FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: November 26, 2019 CONTACTS: Corinna Schulenburg | cschulenburg@tcg.org | 212-609-5945
Edgerton Foundation New Play Awards Announce Third Round of 2019 Recipients
Past Productions Include Pulitzer Prize-winning Cost of Living and Hamilton
NEW YORK, NY – Theatre Communications Group (TCG), the national organization for theatre, is pleased to announce the recipients of the third round of the 2019 Edgerton Foundation New Play Awards. The awards, totaling $415,000, allow 9 productions extra time for the development and rehearsal of new plays with the entire creative team, hoping to extend the life of the world premiere play after its first run.
Over the last 13 years, the Edgerton Foundation has awarded over $13,313,000 to 430 productions, enabling many plays to schedule subsequent productions following their world premieres. Thirty-six have made it to Broadway, including: Curtains, 13, Next to Normal, 33 Variations, In the Next Room (or The Vibrator Play), Time Stands Still, Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, A Free Man of Color, Good People, Chinglish, Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, Bronx Bombers, Casa Valentina, Outside Mullingar, All the Way, Eclipsed, Bright Star, Hamilton, The Columnist, In Transit, A Doll's House Part 2, Indecent, Dear Evan Hansen, Oslo, Escape to Margaritaville, The Prom, JUNK: The Golden Age of Debt, SUMMER: The Donna Summer Musical, Head Over Heels, Jagged Little Pill, Diana, Grand Horizons, Girl from the North Country, The Great Society, and Sound Inside. Sixteen plays were nominated for Tony Awards, with All the Way, Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, Hamilton, Dear Evan Hansen, and Oslo winning the best play or musical awards. Ten plays were nominated for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, with wins for Cost of Living (2018), Hamilton (2016), The Flick (2014), Water by the Spoonful (2012), and Next to Normal (2010).
“The third round of 2019 Edgerton Foundation New Play Awards once again demonstrates the vibrant diversity of the new play sector,” said Teresa Eyring, executive director, TCG. “With the longer rehearsal processes made possible by the Foundation’s support, these world premiere productions are more likely to reach their full potential and go on to many subsequent productions.”
The third round of the 2019 Edgerton Foundation New Play Awards were presented to:
“The rehearsal time supported by an Edgerton Foundation New Play Award is invaluable to the script and character development and historical and cultural framework of The Copper Children,” said Nataki Garrett, artistic director, Oregon Shakespeare Festival. “Most importantly, the extra time assembles the full creative team for the first time to dive into the complex material as a group. It allows Ms. Zacarías, Ms. Ali, the cast and designers to examine the story’s multiple cultural and historical references and address how to incorporate puppets and other theatrical imagery; and the ensemble of nine actors to begin preparing early for roles that combine spoken and choral work. Parts of the story are sung in Spanish and English and the dialogue often moves between English and Spanish. The designers’ input at the very earliest rehearsals is critical to informing what will ultimately be the action on stage, given the scenic and cultural shifts from a New York City orphanage to an Arizona mining town to a courtroom, and the use of a puppet to represent a child. The expanded rehearsal for The Copper Children assures critical time and space to fully excavate the possibilities that ensure this play its full potential and a vibrant life beyond our stages.”
“Our Edgerton New Play Award for Madhuri Shekar’s Dhaba on Devon Avenue affords us the resources to extend rehearsals by two weeks—one in early 2020 and a second appended to the regular rehearsal period—in lead up to its world premiere,” said Erica Daniels, executive director, Victory Gardens Theater.. “It allows us to give this wonderful addition to Victory Gardens’ signature Chicago Play Cycle—the eighth play we have commissioned since 2011 for this unique collection of stories that reflect and represent the diverse neighborhoods and cultural communities of Chicago (and our nation) in contemporary and historical times.
The Edgerton Foundation New Plays Program, directed by Brad and Louise Edgerton, was piloted in 2006 with Center Theatre Group in Los Angeles by offering two musicals in development an extended rehearsal period for the entire creative team, including the playwrights. The Edgertons launched the program nationally in 2007 and have supported 430 plays to date at over 50 different Art Theatres across the country.
Theatre Communications Group (TCG) exists to strengthen, nurture, and promote professional theatre in the U.S. and globally. Since its founding in 1961, TCG’s constituency has grown from a handful of groundbreaking theatres to over 700 Member Theatres and affiliate organizations and nearly 10,000 Individual Members. Through its Core Values of Activism, Artistry, Diversity, and Global Citizenship, TCG advances a better world for theatre and a better world because of theatre. TCG offers its members networking and knowledge-building opportunities through research, communications, and events, including the annual TCG National Conference, one of the largest nationwide gatherings of theatre people; awards grants and scholarships, approximately $2 million per year, to theatre companies and individual artists; advocates on the federal level; and through the Global Theater Initiative, TCG's partnership with the Laboratory for Global Performance and Politics, serves as the U.S. Center of the International Theatre Institute. TCG is North America’s largest independent trade publisher of dramatic literature, with 17 Pulitzer Prizes for Drama on the TCG booklist. It also publishes the award-winning American Theatre magazine and ARTSEARCH®, the essential source for a career in the arts. In all of its endeavors, TCG seeks to increase the organizational efficiency of its Member Theatres, cultivate and celebrate the artistic talent and achievements of the field, and promote a larger public understanding of, and appreciation for, the theatre.www.tcg.org.
# # #