NEW YORK CITY: Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation (SDCF) has awarded the Charles Abbott Fellowship to Joshua Chase Gold and the Denham Fellowship to Diane Rodriguez.
The Charles Abbott Fellowship provides early-career directors and director-choreographers the opportunity to access an entire rehearsal process of a classic American musical in a regional theatre.
Gold has directed at Orlando Repertory Theatre, Theatre Row, Aurora Fox Arts Center, New York International Fringe Festival, United Solo Theatre Festival, Hudson Theatre, and the West Village Musical Theatre Festival. He served as the co-artistic director of Counting Squares Theatre for six years. During his tenure, his productions of Bent and Woyzeck earned him a 2008 New York Independent People of the Year Awards. Gold is a candidate for an MFA in directing at Brooklyn College.
The Denham Fellowship was established by Mary Orr Denham in 2006 to honor her late husband, Reginald H. F. Denham. The Denham Fellowship is an annual award given to female directors.
Rodriguez was chosen as the 2016 Denham Fellow for her upcoming production of her play The Sweetheart Deal, which she wrote and will direct in Los Angeles in the spring of 2017. The Sweetheart Deal takes place in the midst of the Chicano social movement led by Cesar Chavez in 1970 and explores the political tension at the time. Rodriguez is an OBIE-winning theatre artist. She serves as associate artistic director of Center Theatre Group. The Sweetheart Deal has been developed at New Harmony Project and the Atlantic Theater’s Latino MixFest.
