2006 Grant Awards: Access to Artistic Excellence

[ August 15, 2005 deadline ]

Dance | Design | Folk & Traditional Arts | Literature | Local Arts Agencies
Media Arts | Museum | Music | Musical Theater | Presenting
Theater | Visual Arts

Some details of the projects listed below are subject to change, contingent upon prior Endowment approval.

Theater

A.J. and Nona Trigg Hodges Foundation (aka Hodges Gardens) (on behalf of Sabine Parish Players)
Florien, LA
$8,000
To support Shakespeare in Sabine, an annual production of a Shakespeare play featuring local residents of Sabine Parish, Louisiana. The production will be targeted to the general public and students from adjoining parishes in a culturally underserved, rural area.

About Productions
Pasadena, CA
$12,000
To support the continued development and production of a play that explores the role of early American films in exporting images of Latino culture. An educational panel at the Autry National Center will accompany the production.

Alaska Junior Theater, Inc.
Anchorage, AK
$17,000
To support the presentation of theater works through the Arts Outreach Program. Dynamo Theater of Montreal, Canada, will present Me, Me, Me, and ArtsPower National Touring Theater of New York will present From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler.

Alliance of Resident Theatres/New York, Inc. (aka A.R.T./New York)
New York, NY
$35,000
To support the Nancy Quinn Fund and the Harold and Mimi Steinberg Theatre Leadership Institute technical assistance programs. The initiatives provide management-related assistance to small and mid-sized theater companies nationally.

Appalshop, Inc. (aka WMMT-FM) (on behalf of Roadside Theater)
Whitesburg, KY
$22,000
To support the Thousand Kites Project, which will address issues surrounding the growing prison population in the United States. Roadside Theater will lead a community-based creation process through which a play will be developed and broadcast on public radio.

Asian American Theater Workshop Co. (aka AATC)
San Francisco, CA
$10,000
To support a production of Walls, a new play by Jeannie Barroga, and the interactive My Walls Letter Project. The play depicts stories of Vietnam soldiers as they prepare for the unveiling of Maya Lin's Vietnam War Memorial in Washington, DC.

Associated Recreation Council (aka Langston Hughes Performing Arts Center) (on behalf of Langston Hughes Performing Arts Center)
Seattle, WA
$11,000
To support a production of Diva Daughters Dupree, a new play by Kim Yvonne Euell directed by Artistic Director Jacqueline Moscou. Outreach activities will include audience discussions, special student matinees, and discounted tickets for seniors.

Autry National Center of the American West (aka Autry National Center)
Los Angeles, CA
$25,000
To support Native Voices at the Autry, a program targeted to the development and presentation of new plays by Native American writers. Writers will work with professional directors and actors and participate in readings and workshop productions.

Big Apple Circus, Ltd. (aka Big Apple Circus)
New York, NY
$23,000
To support the Circus of the Senses program. The project will make circus performances accessible to audiences of physically and developmentally disabled children.

Black Women Playwrights' Group
Washington, DC
$8,000
To support the Annual Reading of new plays. The reading provides a showcase for the latest original work by emerging and established women playwrights of color.

Chicago Shakespeare Theater
Chicago, IL
$35,000
To support the Team Shakespeare program, which offers performances and educational services to students and teachers in more than 500 Chicago-area schools. The program will focus on professional development for teachers to enhance their students' comprehension and enjoyment of Shakespeare's plays.

Chicago Theatre Group, Inc. (aka Goodman Theatre)
Chicago, IL
$50,000
To support the production of The Dreams of Sarah Breedlove by Goodman Theatre Artistic Associate Regina Taylor The play explores the life of Sarah Breedlove, also known as Madam C.J. Walker, the first freeborn child of emancipated slaves who rose to prominence as a successful businesswoman and self-made millionaire.

Circus Amok, Inc.
Brooklyn, NY
$10,000
To support the 2006 Summer Parks Tour of ensemble performance works in public spaces throughout New York City. Performances will be offered free-of-charge in ethnically and economically diverse communities.

Cornerstone Theater Company, Inc. (aka Cornerstone)
Los Angeles, CA
$35,000
To support the Cornerstone Institute Summer Residency Program. The company will collaborate with seniors and their caregivers to perform an original theater work by playwright Octavio Solis.

CSC Repertory, Ltd. (aka Classic Stage Company)
New York, NY
$15,000
To support a tour of "The Caucasian Chalk Circle" adapted by Obie Award-winning playwright Charles L. Mee.

Dad's Garage, Inc.
Atlanta, GA
$10,000
To support performance and training opportunities for professional improvisational ensemble companies and continued training and teaching opportunities for the Dad's Garage ensemble. The project will foster relationships among international and American ensemble companies and allow the theater to diversify its local audience.

East Los Angeles Classic Theatre (aka ECT)
Los Angeles, CA
$25,000
To support the Literary Engagement Performance Tour. The tour will bring a Shakespeare classic performed in a "Zoot Suit" style or mariachi adaptation to schools and community venues.

Eugene O'Neill Theater Center, Inc. (aka O'Neill Center)
Waterford, CT
$25,000
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.

Figures of Speech Theatre
Freeport, ME
$10,000
To support the Rural Maine Initiative. The company will tour plays to underserved young audiences and families throughout the state.

Ford's Theatre Society
Washington, DC
$25,000
To support a production of Howard Lindsay's and Russel Crouse's State of the Union, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1946. The production will be directed by John Rando, designed by Michael Yeargan, and will feature actress Judith Ivey.

Freehold Theatre Lab Studio (aka Freehold)
Seattle, WA
$10,000
To support the Engaged Theatre Program. The project will provide participatory theater performances, interactive workshops, and residencies to underserved audiences.

GALA Inc., Grupo de Artistas Latinoamericanos (aka GALA, Inc.)
Washington, DC
$30,000
To support the production of Valor, Agravio, y Mujer by Ana Caro. Outreach activities will include simultaneous English interpretation at all shows and the development of bilingual educatonal materials on the Golden Age of Spanish literature and other women wirters for high school and college instructors.

Georgia Shakespeare Festival, Inc.
Atlanta, GA
$18,000
To support the adaptation, development, and production of a Shakespeare play. Othello will be given a new adaptation by the project's two key creative collaborators, director Kent Gash and actor Brandon Dirden.

Greenbrier Repertory Theatre Company (aka Greenbrier Valley Theatre)
Lewisburg, WV
$10,000
To support a production of The Diary of Anne Frank.The project will be targeted to general and school audiences in southern West Virginia and bordering counties in Virginia.

Idaho Shakespeare Festival
Boise, ID
$22,000
To support the regional tour of plays. The company will tour The Merry Wives of Windsor by William Shakespeare and the newly commissioned Coyote Tales to elementary, middle, and high schools throughout Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, and Wyoming.

Imagination Workshop, Inc.
Los Angeles, CA
$13,000
To support the New Artists' Training Project. The project will train 30 professional theater artists in the company's dramatic method under the guidance and supervision of Artistic Director Margaret Ladd and existing company artists, writers, therapists,and doctors.

Indiana Repertory Theatre, Inc.
Indianapolis, IN
$32,000
To support the production of The Gentleman from Indiana, based on the 1899 novel by Booth Tarkington. Outreach activities will include an online study guide for teachers and subscribers, post-show discussions, and student matinees.

Instituto Arte Teatral Internacional, Inc. (aka IATI)
New York, NY
$10,000
To support the expansion of a touring theater program that serves Latino communities in the metropolitan New York area. Original contemporary plays by Latin American playwrights will be performed in Spanish with English subtitles at public libraries throughout Queens and Brooklyn.

Irish Classical Theatre Company, Inc. (aka ICTC)
Buffalo, NY
$12,000
To support a production of Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Toward the Somme (1986) by Rank McGuiness. The program will be accompanied by outreach activities involving veteran groups and military personnel, and student matinees will be offered to schools in the Buffalo Niagara Region.

Irondale Productions, Inc. (aka Irondale Ensemble Project)
Brooklyn, NY
$12,000
To support the production of An Ensemble's Legacy: A Repertory History of Company-Developed Work. During the first season in its first permanent home in 23 years, the Irondale Ensemble Project will present its most significant ensemble developed-pieces created from 1989 to 2002.

Jungle Theatre
Minneapolis, MN
$15,000
To support the production of a classic play. John Clark Donahue, former Artistic Director of the Children's Theater Company, will direct The Rivals by Richard Brinsley Sheridan, and Artistic Director/Designer Bain Bochlke will design the set.

League of Professional Theatre Women
New York City, NY
$20,000
To support the production and distribution of Women In Theatre - Dialogues with Notable Women in American Theater. The television series will highlight the accomplishments of women in American theater.

Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of America, Inc. (aka LMDA)
New York, NY
$8,000
To support an annual conference for professionals in literary management and dramaturgy. Conference speakers and panels will explore present treands within the field, international influences and exchange, and the increasingly active role of dramaturgs and literary managers as project generators.

Live Bait Theatrical Company (aka Live Bait Theater)
Chicago, IL
$8,000
To support the creation and production of a play inspired by the lives of Chicago policewomen. Escape, by playwright Sharon Evans, will explore the psychological effect of crime investigations on the personal lives of female officers.

Los Angeles Poverty Department (aka LAPD) (Consortium)
Los Angeles, CA
$10,000
To support a consortium project for workshops to develop community-based theater projects. In partnership with the Single Room Occupancy House Corporation, Change/Exchange will offer training in the development and implementation of theatrical works in collaboration with community partners and residents.

Magical Experiences Arts Company (aka MEAC)
Baltimore, MD
$8,000
To support theater workshops and performances for children and adolescents with severe disabilities. The Mask Project, the presentation of original plays by Artistic Director Joanne Margolius, will tour to Maryland schools providing interactive workshops for students residing at the United Cerebral Palsy School and the Maryland School for the Blind in Baltimore.

Metro Theater Company
St. Louis, MO
$30,000
To support the production and national tour of an original adaptation of the epic Beowulf. First produced in 1989, the piece will be remounted with the original artists, an original percussion score, athletic movement, and a transformational set.

Mint Theater Company
New York, NY
$12,000
To support the production of a classic play. Artistic Director Jonathan Bank will direct the first New York production of Susan and God by Rachel Crothers since its premiere in 1937.

National New Play Network, Ltd. (aka NNPN)
Philadelphia, PA
$13,000
To support The Continued Life of New Plays Fund, an initiative providing production stipends to theaters that commit to participate in the sequential production of new plays. The fund will support world premieres of new plays at theaters throughout the United States.

New Hampshire Mime Company (aka Pontine Movement Theatre)
Portsmouth, NH
$8,000
To support a tour of plays exploring the history and literature of New England. Performances will take place in town halls, libraries, museums, schools, and other facilities in rural communities.

New Theatre, Inc.
Miami, FL
$17,000
To support a production of Miami Stories, a new play by Michael McKeever. Directed by Artistic Director Rafael de Acha, the play will celebrate Miami's rich cultural and ethnic mix and feature the diverse cast of the resident ensemble.

New York Classical Theatre, Inc.
New York, NY
$10,000
To support free performances of classical plays in New York's Central Park. The productions will be staged in locations throughout the park using a variety of settings to create accessible performance environments.

Non-Traditional Casting Project, Inc. (aka NTCP)
New York, NY
$23,000
To support the Inclusion Project, which will include Artist Files Online and the National Diversity Forum. The project is designed to assist nonprofit theaters in achieving greater diversity.

North American Cultural Laboratory, Inc. (aka NACL)
Highland Lake, NY
$10,000
To support the Catskill Festival of New Theatre. In addition to performances, activities will include artist residencies, public workshops, performer training exchanges, academic forums, new play readings, and late-night cabarets.

Old Creamery Theatre Company
Amana, IA
$18,000
To support expansion of an outreach program that will bring live, professional theater to underserved populations in Iowa and throughout the Midwest. The expansion will allow the Young People's Tour to reach an increased number of sites and offer more productions with residency components in outlying rural communities.

Pan Asian Repertory Theatre, Inc. (aka Pan Asian Rep)
New York, NY
$25,000
To support the production of a play adapted from a literary work. Artistic Producing Director Tisa Chang will direct the production of The Joy Luck Club by Susan Kim, based on the novel by Amy Tan.

Paper Bag Players, Inc.
New York, NY
$25,000
To support the development and multi-state tour of a new work for children. Founder and Artistic Director Judith Martin will lead an ensemble of artists through the writing, musical scoring, and design of a new production for children, ages four to nine.

Phoenix Theatre Academy, Inc. (aka Academy Theatre)
Avondale Estates, GA
$25,000
To support a tour of original, curriculum-based, issue-oriented plays, and drama workshops to schools throughout metropolitan Atlanta and the Southeast. The plays will be created and performed by the Academy Theatre for Youth Tour Team in consultation with educators, psychologists, parents, and students.

Pittsburgh Irish and Classical Theatre, Inc. (aka PICT)
Pittsburgh, PA
$12,000
To support Beckett Fest, a festival of works by legendary Irish playwright Samuel Beckett. The centerpiece of the festival will be a full production of Endgame, directed by acclaimed Polish director Tadeusz Bradecki.

Playwrights Project
San Diego, CA
$13,000
To support Write On Write Now, an in-school theater residency program. The project will bring professional productions to middle and high school students throughout Southern California.

Providence Black Repertory Company (aka Black Rep)
Providence, RI
$14,000
To support a series of actor training workshops. In Project Langston, artist-trainers will use the play A Tribute to Langston Hughes to develop and refine the creative skills of local actors.

Quest:arts for everyone, Inc. (aka Quest)
Lanham, MD
$10,000
To support the Wings Company Training Initiative. The project includes the development and production of theater works by deaf and hard-of-hearing performers.

Regents of the University of California at San Diego (on behalf of TheatreForum)
La Jolla, CA
$8,000
To support the publication and distribution of Theatre Forum. The journal documents and disseminates innovative theater works internationally.

Robey Theatre Company
Sherman Oaks, CA
$10,000
To support the production of Greensboro (A Requiem) by writer and director Emily Mann. Additional activities will include student matinees, speaker forums, and post-performance discussions.

Sandglass Center for Puppetry and Theater Research (aka Sandglass Theater)
Putney, VT
$10,000
To support the Voices of Community series. The project will bring multicultural ensembles from communities of color to a rural, culturally underserved area to inspire dialogue on issues of diversity and expand local knowledge of the arts.

Shakespeare Festival/LA, Inc. (aka SFLA)
Los Angeles, CA
$20,000
To support the 20th Annual Summer Festival. A production of The Two Gentlemen of Verona, directed by Ben Donenberg, will be presented free-of-charge in Los Angeles' downtown Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels and other outdoor venues.

Soho Repertory Theatre, Inc. (aka Soho Rep)
New York, NY
$12,000
To support the 2006 Writer/Director Lab and Phase 2 new play development programs. Both programs are aimed at moving new plays from development to mainstage production within a supportive community of playwrights using structured feedback and response.

Southern Appalachian Repertory Theatre (aka SART)
Mars Hill, NC
$8,000
To support the touring production of a play with accompanying educational materials and activities. Commissioned by Southern Appalachian Repertory Theatre, Shelton Laurel will explore the local history of an 1863 Civil War massacre.

Spanish Theatre Repertory Company, Ltd. (aka Repertorio Español)
New York, NY
$50,000
To support the Teatro Accesso program. The company will tour classic and contemporary Spanish, Latina American, and U.S. Latino theater works to underserved schools and Latino communities throughout the New York metropolitan area and the northeastern United States.

Tears of Joy Theatre
Vancouver, WA
$12,000
To support a collaborative project with the Center for Puppetry Arts in Atlanta to produce The Shoemaker and the Elves. The production will combine shadow puppetry with hand and rod puppets in a contemporary retelling of the classic fairy tale.

Teatro Avante, Inc.
Miami, FL
$32,000
To support the 21st International Hispanic Theatre Festival. The festival presents audiences with multilingual theater productions of contemporary and classical works by acclaimed international companies from Latin America, Europe, and the United States.

Ten Thousand Things
Minneapolis, MN
$17,000
To support the production and tour of William Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice. Free performances will be targeted to low-income audiences in prisons, shelters, and housing projects.

Theatre Alliance of Greater Philadelphia
Philadelphia, PA
$11,000
To support the New Play Festival. A steering committee of artistic leaders from the Philadelphia area will meet to plan, promote, and implement a two-week festival of new works.

Theatre Communications Group, Inc. (aka TCG)
New York, NY
$115,000
To support the 2006 TCG National Conference, professional development programs, field research, and publication resources for the staff and trustees of professional, nonprofit theaters nationwide. Conferences and training programs are designed to increase management expertise and organizational efficiency, and ongoing industry research provides the field with benchmarks and data to assist member theaters in measuring their performance.

Theatre Development Fund, Inc. (aka TDF)
New York, NY
$20,000
To support the Interpreting for the Theatre initiative. The program is an intensive one-week institute for theater sign-language interpreters.

Tricklock Company
Albuquerque, NM
$18,000
To support the Revolutions International Theatre Festival. The festival will feature companies and artists in performances, lectures, discussions, and workshops on international theatrical and cultural traditions.

UNIMA-USA
Atlanta, GA
$10,000
To support the publication and distribution of Puppetry International Magazine and the Puppetry Yellow Pages. The project also will include the expansion of Web site services that promote the interests and international visibility of American puppeteers.

Utopian Theatre Asylum (aka TUTA)
Chicago, IL
$8,000
To support the development and production of a play. The company will present the American premiere of Tracks by Serbian playwright Milena Markovic. The development phase of the project will include staged readings, workshops, and panel discussions with local scholars, journalists, and artists.

Wang Center for the Performing Arts, Inc.
Boston, MA
$10,000
To support productions of Shakespeare plays by the Commonwealth Shakespeare Company (CSC). The project will feature free, outdoor performances presented on Boston Common of Taming of the Shrew, and an urban neighborhood touring production of Comedy of Errors performed by the CSC Apprentice Company.

Weston Playhouse Theatre
Weston, VT
$20,000
To support a multi-state tour of Mary Zimmerman's adaptation of Ovid's Metamorphoses to rural and underserved audiences throughout New England. Targeting communities with no resident theater company, the production will be supplemented by study guides, workshops, pre-show lectures, audio description, and ASL interpretation.

Williamstown Theatre Foundation, Inc. (aka Williamstown Theatre Festival)
Williamstown, MA
$12,000
To support Community Programs designed to include the local Williamstown community in the Festival's annual operations. The project will include Free Theatre, the Greylock Theatre Project, and Kids' Night.

Wooster Group, Inc.
New York, NY
$28,000
To support the development and workshop production of a play. Artistic Director Elizabeth LeCompte will direct a new adaptation of Willliam Shakespeare's Hamlet and oversee the collaboration of the company and guest artists in the development of the piece.

Working Theatre Company, Inc. (aka Working Theater)
New York, NY
$12,000
To support the TheaterWorks! program. The initiative will offer artist residencies and workshops to low-income working people in New York City unions.

Young Playwrights' Theater, Inc.
Washington, DC
$20,000
To support the Youth to Dare tour of plays written by middle and high school students. During the development and rehearsal phases, each young writer will work with professional directors, actors, and costume, lighting, and sound designers to rewrite and share ideas on how each play should be presented.

National Endowment for the Arts · an independent federal agency
1100 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20506