TCG Announces 4th Round Recipients Of Fox Foundation Resident Actors Fellowship

The William & Eva Fox Foundation and Theatre Communications Group (TCG), the national organization for American professional, not-for-profit theatre, are pleased to announce the five recipients for the fourth round of the Fox Foundation Resident Actor Fellowships. The program, supported by the Fox Foundation and administered by TCG, is designed to support an individual actor's professional and artistic development, to enrich relationships between actors and not-for-profit theatres and to ensure continued professional commitment to live theatre.
"The Fox Foundation is pleased to support both distinguished and emerging actors in pursuit of their artistry," said Linneen Warren, Chair of the Fox Foundation selection committee. "We greatly value the opportunity to provide our resident acting fellows with funding that will enhance their artistic growth and at the same time give them latitude in their self-development. Our continuing relationship with TCG grows ever stronger as we fulfill our commitment to help actors reach their full potential."

Round four recipients (and their host theatres) in the Distinguished Achievement category are:

Stephanie Berry, Ensemble Studio Theatre, New York, NY; and

Paula Plum, SpeakEasy Stage Company, Boston MA

Round four recipients (and their host theatres) in the Extraordinary Potential

category are:

Christina Apathy, Perseverance Theatre, Douglas AK;

Heather Simms, McCarter Theatre Center, Princeton NJ;

J. Nicole Brooks, Lookingglass Theatre Company, Chicago IL.

"We applaud the work of the Fox Foundation in supporting professional growth for actors - be they new or established," said Teresa Eyring, TCG's executive director. "It is a much overlooked funding opportunity that will not only enhance an actor's individual skill, but that of the collaborating theatre and its community as well. The Fox Foundation is committed to the artistic development of theatre actors as a strategy to strengthen live theatre and we are proud to partner with them in this endeavor."

Recipients in the Distinguished Achievement category have considerable experience in professional theatre with a substantial body of work, and will receive $25,000 awards. Recipients in the Extraordinary Potential category are early- to mid-career actors who have completed their training within the last fifteen years. They will receive awards of $15,000, with up to an additional $10,000 available to relieve student loans. The host theatre companies will receive grants of $7,500 in support of the residencies.

An advisory selection panel evaluated the fourth round applications and made their recommendations to William & Eva Fox Foundation. The panelists were Barbra Berlovitz, individual artist; Richard Feldman, associate director, Juilliard School Drama Division; Michael John Garcés, artistic director, Cornerstone Theater Company; Rose Riordan, associate artistic director, Portland Center Stage.
Fox Foundation Resident Actor Fellowships

Round Four Recipients
The Fox Fellowships round four activities will occur between October 1, 2009, and March 31, 2013. The recipient projects and host theatres are:

Distinguished Achievement
Stephanie Berry, Ensemble Studio Theatre, New York NY

Stephanie will study voice at the Linklater Center for Voice and Language in New York, yoga and meditation at Harlem Holistic Studios and improvisation classes at HB studios. She will travel to Sierra Leone to study storytelling with village griots and attend storytelling festivals including the Zora Neale Hurston Festival, the Gullah Festival and the Hane Native American Storytelling Festival. She will collect stories from a diverse section of Harlem residents, and present her findings in a production celebrating the living history of West Harlem.

Paula Plum, SpeakEasy Stage Company, Boston MA

Paula will travel to France to study mask, play characters, melodrama and writing at the Ecole Phillipe Gaulier, take two mask intensives at Dell'Arte International and study at the Ecole Mime in Montreal. She will also develop a new original work based on the life of poet Edna St. Vincent Millay, and offer master classes on mask and working with sexuality onstage.

Extraordinary Potential
Christina Apathy, Perseverance Theatre, Douglas AK

In 2010, Christina plans to attend Theatre Mitu's South Asia Artist Intensive to explore an artist's personal mythology as citizen of the world. In 2011, Christina will participate in the Teacher Development Program at the Actors Center. In 2012 she will take a course in the Moving Body at the London International School of Performing Arts to gain a deeper understanding of the dynamic forces at the core of the artist's existence, attend a puppetry festival in Portugal, the Sibiu Theatre Festival in Romania, and spend time at the Kneehigh Theatre in Cornwall, UK.

Heather Simms, McCarter Theatre Center, Princeton NJ

Heather will travel to Jamaica to audit courses on Caribbean dialectology, the socio-historical background of Caribbean language and women's narrative in the African diaspora. She will also study Afro-Caribbean dance. She will then travel to London for additional voIce Training, and to observe the Jamaican-founded Talawa theatre company. She will then travel to Ghana to participate in the African Culture Through Arts program to explore Ghanaian storytelling traditions. In the final phase of her fellowship, Heather will curate a reading series at the McCarter that will introduce the McCarter community as well as other actors and directors to new voices.
J. Nicole Brooks, Lookingglass Theatre Company, Chicago IL

In preparation for a role in an opera based on a slave settlement in Colonial Brazil, Nicole will learn Portuguese, Afro Brazilian samba and capoeira to prepare for travel to Brazil for a deeper insight into Brazilian culture. She will also develop her circus skills at the Actors Gymnasium, and continue studying with master teachers David Downs of Northwestern University and Mary Ann Thebus of Artistic Home.

The William & Eva Fox Foundation was established in 1987 by Belle Fox in honor of her parents, who founded the Fox Film Corporation. The Foundation has awarded nearly $2.9 million in fellowships to over 300 actors since 1994. The Fox Foundation is the largest U.S. grant maker dedicated to the artistic and professional development of theatre actors, and one of very few that provides direct financial support to individual actors. www.thefoxfoundation.org.
Theatre Communications Group (TCG), the national organization for the American theatre, exists to strengthen, nurture and promote the professional not-for-profit American theatre. Its programs serve nearly 700 member theatres and affiliate organizations and more than 12,000 individuals nationwide. As the US Center of the InterNational Theatre Institute, TCG connects its constituents to the global theatre community. TCG is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization. www.tcg.org.