned by New Victory’s LabWorks, with original music by Nicholas C. Williams and puppets by Amanda Villalobos. Time Warner Fellow of 2014-2016 Lab at Women’s Project Theater, Lincoln Center Director’s Lab, New Georges Affiliated Artist. She has also taught devising theater workshops for the Waterwell Drama Program at PPAS, The Vineyard Theater, and The International Theater & Literacy Program in Tanzania and Rwanda.
2016 – Ed Sylvanus Iskandar
Ed Sylvanus Iskandar
Ed Sylvanus Iskandar has directed over 150 plays globally. NEW YORK: The Mysteries (2014 Drama Desk Special Award), Restoration Comedy, and These Seven Sicknesses (both Drama Desk nominated, NYT Critics’ Picks, The Flea Theater); The Red Umbrella (Drama League); The Golden Dragon (The Play Company). REGIONAL: Head Over Heels (Oregon Shakespeare Festival), Don Juan, Translations, and The Collection (Stanford Repertory Theatre); Homemade Fusion (Pittsburgh CLO); Don Carlos, Brand and Miss Julie (CMU); The Dumb Waiter, No Exit, Death and the Maiden and Sexual Perversity in Chicago (Edinburgh Fringe Festival). INTERNATIONAL: Venus in Fur (Singapore); Memphis (Japan) OTHER: As Founding Artistic Director of invite-only NYC collective Exit, Pursued By a Bear (EPBB), Ed has served over 12,000 free home-cooked meals and shared 150 priceless nights of theater over the course of staging 8 Labs and 40 Salons, including NY or world premieres of The Further Adventures of Hedda Gabler, Arok of Java, and the musical Dani Girl, alongside new versions of Don Carlos, The Master Builder, and King Lear. Restoration Comedy and These Seven Sicknesses both began their NYC lives as EPBB Labs, later transferring to critical acclaim as productions at The Flea. EPBB fulfills a vision of theater that deepens the audience’s ability to engage by creating empathy for the human effort behind the art. Ed’s body of work with EPBB was honored with the 2013 National Theatre Conference Emerging Professional Award, conferred by Bill Rauch (Artistic Director of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival). EDUCATION: MFA, Carnegie Mellon; BA, Stanford.