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Edgerton Foundation New Play Awards Announce First and Second Rounds of 2022-23 Recipients

By Corinna Schulenburg posted 01-17-2023 11:05

  


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: January 17, 2023 || CONTACTS: Corinna Schulenburg, cschulenburg@tcg.org, 212-609-5941

Edgerton Foundation New Play Awards Announce First and Second Rounds
of 2022-23 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 and second rounds of the 2022-23 Edgerton Foundation New Play Awards. The awards, totaling $725,000, allow 17 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 17 years, the Edgerton Foundation has awarded over $15,841,000 to 491 productions, enabling many plays to schedule subsequent productions following their world premieres. Thirty-seven have made it to Broadway, including: Skeleton Crew, Paradise Square, 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. Nineteen 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. Twelve 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).

“As our theatre field continues to navigate the ongoing impacts of the pandemic, the Edgerton Foundation’s visionary investment in new plays continues to make a critical difference,” said Teresa Eyring, executive director, TCG. “The Foundation's support of longer rehearsal processes has always been impactful, but now, as our field seeks to welcome back audiences, many of whom have been slow to return, that support is truly game-changing. Theatres can ensure that new plays receive the resources they need to not only attract audiences in their inaugural productions, but enjoy many subsequent performances at theatres across the country.”

The first and second rounds of the 2022-23 Edgerton Foundation New Play Awards were presented to: 

Cowboy Bob

Alley Theatre

Molly Beach Murphy, Jeanna Phillips, & Annie Tippe


Patriots

Almeida Theatre

Peter Morgan


Exclusion

Arena Stage

Kenneth Lin


Pru Payne

Arizona Theatre Company

Steven Drukman


Elyria

Atlantic Theater Company

Deepa Purohit


The Far Country

Atlantic Theater Company

Lloyd Suh  


Colonialism is Terrible, but Pho is Delicious

Aurora Theatre Company

Dustin H. Chinn


Laughs In Spanish

Denver Center for the Performing Arts

Alexis Sheer


Swing State

Goodman Theatre

Rebecca Gilman

Here There are Blueberries

La Jolla Playhouse & Tectonic Theater Project

Moisés Kaufman & Amanda Gronich


The Travelers

Magic Theatre

Luis Alfaro 


The Motive and the Cue

National Theatre

Jack Thorne 


shadow/land

The Public Theater

Erika Dickerson-Dispenza


Primary Trust

Roundabout Theatre Company

Eboni Booth


Hamnet

Royal Shakespeare Company

Lolita Chakrabarti 


Letters from Max

Signature Theatre Company

Sarah Ruhl


Eternal Life, Part 1

The Wilma Theater

Nathan Alan Davis


Laughs In Spanish is an out-and-out comedy written by a Latina playwright and centering female voices, a combination which is under-produced in American theatre,” said Chris Coleman, artistic director, Denver Center for the Performing Arts. “The DCPA Theatre Company has a strong priority to develop stories written by or about the Latinx population for the wider theatre community, and I am thrilled that we have the opportunity to produce the world premiere of this joyous and heartfelt play as we celebrate the return of live theatre in Denver. Receiving the Edgerton Foundation New Play Award allowed us to add an extra week of rehearsal time for Laughs In Spanish before preview performances begin. This extra rehearsal time is crucial when developing new work, as we tailor the rehearsal process to the specific needs of the production.”

shadow/land is the newest play by one of the most exciting new playwrights of our time, Erika Dickerson-Despenza. It is the latest installment in her ambitious play cycle about environmental racism, which tackles two of our greatest issues: the deteriorating environment around us and the continuing impact of the legacy of slavery,” said Oskar Eustis, artistic director, The Public Theater. “Her first play in the cycle, Cullud Wattah, dealt with the water crisis in Flint, Michigan; shadow/land takes place in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina. It is a bold, searing and powerful play; Erika's aim is enormously ambitious, but she has the talent to back it up. The Edgerton Foundation’s generous support will enable The Public to augment the shadow/land rehearsal schedule, allowing the cast to have more time with the full creative team before the production begins performances. This longer rehearsal period will provide crucial time for the creative team and cast to work through the play’s many technical complexities and water effects.”

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 491 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 19 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. www.tcg.org.


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