MST Gets Awarded A Musical Theater: Access To Artistic Excellence Grant

Main Street Theater has been awarded a Musical Theater: Access to Artistic Excellence Grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. MST is one of 29 theaters nationally to receive an award in Musical Theater in the first of two rounds of funding for 2009. The grant was awarded for MST's world premiere of P's and Q's: the ABC's of Manners with book by Steve Garfinkel and music and lyrics by Ezra Idlet and Keith Grimwood, known to millions of fans as the Grammy-nominated folk duo "Trout Fishing in America."

Access to Artistic Excellence encourages and supports artistic creativity, preserves our diverse cultural heritage, and makes the arts more widely available in communities throughout the country. While projects in this category may focus on just one of these areas, the Arts Endowment recognizes that many of the most effective projects encompass both artistic excellence and enhanced access.

MST will premiere P's and Q's: the ABC's of Manners, a new musical for family audiences, in July of 2009. Using the smart, funny, high-energy songs of Trout Fishing in America (TFIA), the musical is pure joy and silliness - with a strong undercurrent of good life lessons! A collaboration between MST's Theater for Youth and MainStage, P's and Q's reminds us, with humor and insight, that manners are still important to our society and play a major role in the development of good citizens. Not all the "lessons" are illustrated by children; adults also receive their fair share of scrutiny!

The National Endowment for the Arts nurtures the American musical theater field by funding the work of established musical theater organizations as well as projects by theater companies that also produce musical work. The Arts Endowment supports projects that assist musical theater organizations and artists in the creation and refinement of work, the public presentation of musicals, and opportunities for professional development. Supported projects reflect the variety and breadth of artistic endeavor within the field including production, artists' residencies, new musical development laboratories, and showcases. Since 1975, Main Street Theater has produced high quality professional theater for audiences of all ages through its MainStage productions and Theater for Youth. The Main Street Theater Kids On Stage program offers performing arts classes and camps for children 4 years to 18 years of age. The organization produces plays at two locations, 2540 Times Boulevard in Rice Village and 4617 Montrose Boulevard at Chelsea Market.

Main Street Theater is a member of the Fresh Arts Coalition, a collaboration of 25 arts organizations that work collectively to raise awareness of the size and diversity of the arts in Houston, and a constituent of Theatre Communications Group (TCG), the national service organization for not-for-profit theaters. Main Street Theater offers a lively year-round repertory of classic and contemporary plays for audiences of all ages and provides a much-needed showcase for Houston theater professionals. Main Street Theater is also a member of Actors' Equity Association and of ASSITEJ, the world theatre network of theatre for children and young people. Main Street Theater is funded in part by grants from the Houston Arts Alliance.

 

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