NEW YORK CITY: Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation (SDCF) has named Marcela Lorca, artistic director of Ten Thousand Things Theater Company in St. Paul, Minn., as the recipient of the 2019 Zelda Fichandler Award. Lorca will be honored at a private ceremony on Nov. 12 in New York City.
The annual award was created in honor of Arena Stage’s founder, Zelda Fichandler, and recognizes directors and choreographers who have made prominent achievements in the field with an investment in a particular community or region.
“This is the first time in Fichandler history that the award is going to a director-choreographer!” said Lisa Portes, chair of the selection committee, in a statement. “Given that SDCF is the Directors and Choreographers Foundation, honoring Marcela Lorca, who creates work in both disciplines (often at the same time), feels like a perfect fit. Moreover, Marcela’s nearly three-decade commitment to the Twin Cities as an educator, artist, and leader who has consistently opened doors to a broad range of artists and aesthetics makes her exactly the kind of regional changemaker the Zelda Fichandler award is meant to honor.”
This year’s selection committee included directors Justin Emeka and Joanie Schultz, and director-choreographer Ken Roberson. The finalists are Rick Dildine, artistic director of Alabama Shakespeare Festival; Ron OJ Parson, resident artist at Court Theatre in Chicago; and Blake Robison, artistic director of the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park.
Lorca has led Ten Thousand Things since January of 2018. Recent directing credits at the company include directed The Winter’s Tale, The Sins of Sor Juana, and Into the Woods. Other recent Twin Cities credits include La Pasión Según San Marcos with Minnesota Orchestra, and Disgraced at the Guthrie Theater, which was also produced at McCarter Theatre Center and Milwaukee Repertory Theater. Previously she directed The Count of Monte Cristo at Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Scorched at Syracuse Stage, Caroline, or Change at the Guthrie and Syracuse Stage, and Crimes of the Heart, The Burial at Thebes, and The Secret Fall of Constance Wilde at the Guthrie. Lorca is a founding member of the University of Minnesota/Guthrie Theater BFA Actor Training Program and of the Guthrie Experience for Actors in Training. Lorca Movement, her eponymous technique, integrates acting, voice, and movement. Previously she worked as movement director, choreographer, and director of company development for the Guthrie, where she choreographed more than 20 productions and coached movement for over 150 plays.
