Named for the late founding artistic director of Arena Stage, the Zelda Fichandler Award recognizes directors and choreographers who have demonstrated great accomplishment with singular creativity and deep investment in a particular community or region.  SDCF also named Snehal Desai as a finalist. Both artists will be honored in a virtual ceremony open to the public on May 6^th.  The Paul Robeson Award, given annually since the late Robeson received the first Citation in 1974, honors individuals who leverage theatre to go beyond the stage to enact their commitment to the freedom of expression and conscience. Ishii will be honored at a ceremony in New York City on June 23.

Leslie Ishii has worked on Broadway and in regional theatre as an actor, director and artist educator from NY to OR, CA, MN, WA, and Alaska.  Ishii also worked throughout the US as a faculty member of artEquity training arts and culture institutes regarding inclusion and equitable models and best practices for their sustainability

“Leslie courageously advocates for and implements equity and inclusion of multiracial and BIPOC artists in every initiative, space and creative process she curates and engages in,” said Mary Jo McConnell, who nominated Ishii for the Paul Robeson award. “Leslie embodies integrity and is a seeker of truth and justice. Leslie has found and continues to develop support for decolonization and re-Indigienization as it is healing colonization at the root cause and brings collective liberation for all.”

As Ishii relates, “I grew up community building and organizing with my grandmother and parents who never forgot what it meant to be food insecure and houseless when released from the WWII US Concentration Camps that were unhealthy, torturous and pitted our families and community members against each other. Japanese Americans navigated continued heavy anti-Japanese, anti-Asian hate and violence when resettling.

Once adults and married, my parents organized their church community and created meal programs as they never wanted anyone to suffer from food insecurity and houselessness as they did. So, I worked in the church kitchens, on the food line serving and making calls in the phone tree system to keep the volunteers assigned to support but not so often that they burned out. My mom and her friends knew to develop a large enough inter-generational volunteer group so that eventually the program could also be passed to the next generation. It worked. Even after my parents passed, the programs continued. This work through childhood and young adulthood has informed my outlook and what it means to utilize my privilege for good to be of service.“

 
More about Leslie Ishii 

Leslie Ishii (Artistic Director, Perseverance Theatre), a Yonsei, fourth generation Japanese American, debuted as an actor in Northwest Asian American Theater’s Breaking The Silence that raised legal defense funds for,

WWII US Concentration Camp Resister, Gordon Hirabayashi and his Supreme Court Case. This standing room-only event featured the first play to publicly share the history and stories of Japanese American WWII

Concentration Camp survivors, resisters, and their descendants. It also began the intergenerational healing of the Seattle Japanese American community. Since then, Leslie has felt called to support the storytelling that is

the healing justice of Black/Indigenous/People of Color (BIPOC) artists and communities.

As a director, arts educator, activist, and community builder/organizer, Leslie is deeply grateful to have also worked with legacy BIPOC theatres; El Teatro Campesino, East West Players, National Black Theatre,

Penumbra Theatre, Theatre Mu, Native Voices, and emeritus, Asian American Theatre Company. These artistic opportunities have informed her passion for directing and creating theatre deep in community. Leslie

thrives on her creative and learning edge when advocating for BIPOC, LGTQ2SIA artists and those of marginalized groups in every initiative, space and creative process with which she curates and engages.

Humbly, she continues to learn and practice decolonization and re-indigenization to operationalize racial equity and healing justice to liberate and celebrate artists, their histories, their Ancestors.

(Service) Consortium of Asian American Theaters & Artists (CAATA): Board President; National New Play Network: Board Member, Strategic Planning Co-Chair, Membership Committee; Juneau Arts and Humanities

Council: E/D/I/A Committee; Anchorage Arts Alliance: Steering Committee; Professional Non-Profit Theater Coalition: Founding Planning Committee, Co-Chair Coalition Building and Website Subcommittee working to

advocate for Federal funding for covid pandemic and ongoing economic recovery; National Theatre Conference Member; artEquity: National Faculty.

(Awards) 2025 AEA Diversity Committee Paul Robeson Awardee; 2024 SDCF Zelda Fichandler Director Award and 2022 Finalist; 2023 United States Artist Fellowship; SDC 2016, 2017 National Standout Recognition for championing equity/inclusion; 2015-2018 Doris Duke Charitable Foundation National Theatre Grant Recipient; New England Foundation for the Arts Capacity Building Grant Recipient; James P. Shannon

Leadership Institute; Teachers Making A Difference, Los Angeles County Supervisors/City of Los Angeles, 2017; Los Angeles Women’s Theatre Festival Integrity Award, 2019.

(Social Justice Leadership & Community Organizing) Tsuru For Solidarity: Co-Chair, Direct Action SecurityDesign/Artist Committee advocating for immigrant/refugees inhumanely treated during deportation

and/or in detention centers; Perseverance Theatre: To prepare for a production regarding Missing/Murdered/Indigenous Peoples (M/M/I/P), offered Stalker Awareness/Prevention Training for

staff/crew/artists and in-community given the highest US percentages of M/M/I/P are in Alaska; offered CAATA national and Alaska state-wide De-escalation/Upstander/Bystander Trainings to Arts and Culture

Staff and Artists to offer resources and skills-building regarding Anti-Asian Hate/Violence during the covid pandemic and following the Atlanta spa shootings; Community-organized and co-directed the 1st and 2nd

Freedom and Focus International Fitzmaurice Voicework® Conferences in Spain and Canada.

Leslie has been a featured presenter at voice and performance conferences in Mexico and Austria; artEquity Facilitator Team: Served to launch the Theatre Communication Group’s Equity/Diversity/Inclusion Institute; Arts For LA:ACTIVATE Cultural Policy Cohort; Los Angeles County Supervisors: Cultural Equity Inclusion Initiative Work Groups; East West Players: National Liaison for the 2042 See Change Initiative; National BIPOC Theatre Coalition/Commons: Co-Founder/Director advocating for the sustainability of US BIPOC Theatres— designed and circulated a national BIPOC Theaters and Artists Covid-19 pandemic survey funded by the

UCLA Asian American Studies Program in order to provide direct access to qualitative and quantitative data/research for BIPOC Theaters and Artists on-going recovery, resource building, and fundraising.