New NEA Grants Announced

I received this press release yesterday:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: December 4, 2007
CONTACT: Victoria Hutter, hutterv@arts.gov, 202-682-5692

National Endowment for the Arts Announces More Than $20 Million in Grants for the First Round of Fiscal Year 2008 Funding

Washington, D.C. -- In its first major grant announcement of fiscal year 2008, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) announced today that it will award $20.2 million to fund 908 grants. The Arts Endowment will distribute $19,189,000 in this round of FY 2008 funding to nonprofit national, regional, state, and local organizations across the country through the NEA's Access to Artistic Excellence category. Forty-two Creative Writing Fellowships awarded to individual writers total more than $1 million.

For the full press release plus grant lists by discipline and by state, go to http://www.arts.gov/news/news07/Announce12-07.html

The National Endowment for the Arts also announces grant awards totaling $1,150,000 through the Challenge America: Reaching Every Community program. These projects were made public on November 15.

For the release and grant list, go to http://www.arts.gov/news/news07/Challenge.html

And here is part of the list of theaters (http://www.arts.gov/grants/recent/08grants/08AAE.php?CAT=Access&DIS=Theater). This is NOT the complete list, and it is very long. Very impresed by the specificity of the projects.

A Contemporary Theatre, Inc. (aka ACT Theatre)
Seattle, WA
$20,000
To support the world premiere production of Beyond the 17th Parallel by T. D. Mitchell. The playwright will be in residence for development during the rehearsal period, and artistic director Kurt Beattie will direct the production.

Actors Theatre Of Louisville, Inc.
Louisville, KY
$45,000
To support the 32nd Humana Festival of New American Plays, an annual showcase of new theatrical work featuring American playwrights. Artistic director Marc Masterson will program and oversee the signature event.

Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Inc.
Montgomery, AL
$25,000
To support the Southern Writers Project Festival of New Plays. The festival will feature the world premiere production of Rocket City by Mark Saltzman and readings of new plays by Southern writers.

American Repertory Theatre (aka A.R.T.)
Cambridge, MA
$30,000
To support a production of Cardenio by Charles Mee and Stephen Greenblatt, a new work inspired by the lost play by William Shakespeare. The production will be directed by Les Waters and performed at the Loeb Drama Center, with subsequent performances at the Public Theatre in New York.

Atlantic Theater Company
New York, NY
$15,000
To support the commissioning, readings, and production of new works in the new play development and production program Atlantic Stage 2. The award-winning Off-Broadway theater will create an artistic home for emerging and established writers to develop new work and contribute to the life of the theater.

Berkeley Repertory Theatre (aka Berkeley Rep)
Berkeley, CA
$30,000
To support the development of young, emerging, and early-career writers in the Commissioning and New Play Development Program, with accompanying outreach activities. Associate artistic director Les Waters and resident dramaturg/literary manager Madeleine Oldham will oversee the program.

Center Theatre Group of Los Angeles
Los Angeles, CA
$35,000
To support the world premiere production of Of Equal Measure, a new play by Tanya Barfield. The production will be directed by Leigh Silverman.

Chicago Dramatists
Chicago, IL
$10,000
To support the Many Voices Project, a multicultural showcase of new plays in development. The program will offer developmental assistance to playwrights, culminating in public staged readings with professional theater artists.

Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park
Cincinnati, OH
$15,000
To support the development and world premiere production of A Sleeping Country, a new play by Melanie Marnich. The play was selected as the winner of the Mickey Kaplan New American Play Prize.

City Theatre Company, Inc.
Pittsburgh, PA
$20,000
To support the development and world premiere of a new play by David Grimm about the life of American poet Hart Crane. Artistic director Tracy Brigden will direct.

Civilians, Inc.
New York, NY
$10,000
To support the development, co-production, and associated community dialogue programs for This Beautiful City, a new documentary play by Steven Cosson and Jim Lewis, with music by Michael Friedman. Created through a long-term process of interviews and community participation, the play explores the influential evangelical movement centered in Colorado Springs.

Clubbed Thumb, Inc.
New York, NY
$15,000
To support the Summerworks festival of new work The project will feature full productions of commissioned plays and a night of short works by various writers on the theme of legislation missing from the Bill of Rights.

Elevator Repair Service Theater, Inc.
Brooklyn, NY
$10,000
To support the development and premiere of an ensemble work based on William Faulkner's novel The Sound and the Fury. Artistic director John Collins will direct the new work titled Present (April 7, 1928) at New York City Workshop's mainstage theater.

Eugene O'Neill Memorial Theater Center, Inc. (aka The O'Neill)
Waterford, CT
$30,000
To support the National Playwrights Conference and the National Music Theater Conference. The project will include the creation and development of new plays and musical theater works.

Foundry Theatre, Inc.
New York, NY
$15,000
To support the development and world premiere production of The Great Immensity, a new documentary theater piece by Steve Cosson with original music by Michael Friedman. The piece will be created from interviews and examine the topic of climate change.

Group I Acting Company, Inc. (aka The Acting Company)
New York, NY
$30,000
To support the production and national tour of Moby Dick Rehearsed, a 1950s work by Orson Welles, adapted from Herman Melville's classic novel. The Acting Company production will be directed by Casey Biggs.

Guthrie Theatre Foundation
Minneapolis, MN
$40,000
To support a production of Peer Gynt, adapted from Henrik Ibsen's verse drama by award-winning American poet Robert Bly. The production will be directed by Tim Carroll and will feature internationally acclaimed actor and director Mark Rylance in the title role.

Hartford Stage Company, Inc.
Hartford, CT
$25,000
To support the development and English-language premiere of Zerlina's Tale, translated and adapted by Jeremy Sams from the story by Hermann Broch. The production will be directed by artistic director Michael Wilson.

Huntington Theatre Company, Inc.
Boston, MA
$25,000
To support the Today's Artists, Tomorrow's Works Program. The project will include a playwrights' fellows program, the Breaking Ground Festival of new play readings, and a world premiere by program alumnus Sinan Unel.

id Theatre, Inc.
Brooklyn, NY
$10,000
To support the Seven Devils Playwrights Conference. Emerging and professional playwrights will work with student playwrights from rural Idaho to develop new plays culminating in a series of fully staged readings with audience talkback sessions.

InterAct, Inc. (aka InterAct Theatre Company)
Philadelphia, PA
$10,000
To support the world premiere of Efrat from Afar by playwright Larry Loebell as the centerpiece of a festival of new plays. Panel discussions and readings of new and contemporary plays that explore American perspectives on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will occur in conjunction with the production.

Irish Repertory Theatre Company, Inc. (aka The Irish Rep)
New York, NY
$10,000
To support the creation and adaptation for the stage of Peter Quinn's novel Banished Children of Eve. Commissioned writers of Irish American and African American background will partner to adapt the work, to be directed by producing director Ciaran O'Reilly.

La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club, Inc. (aka La MaMa E.T.C.) (Consortium)
New York, NY
$25,000
To support the creation and premiere of Seven, a documentary theater piece. Produced in partnership with Vital Voices Global of Washington, DC, the piece will bring together the stories of seven women in developing countries around the world.

LAByrinth, Inc. (aka LAByrinth Theater Company)
New York, NY
$20,000
To support the annual New Play Development Programs. Activities will include the Summer Intensive retreat, the Barn Series Festival of staged readings, and Developmental Productions of new works-in-progress.

Ma-Yi Filipino Theatre Ensemble, Inc. (aka Ma-Yi Theater Company)
New York, NY
$25,000
To support the world premiere of The Children of Vonderly by playwright and co-director of the Ma-Yi Writers Lab, Lloyd Suh. Artistic director Ralph B. Pena will direct the production at an Off-Broadway venue in New York City.

Mabou Mines Development Foundation, Inc. (aka Mabou Mines)
New York, NY
$30,000
To support the creation and production of Finn, a digital and live action adventure based on the ancient legend of Finn McCool. Co-artistic director Sharon Fogarty will work with the Czech digital animation artists of Misha Films, Irish playwright Jocelyn Clarke, and Scottish composer Phil Cunningham.

Manhattan Theatre Club, Inc. (aka MTC)
New York, NY
$20,000
To support the development of work by emerging and established playwrights in the Artistic Development Program. Script evaluation, readings, commissions, and dramaturgy will further new plays and musicals toward full-scale productions.

McCarter Theater
Princeton, NJ
$25,000
To support the world premiere of Edward Albee's Me, Myself and I. Artistic director Emily Mann will direct the newly commissioned play by one of America's leading playwrights.

Mettawee Theatre Company, Inc. (aka Mettawee River Company)
Salem, NY
$15,000
To support the tour of an original play based on the The Book of Tobit from the Apocrypha. Artistic director Ralph Lee will direct and design the production with masks, puppets, and giant figures.

Milwaukee Repertory Theater, Inc.
Milwaukee, WI
$30,000
To support the premiere of The Night Is a Child (A Notre E Uma Criancha) by playwright Charles Randolph-Wright. Timothy Douglas will direct the production, with accompanying educational activities.

Mixed Blood Theatre Company
Minneapolis, MN
$30,000
To support the commissioning, development, and world premieres of Love Person by Aditi Kapil and Red Ink by Rhiana Yazzie and Native American playwrights. Artistic director Jack Reuler will serve as producer and Liz Engelman will serve as dramaturg for both productions, with accompanying outreach activities.

New Dramatists, Inc.
New York, NY
$45,000
To support the development of new work for the theater in the Playwrights Lab. The core developmental initiative will support resident playwrights through writer-driven readings and a workshop series.

New York Shakespeare Festival (aka The Public Theater)
New York, NY
$45,000
To support a production of The Bacchae by Euripides at the Public Theater. Based on a translation by Nicholas Rudall, the production will be created and directed by JoAnne Akalaitis and will feature original music by Philip Glass.

New York Theatre Workshop, Inc.
New York, NY
$40,000
To support the New York premiere of Things of Dry Hours by Naomi Wallace. The playwright is a member of Usual Suspects, the theater's community of affiliate artists.

Ontological-Hysteric Theater, Inc.
New York, NY
$35,000
To support the creation and production of I Wish It Were True, a new non-narrative theater work written and directed by Richard Foreman. The piece will utilize film tableaux as a continual backdrop for live performances.

Oregon Shakespeare Festival Association
Ashland, OR
$45,000
To support a production of The Clay Cart directed by Bill Rauch. The piece is an English translation of a classic Sanskrit romantic drama adapted for the stage by A.L. Basham.

Paper Mill Playhouse
Millburn, NJ
$15,000
To support a production of The Miracle Worker by William Gibson. Multidisciplinary project activities will include mainstage performances, a visual arts gallery exhibit, and educational outreach activities to promote lifelong learning.

Penumbra Theatre Company, Inc.
Saint Paul, MN
$35,000
To support the production of Gem of the Ocean by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright August Wilson, with accompanying educational and outreach activities. Founder and artistic director Lou Bellamy will direct the Midwest premiere production.

Philadelphia Theatre Company
Philadelphia, PA
$20,000
To support the commissioning and development of works in the New Plays Project-Year III. The project will also support the world premiere of The Happiness Lecture by theater artist Bill Irwin, with direction by Nancy Harrington.

Pittsburgh Public Theater Corporation
Pittsburgh, PA
$20,000
To support a production of Peter Shaffer's 1979 stage play Amadeus. Producing artistic director Ted Pappas will direct the production, with accompanying educational and outreach activities.

Playwrights Horizons, Inc.
New York, NY
$40,000
To support the American Voice developmental program for theater and musical theater writers and the production of a play or musical in the Peter Jay Sharp Theater. The program includes an open-door script submission policy, play readings, and musical theater staged readings.

Playwrights' Center, Inc.
Minneapolis, MN
$20,000
To support the development of new work in the Ruth Easton Lab. Producing artistic director Polly Carl will direct the lab's play development activities that culminate in the Writer/Director Series and the annual Play Labs Festival.

Present Theatre Company, Inc. (aka The Present Company)
New York, NY
$10,000
To support the New York International Fringe Festival. The festival will allow artists and arts organizations the opportunity to present work to a broad audience in a variety of venues.

Primary Stages Company, Inc.
New York, NY
$15,000
To support the New York premiere production of Something You Did by Willy Holtzman. The production will play at 59E59 Theaters, a new theatrical complex on Manhattan's Upper East Side.

Providence Black Repertory Company (aka Black Rep)
Providence, RI
$15,000
To support the development and world premiere production of The Etymology of Bird, a new play by Zakiyyah Alexander. The production will be directed by Megan Sandberg- Zakian.

Quantum Theatre, Inc.
Pittsburgh, PA
$10,000
To support the development and production of Yerma by Federico Garcia Lorca, directed by Melanie Dreyer. The production will incorporate the flamenco artistry of Carolina Loyola-Garcia into a classic folk tragedy about the power of women in a rural community.

Redmoon Theater
Chicago, IL
$20,000
To support the development of Dream Masons, a large-scale, site-specific outdoor spectacle. The piece will be performed on the campus of the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago's historic Bronzeville neighborhood.

Roundabout Theatre Company, Inc.
New York, NY
$45,000
To support the revival and production of Les Liaisons Dangereuses, adapted for the stage by playwright Christopher Hampton in 1985 from French author Pierre Ambroise François Choderlos de Laclos's 1782 novel. Rufus Norris will direct the production, with accompanying educational activities.

Rude Mechanicals-A Theatre Collective
Austin, TX
$10,000
To support the creation, workshop production, and world premiere of After Before, with accompanying educational activities. Founder and co-producing artistic director Shawn Sides will direct, and playwright Kirk Lynn will oversee the ensemble development process with the creative team of playwright Rebecca Beagle and directors Barney O'Hanlan and Carlos Trevino.

Saratoga International Theatre Institute, Inc. (aka SITI Company)
New York, NY
$25,000
To support the development and premiere of a new SITI Company-created work currently titled Hemispheric Disturbances at Arizona State University. The play will feature company actors and the design team of James Schuette, Darron L. West, and Brian Scott.

Shakespeare Theatre (aka Shakespeare Theatre Company)
Washington, DC
$45,000
To support the Roman Repertory project. A production of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar directed by David Muse will be performed in repertory with a production of Antony and Cleopatra directed by artistic director Michael Kahn.
Signature Theatre Company, Inc.

New York, NY
$35,000
To support the development and production of Paradise Park by playwright-in-residence Charles Mee. Directed by Daniel Fish, the production will be the third in a season-long exploration of the playwright's work.

Steppenwolf Theatre Company
Chicago, IL
$35,000
To support a production of Carter's Way, a new play written and directed by ensemble member Eric Simonson. The production will feature live vocals and recorded instrumentation created and arranged by Darrell Leonard.

Studio Theatre, Inc.
Washington, DC
$25,000
To support productions of The Brothers Size by Tarell Alvin McCraney and the 2006 Tony award-winning play The History Boys by Alan Bennett, with accompanying educational and outreach activities. Bosnian-born director/playwright Tea Alagic will direct McCraney's work, and founding artistic director Joy Zinoman will direct Bennett's work.

Target Margin Theater, Inc.
Brooklyn, NY
$10,000
To support the development and production of a new musical adaptation of Aristophanes' The Frogs. The production will feature a new translation and an original score and libretto, and will be directed by artistic director David Herskovits.

Theatre for a New Audience, Inc.
New York, NY
$35,000
To support a production of Antony and Cleopatra by William Shakespeare, with accompanying educational activities. Darko Tresnjak, artistic director of the Old Globe Shakespeare Festival, will direct, with Tony and Emmy Award-winning actress Christine Baranski in the lead role.

TimeLine Theatre Company
Chicago, IL
$10,000
To support the development and production of The Odd Women. Playwright Kate Fodor will adapt the work from the novel by George Gissing.

Washington Drama Society, Inc. (aka Arena Stage)
Washington, DC
$40,000
To support the Arthur Miller Festival at Arena Stage. The festival will feature productions of Death of a Salesman directed by Tim Bond and A View from the Bridge directed by Daniel Aukin, performed in rotating repertory by a single ensemble cast.

William Inge Festival Foundation (aka William Inge Center for the Arts)
Independence, KS
$15,000
To support Guest Artist Residencies at the William Inge Center for the Arts. The project will introduce professional directors and actors to playwrights-in-residence to collaborate on readings, workshops, and the development of new plays.

Wilma Theater, Inc.
Philadelphia, PA
$20,000
To support further development and production of Eurydice by Sarah Ruhl and a commission to choral composer Toby Twining. Co-artistic director Blanka Zizka will direct the production, with accompanying educational activities.

Women's Project & Productions
New York, NY
$15,000
To support the professional careers of emerging women theater artists in the Developmental Theater Programs. Individual components will include the Directors Lab, the Playwrights Lab, and the Producers Lab.

Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company
Washington, DC
$25,000
To support the continued development and world premiere of Stunning by David Adjimi, who will be in residence at the theater during the play's rehearsal period. Artistic director Howard Shalwitz will lead the dramaturgical team, with direction by regional and national director Anne Kauffman.

Wooster Group, Inc.
New York, NY
$30,000
To support the development, rehearsals, and a work-in-progress presentation of 172 South (working title). Founder Elizabeth LeCompte will direct the work.

Yale University (on behalf of Yale Repertory Theatre)
New Haven, CT
$30,000
To support the world premiere of The Evildoers by David Adjimi at Yale Repertory Theatre. Rebecca Taichman, associate director of Woolly Mammoth Theatre in Washington, will direct the production.

Young Playwrights Inc. (aka Young Playwrights Festival)
New York, NY
$15,000
To support the Young Playwrights Festival. Plays will be selected through a national open-submission playwriting competition.

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