Drama Faculty Member takes Chicago’s Top Theatre Award
On November 7, Drama’s stage combat instructor Rick Sordelet received the coveted Jeff Award for Best Fight Direction for Chicago Shakespeare Theater’s production of Romeo and Juliet, directed by Gale Edwards. The annual Jeff Awards recognize theater artists in the Chicago area.
It is an honor for the Jeff Awards Committee to not only recognize fight direction as a designer position but to also reward the fight director for the quality of the craft with such a beautiful award,, says Sordelet.
Sordelet’s fight direction is extremely well known within the entertainment industry, having over 50 Broadway shows to his credit, including: Superior Donuts, The Scottsboro Boys, Fences, Oleanna, and Disney’s The Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, Aida, The Little Mermaid, and Tarzan. Opera credits include Cyrano at The Metropolitan Opera, Royal Opera House and La Scala. Forty-nine international credits include BEN HUR LIVE (European tour) and As You Like It (The Bridge Project at BAM, European tour and London). Film and television credits include: The Game Plan, Dan in Real Life, Hamlet and 12 years as Chief Stunt Coordinator for Guiding Light with over 1,000 episodes. He received an Edith Oliver Award for Sustained Excellence from the Lucille Lortel Foundation. He is a board member for The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey and in addition to his work at The New School for Drama, he is also an instructor at Yale School of Drama and The Neighborhood Playhouse.