THE OLDEST BOY, BRIGHT STAR, POCATELLO, HAMILTON and More Among 2015 Edgerton Foundation New Play Award Winners
By: BWW News Desk Feb. 13, 2015
Theatre Communications Group (TCG), the national organization for theatre, is pleased to announce the recipients of the Edgerton Foundation New Play Awards for the 2014-15 season. The awards, totaling $858,000, allow 26 productions extra time in the development and rehearsal of new plays with the entire creative team, helping to extend the life of the play after its first run.
Over the last eight years, the Edgerton Foundation has awarded $6,977,900 to 243 TCG Member Theatre productions, enabling many plays to schedule subsequent productions following their world premieres. Fifteen 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 and All the Way. Ten plays were nominated for Tony Awards, with All the Way and Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike winning the best play award the past two years. Eight plays were nominated for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, with wins for The Flick (2014), Water by the Spoonful (2012) and Next to Normal (2010).
"The 2013-14 season was huge for recipients of the Edgerton Foundation New Play Awards, with The Flick winning the Pulitzer, All the Way winning a Tony and Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike on top of the American Theatre Top 10 Most-Produced Plays list," said Teresa Eyring, executive director of TCG. "The Edgerton Foundation has had an unquestionable impact on the building of an extraordinary canon of contemporary American plays."
"We are so deeply grateful for this New Play Award from the Edgerton Foundation, which will provide the creative team of The Comparables another full week of rehearsal," said Jeffrey Herrmann, managing director of Seattle Repertory Theatre. "The additional time will allow the cast to work with a fight director to enhance the naturalism of the physical altercations between the characters. All this ensures that we will launch this script and production into the field at the highest possible level of finish."
"It is an undeniable fact that a lot of the best work on a new play happens in the rehearsal room," said Tim Sanford, artistic director of Playwrights Horizons. "An extra week of rehearsal provided the creative team of Grand Concourse with the opportunity to delve deeply into their characters and the relationships among their characters, and gave playwright Heidi Schreck time to rewrite during the rehearsal process."
The 2014 Edgerton Foundation New Play Awards were presented to:
Arena Stage, Washington, DC
The Shoplifters
Arena Stage, Washington, DC
The Blood Quilt
by Katori Hall
Atlantic Theater Company, New York, NY
Posterity
by Doug Wright
Center Stage, Baltimore, MD
Marley
by Kwame Kwei-Armah, music and lyrics by Bob Marley
Denver Center Theatre Company, Denver, CO
Benediction
by Eric Schmiedl, based on the book by Kent Haruf
Donmar Warehouse, London, UK
Temple
by Steve Waters
Geva Theatre Center, Rochester, NY
Women in Jeopardy!
Huntington Theatre Company, Boston, MA
The Second Girl
by Ronan Noone
Lincoln Center Theater, New York NY
The Oldest Boy
by Sarah Ruhl
Magic Theatre, San Francisco, CA
Sister Play
Manhattan Theatre Club, New York, NY
Lost Lake
by David Auburn
National Theatre, London, UK
Behind the Beautiful Forevers
by David Hare, based on the book by Katherine Boo
Northlight Theatre, Skokie, IL
White Guy on the Bus
by Bruce Graham
The Old Globe, San Diego, CA
Bright Star
music by Steve Martin and Edie Brickell, lyrics by Edie Brickell, book by Steve Martin, based on an original story by Steve Martin and Edie Brickell
Olney Theatre Center, Olney, MD
Colossal
Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Ashland, OR
Head Over Heels
by Jeff Whitty, music and lyrics from the catalog of the Go-Go's
Pittsburgh Public Theater, Pittsburgh, PA
L'Hotel
by Ed Dixon
Playwrights Horizons, New York, NY
Grand Concourse
Playwrights Horizons, New York, NY
Pocatello
Portland Stage Company, Portland, ME
Papermaker
by Monica Wood
The Public Theater, New York, NY
Hamilton
book, music and lyrics by Lin-Manuel Miranda
Seattle Repertory Theatre, Seattle, WA
The Comparables
by Laura Schellhardt
Signature Theatre, New York, NY
Our Lady of Kibeho
by Katori Hall
South Coast Repertory, Costa Mesa, CA
Zealot
Underground Railway Theater, in residence at Central Square Theater, Cambridge, MA
Mr g
by Wesley Savick, based on the book by Alan Lightman
Yale Repertory Theatre, New Haven, CT
Elevada
TCG Member Theatres with a strong and consistent track record of producing new work are invited by the foundation to submit letters of inquiry to plays@edgertonfoundation.org. A panel of readers reviews the plays and one-time grants ranging from $5,000 to $75,000 are awarded.
The Edgerton Foundation New Plays Program, directed by Brad and Louise Edgerton, was piloted in 2006 with the 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 243 plays to date at over 50 different Art Theatres across the country. The Edgerton Foundation received the 2011 TCG National Funder Award in June in Los Angeles.
For over 50 years, Theatre Communications Group (TCG), the national organization for the American theatre, has existed to strengthen, nurture and promote the professional not-for-profit American theatre. TCG's constituency has grown from a handful of groundbreaking theatres to nearly 700 Member Theatres and Affiliate organizations and more than 12,000 individuals nationwide. TCG offers its members networking and knowledge-building opportunities through conferences, events, research and communications; awards grants, approximately $2 million per year, to theatre companies and individual artists; advocates on the federal level; and serves as the U.S. Center of the International Theatre Institute, connecting its constituents to the global theatre community. TCG is North America's largest independent publisher of dramatic literature, with 13 Pulitzer Prizes for Best Play 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. For more information, visit www.tcg.org.
Pictured: A scene from HAMILTON at the Public Theater. Photo by Joan Marcus.
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