FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 21, 2021 || CONTACTS: Corinna Schulenburg | cschulenburg@tcg.org | 212-609-5941
Edgerton Foundation New Play Awards Announce First Round of 2021 Recipients
Past Productions Include Pulitzer Prize-Winning The Hot Wing King and Hamilton
NEW YORK, NY – Theatre Communications Group (TCG), the national organization for theatre, is pleased to announce the recipients of the first round of the 2021 Edgerton Foundation New Play Awards. The awards, totaling $1,072,000, allow 28 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. This round represents the first iteration of the New Play Awards after theatres’ seasons were cancelled by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Over the last 15 years, the Edgerton Foundation has awarded over $14,385,000 to 458 productions, enabling many plays to schedule subsequent productions following their world premieres. Thirty 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, and Head Over Heels. 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. Eleven plays were nominated for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, with wins for The Hot Wing King (2021), Cost of Living (2018), Hamilton (2016), The Flick (2014), Water by the Spoonful (2012), and Next to Normal (2010).
“After the most difficult year in our theatre field’s recent history, the Edgerton Foundation’s transformational investment in new plays has never been more important,” said Teresa Eyring, executive director, TCG. “The Foundation's support of longer rehearsal processes has always been valuable, but now, as our field reopens with a focus on safety and inclusion, that support is truly life-giving. Theatre artists will have a chance to breathe, and to take the time they need after the losses of last year as they make the plays that will knit our country back together.”
The first round of the 2021 Edgerton Foundation New Play Awards were presented to:
“A story of reconnection, reconciliation, and regrowth, The Garden turned out to be the perfect play for this moment. As we're moving through this incredibly difficult time for our industry and our world, it is so meaningful for us to be able to support these artists as they remind us of our collective capacity to heal and to love,” said Stephanie Ybarra, artistic director, Baltimore Center Stage. “With this grant from the Edgerton Foundation, Baltimore Center Stage is able to provide Charlayne Woodard an additional week of rehearsal that will undoubtedly be a vital opportunity to further explore the text in the room from the unique position as both the playwright and performer. Furthermore, this added time will allow the space for The Garden’s team to seek and engage with audience feedback as we prepare to film the production for streaming – an invaluable piece of the process that has been complicated by the pandemic.”
“A cast of 12! A three-piece band! Songs to learn, choreography to learn, immersive antics, breakaway ballgowns! The Cotillion, a play with music, toys with spectacle and -- for our two small theater companies -- will be no small feat,” said Susan Bernfield, artistic director and producer, New Georges. Deadria Harrington, of The Movement Theatre Company’s producing artistic leadership team, added “By granting us funds for additional rehearsal weeks with the 25 members of The Cotillion's all-Black-woman cast and creative team, the Edgerton New Play Award will have immeasurable impact on fulfilling their capacious vision.”
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 458 plays to date at over 50 different Art Theatres across the country.
Theatre Communications Group (TCG), the national organization for theatre, leads for a just and thriving theatre ecology. 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 over 7,000 Individual Members. Through its programs and services, TCG reaches over one million students, audience members, and theatre professionals each year. TCG offers 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 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 18 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. TCG believes its vision of “a better world for theatre, and a better world because of theatre” can be achieved through individual and collective action, adaptive and responsive leadership, and equitable representation in all areas of practice. TCG is led by executive director and CEO Teresa Eyring and deputy director and COO Adrian Budhu. www.tcg.org.
# # #