Theatre Communications Group Announces Second Round of Recipients of Global Connections Program

Theatre Communications Group (TCG), the national organization for theatre, is pleased to announce the second round of Global Connections recipients. Supported by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, this grant program encourages reciprocity and cultural exchange throughout the world through ON the ROAD grants to foster new relationships with international colleagues and IN the LAB grants to further pre-existing international collaborations. Now in its second year, the Global Connections program awarded up to $5,000 to six projects though ON the ROAD and $10,000 to three programs through IN the LAB.

"The Global Connections program demonstrates the vitality, reach and value of our growing interNational Theatre community," said Teresa Eyring, executive director of TCG. "From Canada to Colombia to the newly-open Myanmar, these artists are reaching across borders to strengthen pre-existing collaborations and break new collaborative ground."

ON the ROAD
The following six recipients were each awarded up to $5,000 for unrestricted travel support to foster new relationships with international colleagues that will inspire future collaborations:

About Face Theatre (Chicago, IL) will travel to Buddies in Bad Times Theatre (Toronto, ON) to form the first international queer youth theatre exchange; and to create a work that explores larger LGBTQ issues at an international level within the North American community.

Ensemble Studio Theatre (New York, NY) will host director Pedro Salazar (Bogotá, Colombia) to work with playwright Saviana St?nescu on a play with music about a young Roma girl who is trafficked to the U.S. through France, Columbia and Mexico.

Corey Fischer (Kentfield, CA) will travel to China to discuss future collaborations with director/playwright Stan Lai (Beijing, China) on topics ranging from Chinese and Jewish Diasporas to the similarities and differences between nomadic and land-centered identities and cultures.

National New Play Network (Washington, DC) alumni playwrights Carson Kreitzer and Steve Yockey, along with NNPN vice president Seth Rozin, will travel to PlayWriting Australia's National Play Festival where the writers' plays will be presented in staged readings as a pilot playwright exchange.

Signature Theatre (New York, NY) and its Residency One Playwright, David Henry Hwang, will partner with the Lark Play Development Center on the Contemporary Chinese Playwriting Series, hosting Candace Chong (Hong Kong), Wei-Jan Chi (Taiwan), Nick Yu (Shanghai) and Meng Jinghui (Beijing) for a week of developing and reading new plays in translation.

Tamilla Woodard (Brooklyn, NY) of PopUp Theatrics will travel to Spain to work with Cross Border's Lucia Rodriguez Miranda (Valladolid, Spain) and playwright/director Darío Facal (Madrid, Spain) to initiate an international site-specific collaboration inspired by hotel rooms and presented to one audience member at a time.

IN the LAB
The following three recipients were each awarded $10,000 to further pre-existing international collaborations by supporting residencies that advance the development of a piece and/or explore elements leading up to a full production:

Bond Street Theatre (New York, NY) will travel to Myanmar to complete a dual-language, contemporary-setting production of Ben Johnson's Volpone with Thukhuma Khayeethe (Yangon), as well as set up a South-Asian tour of the production.

The Civilians (Brooklyn, NY) will meet with composer Héctor Buitrago (Bogotá, Colombia) and playwright José Rivera (New York, NY) in Chicago to workshop a first draft of Rivera's new play Bogotá Prison Pageant, with music by Buitrago. The play will be written in English and Spanish, and directed by The Civilians' Steve Cosson.

Chicago Shakespeare Theater (Chicago, IL) will host artist collective "one step at a time like this" (Melbourne, Australia) to deepen their partnership by collaborating on a site-based, mobile technology-enhanced production of Shakespeare's Measure for Measure.

The Global Connections selection panel included Lane Czaplinski, artistic director, On the Boards (Seattle, WA); Mario Garcia Durham, president and chief executive officer, Association of Performing Arts Presenters (Washington, DC); Victor Maog, artistic director, Second Generation (2g) (New York, NY); Adam Fristoe, co-artistic director, Out of Hand Theater (Atlanta, GA); Mara Isaacs, producing director, McCarter Theatre Center (Princeton, NJ); Katy Rubin, artistic director, Theater of the Oppressed (New York, NY); Lauren Weigel, executive producer, The Play Company (New York, NY); and Preston Whiteway, executive director, Eugene O'Neill Theater Center (Waterford, CT).

Learn more about the Global Connections program, including upcoming application guidelines, at www.tcg.org/globalconnections.

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation is a private philanthropic institution that makes grants on a selective basis in five core program areas: higher education and scholarship; scholarly communications and information technology; museums and art conservation; conservation and the environment; and performing arts. The Foundation's Performing Arts program focuses on achieving long-term results by providing multi-year grants to leading organizations in the disciplines of music, theater, and dance.
Annual giving in the area of the performing arts has averaged approximately $30 million per year since
2005. In 2004 The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation was awarded a National Medal of Arts, the highest award given to artists and arts patrons by the United States government. www.mellon.org

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 11 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.