Established in 2009, the Zelda Fichandler Award is SDCF’s first award devoted to the regional theatre. With this award, SDCF acknowledges the profound impact the founders of regional theatre have had on the field, honoring their legacy through the recognition of the extraordinary directors and choreographers who are transforming the national arts landscape with their unique, creative work and deep investment in a community.
The Fichandler Award is given regionally on a rotating basis. Nominations open in June and close in July. Nominees apply and then an announcement is typically made in October and recognized during the SDCF Awards.
In 2023, it will be given to a director or choreographer who has made, and who continues to make, a significant contribution to their community through extraordinary work in theatre in the Eastern region of the United States, defined by SDCF as Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Vermont, Virginia, Washington D.C., and West Virginia.
The Fichandler Award recipient will receive an unrestricted award of $5,000 from SDCF.
Nominations for the 2023 Zelda Fichandler Award are now closed. Nominations for the 2024 Award in the Western Region will open in June 2024.
Award Eligibility
The nominee must have made and be continuing to make a unique and exceptional contribution to theatre with singular creativity and artistry and deep investment in the selected region. Artistic staff and freelance directors/choreographers are eligible.
The nominee must live in the year’s selected region and work primarily in the year’s selected region.
The nominee must be an SDC Member or SDC Associate Member in good standing by the nomination deadline.
The nominator does not have to be an SDC Member
Note that this is not an award for lifetime achievement; this award heralds both accomplishment to date and promise for the future.
About Zelda
Zelda Fichandler (1924 -2016) dedicated her early career to the establishment of America’s regional theatre movement. In 1950 she founded Washington D.C.’s Arena Stage and in 1968 she produced The Great White Hope, which became the first production to transfer from a regional theatre to Broadway, winning the Tony and the Pulitzer Prize, and launching the careers of James Earl Jones and Jane Alexander. Her production of Inherit the Wind toured Soviet St. Petersburg and Moscow and Arena Stage was the first American theatre company sponsored by the State Department to do so. Like many other regional theatres afterward, Arena Stage cultivated an evolving but resident company over the decades that included some of America’s best actors: Robert Prosky, Frances Sternhagen, George Grizzard, Philip Bosco, Ned Beatty, Roy Scheider, Robert Foxworth, Jane Alexander, James Earl Jones, Melinda Dillon, Dianne Wiest, Max Wright, Marilyn Caskey, Harriet Harris, and Tom Hewitt. In 1975 it was the first regional theatre to be recognized by the American Theatre Wing and the Broadway League with the Regional Theatre Tony Award for outstanding achievement. When Ms. Fichandler retired as Producing Artistic Director of Arena Stage in 1990, she had achieved the longest tenure of any non-commercial producer in the annals of the American theatre. Before her death in July of 2016, Ms. Fichandler was Chair Emeritus of New York University’s acclaimed Graduate Acting Program where she personally taught, guided, and inspired more than 500 acting students, including Marcia Gay Harden, Rainn Wilson, Billy Crudup, Debra Messing, Peter Krause, and Michael C. Hall. Her honors include the SDC Foundation’s “Mr. Abbott” Award, The Acting Company’s John Houseman Award, the Margo Jones Award, and the National Medal of Arts, and in 1999 she became the first artistic leader outside of New York to be inducted into the Theatre Hall of Fame.
Past Recipients
Western Region
Jonathan Moscone of California Shakespeare Theater in Orinda, California (2009)
Bill Rauch of Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland, Oregon (2012)
Tim Dang of East West Players in Los Angeles, CA (2015)
Loretta Greco of Magic Theater in San Francisco (2018)
Mark Valdez of Los Angeles, California (2021)
Central Region
Michael Halberstam of Writer’s Theatre in Glencoe, Illinois (2010)
Charles Newell of Court Theatre in Chicago, Illinois (2013)
Lisa Portes of Chicago, Illinois (2016)
Marcela Lorca of Ten Thousand Things in St. Paul, Minnesota (2019)
Ron OJ Parson of Chicago, Illinois (2022)
Eastern Region
Blanka Zizka of The Wilma Theater in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (2011)
Joseph Haj of PlayMakers Repertory Company in Chapel Hill, NC (2014)
Vivienne Benesch of PlayMakers Repertory Company in Chapel Hill, NC (2017)
Kamilah Forbes of The Apollo Theatre in New York City (2020)