- Resume (OPTIONAL) that focuses on your experience and training as a director. (PDF)
- Statement of Interest that addresses your interest in the SDC Directing Initiative and what you hope to achieve and learn through involvement in the process. (PDF)
- Director’s Material (Director’s Book)– see below for details. (PDF)
There are three elements to your Director’s Materials: The Director’s Statement, Play Analysis, and Spectacle/Design.
- Director’s Statement
- This statement provides what could be described as “the world of the play,” This is where the director’s vision and concept for the scene and the play as a whole can be explored. This statement may contain the personal, analytical, and intuitive framework for the scene. It is a combination of script analysis, research, creativity, and personal connection to the text. The statement should address the themes, images, and specific lines of text that guide the director’s work. What about the play speaks to you and why are you the artist to do this play? What world are you looking to bring onto the stage and why is this the scene to best explore the ideas and themes you are looking to explore.
Simply put, “Why this play? Why now? This does not have to be long – maybe a page or two – but it should be clear that these are your ideas of how to stage this play and this scene.
- Play Analysis
- Identification: List title of play and name of author, and feel free to include any relevant research or dramaturgical work that informed your process.
- Given Circumstances: Briefly describe any significant previous action that occurs before the scene begins. What are the facts of the play that serve as the foundation of the scene, aka, the Given Circumstances?
- Major event(s) of the scene: Describe or list the events or the actions that take place within the scene you are presenting. This is not notation of your blocking, but rather a list of actions that you have observed and recorded from the text you are working on. (example: Edna wants Joe to join the striking cab drivers but Joe is afraid).
- Character Breakdown: List the characters and provide a character description for each character in the scene. This would be something that we might see in a casting notice of the character but with more intricate details about them
- Spectacle / Design:
- This is for you to use all your creativity to reflect the heart and soul of the piece and to further support and reflect your deep analysis of the whole play. List a series of imagistic words that capture your aesthetic sense of the scene’s look and “feel” of the play. These words might include colors, textures, ornamentation, relevant metaphoric images, light, and shadow, composition, degree of detail, etc. You could also include images, song lyrics, or anything which will help you express your connection with the play. Imagine this section as a mood/inspiration board for the “world of the play.” This is not an actual design, but the world and feeling you could convey to a design team.
Submissions must include the three items above and are due no later than 11:59 PM on January 21st, 2025.
Please note that all written material should be submitted as a PDF, and that it will be shared with a limited number of people registered with the KCACTF Region 1 festival: your fellow SDC directing candidates and the SDC respondents.
SDC Directing Initiative Scene Selections 2025
All entrants for the 2025 Regional Festivals will prepare one from the list of scenes below, selected by the SDC fellowship alumni.
Machinal by Sophie Treadwell (Nick Hern Books)
“This scene and this play as a whole is an amazing challenge for a young director due it’s subject matter and how Treadwell has crafted this mechanical and cold world. The speech at the end alone is a monster for any actor or director willing to take this on. The scene also poses a challenging question about motherhood and the availability of choice in taking on that role.” – Jordan Mitchell, 2022 and 2023 Region 1 SDC Fellow
The Complete Works of Shakespeare (abridged) by Adam Long, Daniel Singer, and Jess Winfield (Broadway Play Publishing)
“One of the most important aspects of this show is developing a united trio who can work off each other. This scene puts that chemistry to the test as these silly and larger than life characters have to earnestly contend with a betrayal of trust within their group. The director who works on this also has a chance to bring more of themselves to the humor of the scene, if they choose to change the show that Jess is obsessed with.” – Jordan Mitchell, 2022 and 2023 Region 1 SDC Fellow
Passage by Christopher Chen (Dramatists Play Service)
Recommended by Abigail Torres, Region 7 2023 SDC Fellow
The Last Days of Judas Iscariot by Stephen Adly-Guirgis (Dramatists Play Service)
Recommended by Abigail Torres, Region 7 2023 SDC Fellow
Appropriate by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins (Dramatists Play Service)
“This is quite a challenging play, both in its staging and content. I particularly love it because it asks the director to constantly build tension in an ensemble scene that constantly twists and turns with fluid status and complex chunks of dialogue. In this play, it’s my interpretation that no character is fully in the right, nor fully in the wrong, but thats what makes it so interesting— it asks the audience to interrogate their own familial relationships and how complex layers of dueling truths can exist at the same time.” – Nabeel Jan, Region 2 2023 SDC Fellow
Doctor Voynich and Her Children by Leanna Keyes (Bloomsbury Publishing, The Methuen Drama Book of Trans Plays)
“This ‘prediction’ is set in America years after reproductive health care has been made illegal. Doctor Voynich and her apprentice Fade travel the countryside in a converted ambulance dispensing harmless herbs by day and providing family planning services by night. Fade tries to help local youth Hannah complete her abortion, using forbidden knowledge from an ancient manuscript, before her mother and the sheriff can nail them for the ‘attempted murder of an unborn person.’ This play about mothers and daughters is poetic, sexy, vulgar, queer, and a little too real. Doctor Voynich and Her Children provides an excellent opportunity for young directors who are eager to tackle a bold and exposed script.” – Erin White, Region 7 2021 SDC Fellow
Arbor Falls by Caridad Svich (New Play Exchange)
Recommended by Sanhawich Meateanuwat, Region 3 2022 SDC Fellow
Rx Machina by Caity-Shea Violette (New Play Exchange)
“I love this play— the dialogue and character interactions in this piece are constantly layered— their true intentions are often hidden and others have to work to figure out what is really going on. I also especially enjoy the moments where characters snap out of their normal, or expected, paths, and portray what the other character sees. It is also quite appropriate to do now, as the effects of the ongoing opioid epidemic are being litigated in society (and courts) and blame must be assigned.” – Nabeel Jan, Region 2 2023 SDC Fellow
Big Love by Charles L. Mee (https://www.charlesmee.org/big-love.shtml)
Recommended by Amanda Baschnagel, Region 6 2023 SDC Fellow
The Language Archive by Julia Cho (Dramatists Play Service)
Recommended by Sanhawich Meateanuwat, Region 3 2022 SDC Fellow
Feel free to direct any questions to:
Sasha Brätt, Chair of Region 1 SDC Directing Initiative