2011 Grant Awards: Access to Artistic Excellence

[ March 11, 2010 deadline ]

Artists Communities | Dance | Design | Folk & Traditional Arts | Literature
Local Arts Agencies | Media Arts | Museums | Music | Musical Theater
Opera | Presenting | Theater | Visual Arts

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

Musical Theater

Amas Musical Theatre, Inc.
New York, NY
$10,000
To support the development of new musicals and the Amas Six O'Clock Musical Theatre Lab. The program supports early and intermediate development phases of new works; enables veteran and emerging composers, lyricists, and librettists to see and hear their work in front of live audiences; and provides exposure of the works to other producers and potential funders.

American Conservatory Theatre Foundation
San Francisco, CA
$30,000
To support the world premiere of a musical adapted from Tales of the City by Armistead Maupin, which will be created by composers Jake Shears and John Garden and librettist Jeff Whitty, and directed by Jason Moore. In close consultation with the novelist, the musical will re-invent the lives and adventurous spirit of the 1970s characters and residents of "28 Barbary Lane" that captured the imagination of readers of the serial published in The San Francisco Chronicle.

American Repertory Theatre
Cambridge, MA
$25,000
To support the development and world premiere based on Aeschylus’s Prometheus Bound, in a new translation by lyricist Steven Sater, with original music by Serj Tankian and direction by Artistic Director Diane Paulus. Given Tankian’s background and popularity as lead singer/songwriter for the hard rock band System of a Down, particular efforts will be made to reach younger audiences through outreach to rock music communities and through the Cambridge and Boston Public Schools.

Arden Theatre Company
Philadelphia, PA
$30,000
To support the world premiere of the new musical The Flea and the Professor by Jordan Harrison, with music by Richard Gray and lyrics by Harrison and Gray, directed by Anne Kauffman. Harrison, an emerging writer who has garnered acclaim for plays that are visually inventive, will create a new work based on Hans Christian Andersen's last story by the same title.

Birmingham Children's Theatre, Inc.
Birmingham, AL
$10,000
To support the development and world premiere production of Tuxedo Junction. The work is based on the life of Birmingham's trumpet player and big band leader Erskine Hawkins (original book by playwright Cheryl L. Davis), with direction and choreography by Abe Reybold and music composed by Dr. Ray Reach.

Cities at Peace, Inc.
New York, NY
$20,000
To support the development and production of an original musical written and performed by a cast of New York City teenagers. Working under the director of professional actors, musicians, and choreographers (and overseen by Artistic Director Jeff Flowers), the teens will develop a script based on their life stories -- the conflicts they face and their ideas for change.

Civilians, Inc. (aka The Civilians)
Brooklyn, NY
$45,000
To support the development of a bi-lingual musical based on experiences from a women's prison beauty pageant in Bogotá, Colombia. Working with Festival Iberoamericano de Teatro en Bogotá and the band Aterciopelados, the writing team of playwright Jose Rivera and musicians Hector Buitrago and Andrea Echeverria will use material gathered from interviews with contestants and prison staff to examine issues of incarceration.

Goodspeed Opera House Foundation, Inc. (aka Goodspeed Musicals)
East Haddam, CT
$20,000
To support the 6th annual Festival of New Artists for the development of new musicals. Three teams of writers and composers, joined by senior college students at The Hartt School at the University of Hartford, will continue the development of new musicals through staged readings performed for the general public.

Imagination Stage, Inc. (aka Imagination Stage)
Bethesda, MD
$20,000
To support the commission and world premiere musical adaptation of George and Martha: Tons of Fun by playwright/composer/lyricist Joan Cushing. Based on a children's book written by James Marshall, the fun new musical will add to the vitally needed canon of children's theatrical literature.

McCarter Theater
Princeton, NJ
$55,000
To support the continued development and production of Sleeping Beauty Wakes by the creative team of Rachel Sheinkin (book), Brendan Milburn (music), and Valerie Vigoda (lyrics), with accompanying educational and outreach activities. The musical will receive a new and extended development treatment following its 2007 premiere by Deaf West Theatre and Center Theatre Group in Los Angeles.

Music-Theatre Group, Inc.
Brooklyn, NY
$20,000
To support the development and workshop performances of Winter's Journey, a new music theater piece by composer Douglas J. Cuomo. Inspired by Winterreise, a set of poems by 19th-century German poet Wilhelm Muller, the new one-act work will be scored for a mezzo-soprano, electronics and guitar (performed by Cuomo), keyboards, and trumpet, with elements of instrumental improvisation.

National Alliance for Musical Theatre, Inc.
New York, NY
$65,000
To support the 23rd annual Festival of New Musicals and the Fall Conference. These activities bring together musical theater writers and industry professionals for staged readings, a songwriter showcase, and panels featuring industry leaders.

National Music Theater Network, Inc. (aka New York Musical Theatre Festival)
New York, NY
$20,000
To support The Next Link Project - A Writer's Career Development Program of the New York Musical Theatre Festival. Selected writers will participate in a weekend of workshops, seminars, sessions with industry leaders, and one-on-one creative opportunities.

Overtone Industries
Los Angeles, CA
$20,000
To support the development and presentation of The Woman in the Wall, an experimental music theater piece by librettist Kathleen Cramer and Artistic Director O-Lan Jones in collaboration with the Angel City Chorale and its Founder/Artistic Director Sue Fink. The work is inspired by the 14th-century tradition of an "Anchoress," a religious woman who voluntarily was permanently sealed into a tiny cell in order to concentrate her attention on prayer and meditation.

Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre Co., Inc.
New York, NY
$15,000
To support The New Musical Theatre Workshop targeting emerging composers, lyricists, and librettists. Isidore Elias (librettist/lyricist) will lead the program -- a platform targeted for the Latino voice to be heard and for theaters nationally to produce these artists' work.

Red Mountain Theatre Company
Birmingham, AL
$10,000
To support a production of Hairspray with music by Marc Shaiman, lyrics by Scott Wittman, and book by Mark O'Donnell and Thomas Meehan. The Tony Award-winning musical tells the story of an overweight teen growing up in 1960s Baltimore who endeavors to racially integrate a popular televised dance show.

San Francisco Mime Troupe, Inc.
San Francisco, CA
$50,000
To support the development and tour of a musical comedy titled 2012-The Musical. The work will examine the destruction of the planet as seen through the eyes of a small group of time travelers who witness the future and return to the present day to demand change before it is too late.

Signature Theatre, Inc.
Arlington, VA
$50,000
To support the world premiere musical And the Curtain Rises, with music by Joseph Thalken and lyrics by Mark Campbell. Artistic Director Eric Schaeffer will direct and produce the new work in performances at Signature's MAX Theatre.

Skylight Opera Theatre Corp.
Milwaukee, WI
$20,000
To support a production of Adding Machine: A Musical by Joshua Schmidt and co-librettist Jason Loewith. An adaptation of Elmer Rice's 1923 expressionist play, the work will be augmented by pre- and post-show talks; seminars for students at Schmidt's alma mater, Homestead High School in Mequon (a neighboring county), and music majors at the UW-Milwaukee campus; and a comprehensive education program at the Milwaukee High School of the Arts.

Thalia Spanish Theatre, Inc.
Long Island City, NY
$20,000
To support the world premiere tango musical You Tango? created and directed by Angel Gil Orrios, with music composed/arranged by bandoneón master Raul Jaurena. The new work is expected to include a set and lighting design that will incorporate projections of the songs' lyrics in English and Spanish, while the music will explore the "greatest hits of Tango" since its beginnings in the 1900s.

TheatreWorks
Palo Alto, CA
$25,000
To support the New Works Initiative for the development of new plays and musicals. Through readings, workshops, a writer's retreat, an annual New Works Festival, and full productions of world premieres, the program supports the artistry of composers and writers and enables them to explore and create new forms of musical theater.

Village Theatre
Issaquah, WA
$30,000
To support the production of Iron Curtain, a new musical directed by Artistic Director Steve Tompkins and created by composer Stephen Weiner and lyricist Peter Mills (libretto by Susan DiLallo), with accompanying educational and outreach activities. The musical follows the antics of an American musical writing team, kidnapped and sent to the Soviet Union to rewrite Oklahoma, a pro-Soviet propaganda musical existing behind "the iron curtain."

Vineyard Theatre & Workshop Center, Inc.
New York, NY
$55,000
To support a new production of Alan Jay Lerner and Burton Lane's musical On A Clear Day You Can See Forever, re-conceived and directed by Michael Mayer with a new book by Peter Parnell. The project seeks to revitalize a significant but neglected American musical and introduce a new generation to the provocative work that will explore gender, identity, loss, and psychology -- issues that were not prevalently discussed when it premiered in 1965.

VORTEX Repertory Company (aka The VORTEX)
Austin, TX
$20,000
To support the production of Sarah Silver Hand, a new musical composed by Chad Salvata and directed by Artistic Director Bonnie Cullum, with accompanying outreach activities. Inspired by the Grimm Brothers' fairy tale The Girl with No Hands, the work portrays a young woman's "hero journey" as she overcomes the loss of both hands and discovers her own truths and the power of self transformation.

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