Pegasus Theatre Chicago To Receive NEA Grant For Young Playwrights Festival

Pegasus Theatre Chicago has been approved by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) for a Grants for Arts Projects award of $25,000 supporting the Young Playwrights Festival. The NEA will award 1,127 Grants for Arts Projects awards nationwide totaling more than $31.8 million as part of the recent announcement of fiscal year 2025 grants.

“The NEA is proud to continue our nearly 60 years of supporting the efforts of organizations and artists that help to shape our country's vibrant arts sector and communities of all types across our nation,” said NEA Chair Maria Rosario Jackson, PhD. “It is inspiring to see the wide range of creative projects taking place, including Pegasus' Young Playwrights Festival.”

“Pegasus acknowledges and is grateful to the NEA for its continued support of the Young Playwrights Festival,” added Executive & Producing Artistic Director Ilesa Duncan. “Because of grants like this, we are able to share the voices and ideas of these new playwrights, Chicago's middle and high school students, with the community and into the future.”

For nearly four decades, the Young Playwrights Festival, the oldest such festival in the United States, has engaged and inspired high school students across Chicago by teaching them to craft one-act plays. More than 300 submissions are received annually with the winning teen playwrights' productions being work-shopped, staged by industry professionals and receive a premiere under the auspices of Pegasus Theatre Chicago's Young Playwrights Festival.

For more information on other projects included in the NEA's grant announcement, visit arts.gov/news.

ABOUT PEGASUS THEATRE CHICAGO

Pegasus Theatre Chicago has been a mainstay in the Chicago theater community for more than four decades. Its mission is to champion new, authentic voices and produce boldly imaginative theatre primarily by and about black or other people of color. Home of the Young Playwrights Festival, the company promotes cultural equity while celebrating intercultural communication. Pegasus is committed to initiating important conversations through the arts with strong community engagement and socially relevant programming. The Young Playwrights Festival for high school-age scribes celebrates its 38th year in 2025. Pegasus Theatre Chicago has received 77 Joseph Jefferson Awards since its inception.

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