FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 8, 2021 CONTACTS:: Corinna Schulenburg | cschulenburg@tcg.org | 212-609-5941
Theatre Communications Group Announces
Dr. Kerry English International Arts Fund
Fund will support global connectivity across the U.S. theatre ecology
New York, NY – Theatre Communications Group (TCG) is pleased to announce the Dr. Kerry English International Arts Fund, dedicated to supporting global connectivity across the U.S. theatre ecology. Over the next ten years, the Fund will provide support for two initiatives: the Dr. Kerry English Global Connectivity Manager position at TCG, and the Dr. Kerry English International Cultural Exchange Grants. The role of the Dr. Kerry English Global Connectivity Manager position will be held by Juli Hendren, a theatre-maker and producer of international performance. The Dr. Kerry English International Cultural Exchange Grants, which will support creative projects between U.S. and international performing artists and theatres, are anticipated to begin in the coming years. The Fund was established by his widow Olga Garay-English to celebrate the life of Dr. Kerry English, a pediatrician and long-time director of the pediatric division at Martin Luther King, Jr. Outpatient Center. Kerry was a beloved Los Angeles theatre and arts aficionado, who often traveled nationally and internationally to see theatre.
“We are deeply honored to receive this support for our global activities in memory of Dr. Kerry English, one of the great friends of U.S. theatre,” said Teresa Eyring, executive director, TCG. “We’re excited to work with Olga Garay-English, herself one of our field’s most important champions, to envision how this Fund can advance our shared commitments to global connectivity and cultural exchange. With a new administration and with progress being made against the pandemic, there will surely be new opportunities to develop pathways for experiencing global work and reimagine global citizenship in the arts.”
“It was a privilege to have Kerry by my side as we traveled annually to the Under the Radar Festival in New York, Festival Internacional Santiago a Mil in Chile, and other far-flung festival destinations ranging from Dublin to Bogota to Shanghai to see work,” said Olga Garay-English. “He was always as enthusiastic about the last play of the day as he was about the first. It is also a privilege to collaborate with TCG to create a fund that will promote the essential role theatre can and should play in creating a more just and equitable world.”
In her capacity as the Dr. Kerry English Global Connectivity Manager, Hendren will engage in both information gathering and community organizing for the Global Theater Initiative and the U.S. Center of ITI Juli has traveled with TCG Delegations to the Santiago a Mil Festival in Chile, the 2016 International Theatre Festival in Cuba, and the ITI 2017 World Congress in Segovia. She has also contributed to activities produced by TCG and its Global Theater Initiative with the Laboratory for Global Performance and Politics (the Lab) at Georgetown University.
"It is an absolute honor to accept the position of the Dr. Kerry English Global Connectivity Manager,” said Hendren. “TCG has been a champion of my work in international theatre for many years. I am grateful for the opportunity to work with TCG and the esteemed Olga Garay-English to further TCG's mission and reach of global connectivity in theatre. The ability to create networking tools and platforms for honest conversation within the international arts community will allow a more mobilized movement towards inclusion, knowledge, equity, outreach, and support. I look forward to expanding possibilities for international artists, teachers, and producers to connect, train, and collaborate while building models of ethical practices in the work. Theatre serves as a vehicle to inform and share, creating a stronger experience of global citizenship and healthier communities around the world."
TCG’s Global Initiatives include serving as the U.S. Center for the International Theatre Institute (ITI-U.S.), sharing leadership of ITI-U.S. with the Laboratory for Global Performance and Politics as part of the Global Theater Initiative. TCG’s Executive Director, Teresa Eyring, currently serves on the executive council of ITI worldwide and as ITI Vice President for the Americas. The Global Theater Initiative connects practitioners with resources, knowledge, and partnerships to strengthen their work, promotes cultural collaboration as essential for international peace and mutual understandings, and innovates new strategies to maximize the global theatre field’s opportunities and impact. TCG also publishes extensive coverage of international work in American Theatre, issues peer consultation letters for international visa petitions, and advocates for cultural exchange and artists’ rights worldwide. For decades, TCG has also supported cultural exchange through grantmaking, and by leading delegations of U.S. theatre practitioners to festivals worldwide. The Dr. Kerry English Global Connectivity Manager and International Cultural Exchange Grants will help advance TCG’s global initiatives over the next ten years. To further support this initiative and work of TCG, please contact Kevin Bitterman, director of Institutional Advancement & Partnerships, at kbitterman@tcg.org.
Dr. Kerry English, a pediatrician, long-time director of the pediatric division at Martin Luther King, Jr. Outpatient Center, and a board member for several nonprofit family and child support organizations, was also a well-known Los Angeles theatre and arts aficionado. English was committed to caring for children and engaging with diverse communities throughout his life. His long-term relationships testify to his belief in diversity and inclusion. Raised in Southern California, Kerry spent his life as a mainstay for the medical and theatre/arts communities of Los Angeles. Throughout his life and career as a pediatrician and teacher, Kerry worked with and supported diverse and disadvantaged communities. He was medical director of the MLK Outpatient Center Foster Care HUB Clinic in Watts, director of the Child Development Division of the Pediatric Department of Drew University of Medicine and Science, and the Pediatric Department of the King/Drew Medical Center, where he worked for over 40 years. He taught at Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science, as well as his medical alma mater UCLA. He did fellowships at Yale Child Study Center and King's College London. His undergraduate studies were at Washington University in St. Louis. Kerry served on the board and as chair of Drew Child Development Corporation, an organization dedicated to the education and wellbeing of at-risk children; and on the boards of El Nido Family Centers, an agency that provides support services to disadvantaged communities; and SHIELDS for Families, serving high-risk families in South Los Angeles. During his life, Dr. English also served on a number of theater boards including 24th Street Theater, Cornerstone Theater, Ojai Playwrights Conference, and Rogue Machine, among others.
Juli Hendren is a director, producer, writer, actor, devisor, and teacher who has worked across the United States, Canada, Europe, Uganda, China, and Colombia. Juli is a producer of international performance and a professor of theatre at the University of New Mexico. She believes in the power of performance to bear witness, reckon with our past, exercise both truth telling and future visioning, and embrace the wholeness and complexity of all people.
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. https://circle.tcg.org/home
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