Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation, the not-for-profit foundation of Stage Directors and Choreographers Society, has named Pam MacKinnon and Orlando Pabotoy recipients of the 2022-2023 Joe A. Callaway Awards, which will be presented in a virtual ceremony in the spring.

The peer-given awards, first presented in 1989, recognize excellence in the arts of stage direction and choreography in a given Off-Broadway season in New York City.

MacKinnon is being honored for excellence in directing for Downstate (Playwrights Horizons), and Pabotoy is receiving the award for excellence in choreography for The Half-God of Rainfall (New York Theatre Workshop).

Finalists for excellence in directing included Knud Adams for Primary Trust (Roundabout Theatre Company) and Dustin Wills for Wolf Play (MCC Theater), while choreography finalists were Edgar Godineaux for The Harder They Come (The Public Theater) and Steph Paul for Where the Mountain Meets the Sea (Manhattan Theatre Club).

The 2022-2023 Callaway Committee was chaired by Shea Sullivan and included William Carlos Angulo, Pam Berlin, Maggie Burrows, Roger Danforth, Richard Hamburger, Dell Howlett, Margarett Perry, Amy Saltz, Danya Taymor, and Chay Yew.

Callaway Committee Chair Sullivan said in a statement, “The Callaway Awards are such a thrilling opportunity to both witness and lift up the work of our directing and choreography peers who are creating exciting and innovative theatre in continuously challenging times. It’s a difficult choice every year but the committee is overjoyed for this year’s awardees and finalists.”

MacKinnon is a Tony, Drama Desk, and Obie–winning director, having directed upwards of 80 productions around the country and in London. She serves as artistic director of American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco. Her Broadway credits include Beau Willimon’s The Parisian Woman, David Mamet’s China Doll, Amélie, a New Musical, Wendy Wasserstein’s The Heidi Chronicles, Edward Albee’s A Delicate Balance, Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Tony and Drama Desk Awards for Direction), and Bruce Norris’s Clybourne Park (Obie Award and Tony nomination for Direction).

Pabotoy is a NYC-based multidisciplinary theatre artist. His role as a choreographer and movement designer has also been showcased in productions of Henry VI (National Asian American Theatre Company), The Cherry Orchard (Classic Stage Company by Andrei Belgrader), and Marisol (Trinity Rep), among others. He has also directed a physical approach to Everybody by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins at PlayMakers Repertory Company, and his contributions to the world of new productions extend to writing and performing in Sesar (commissioned by the Ma-Yi Theater Company) and writing and directing That Beautiful Laugh (La MaMa’s 50th year anniversary).

Founded in 1965, Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation celebrates, develops, and supports professional stage directors and choreographers throughout every phase of their careers.

For more information click here.