Theater director Sean Daniels has outstanding credits to his name. He co-founded the company Dad’s Garage, which is now a cornerstone of Atlanta’s theatrical scene, and then went on to lead Merrimack Repertory Theatre in Massachusetts. He also spent four years as associate artistic director at Actors Theatre of Louisville where he oversaw the sadly now-defunct Humana Festival of New American Plays and directed many of its world premieres over five years.

The credit that brings him the greatest pride, however, is just a tad more recent, however: person in long-term recovery. For almost two decades as he charted his remarkable artistic path, he was also increasingly hobbled by his addiction to alcohol, and as is so common for people with substance-abuse disorders, it took him several tries before he was finally able to manage his disease. Sean detailed his painful, absurd and often surprisingly hilarious journey to sobriety in his play “The White Chip,” which enjoyed a successful Off-Broadway run in 2019.

Now, over a decade into his sobriety, he has added a new credit to his resume: advocate. After a widely lauded stint as artistic director of Arizona Theatre Company, Sean recently became the associate director of Florida Studio Theatre. At FST not only will he head the theater’s new-play-development program, but he will also work as the inaugural director of his brainchild, The Recovery Project. The Recovery Project is an initiative working to heal the stigma of addiction and recovery through the development of new plays, theatre-education programs and outreach.

In this interview, Sean explains why those working in the performing arts are especially vulnerable to substance-abuse disorders and details how he hopes his advocacy will establish new support systems to catch struggling artists long before they fall as far as he once did.

https://www.floridastudiotheatre.org/

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