The Prince Fellowship Announces 2022 Fellows

The Prince Fellowship, in association with Columbia University School of the Arts, announced that Jamila Ponton Bragg has been awarded The Prince Fellowship and Cynthia L. Dorsey has been awarded the Prince/TTLP Fellowship. The late Broadway producer and director Harold Prince created the program, originally known as the T. Fellowship, to usher in the next generation of creative producers. Selected fellows receive a stipend and a budget for the development of a new theatrical production, access to courses in Columbia's MFA Theatre Management & Producing Program and mentorship from prominent producers and industry specialists.

"Jamila brings an incredible level of experience in the non-profit field and a rich education with her as she transitions to commercial, creative producing," said Prince Fellowship mentor David Stone. "Her background and incredible focus will be an amazing contribution to this community."

"After a first successful year in partnership with the Prince Fellowship, TTLP is thrilled to be welcoming Cynthia L. Dorsey to our growing Creative Producing Program," said Leah Harris, TTLP program manager. "Cynthia is a multi-hyphenate artist who brings vibrant energy and a depth of knowledge and experience to the field of producing"

Current Prince Fellowship Mentors are Kristin Caskey, Sue Frost, Tom Schumacher, Jeffrey Seller and David Stone. Also providing support to the Prince fellows is an advisory group of industry specialists, including Victoria Bailey, Christopher Burney, Lisa Dawn Cave, Nina Essman, Kamilah Forbes, Robert Fried, Colleen Jennings-Roggensack, Brian Moreland, Julio Peterson, Lisa Poyer, Natasha Sinha, Donna Walker-Kuhne, Schele Williams and Kumiko Yoshii. The Prince Fellowship is managed by Co-Directors Orin Wolf (President of NETworks Presentations), Steven Chaikelson (Head of the MFA Theatre Management & Producing Program at the Columbia University School of the Arts) and Aaron Glick (Producer, Former T. Fellow).

The Fellowship was founded in 2005. Shortly thereafter, Orin Wolf and John Pinckard were awarded the first two T. Fellowships in 2006. Other past recipients are Aaron Glick (2013), Jen Hoguet (2015), Christopher Maring (2016), Allison Bressi (2017), Rachel Sussman (2018) and Ben Holtzman (2019), Osh Ghanimah (2021) and Lawyrn LaCroix (2021).

Additional support for The Prince Fellowship is generously provided by The John Gore Organization. The Prince/TTLP Fellow is funded through a partnership with The Theatre Leadership Project (TTLP), a nonprofit working to install Black leadership in commercial theatre through three-year, paid fellowships. TTLP founding members are producers Barbara Broccoli, Lia Vollack, Alecia Parker, Patrick Daly and Travis Ballenger.

The 2022 Prince Fellowship year will run from September 2022 through August 2023. Prospective applicants can visit https://PrinceFellowship.com for more information about the program and to join the mailing list. The application deadline for the 2023 fellowships will be announced in the spring of 2023.

JAMILA PONTON BRAGG

Jamila Ponton Bragg is the Founder of JamRock Productions, LLC, a theater production company committed to works for women, about women and by women. After nearly twenty years in the nonprofit industry, Ms. Bragg transitioned to theater production. Ms. Bragg began her journey in March 2020 as a co-producer on Blue (2000), a play by Charles Randolph Wright. Currently, the production is on hold due to the coronavirus. Ms. Bragg is credited as an Associate Producer on the August 2021 production of PASS OVER, the first production to reopen Broadway after the covid shutdown. Ms. Bragg is an investor in for colored girls who considered suicide when the rainbow is enuf which was nominated for seven 2022 Tony Awards, including Best Revival of a Play. In 2022, Ms. Bragg is also focused on works by up-and-coming theater artists Miranda Haymon and a.k. payne. Ms. Bragg graduated from Duke University in 1996 with a BS in Psychology and earned an Ed.M. from the Harvard Graduate School of Education in 1999. She is originally from Pittsburgh, PA, and now resides in Harlem, NY with her husband and their two children.

CYNTHIA L. DORSEY

Cynthia L. Dorsey (noun): the moon personified as a goddess and a multi-disciplinary artist from Washington, DC.

She is graduate of Columbia College Chicago (BA) and Syracuse University (MA). Cynthia is the Co-Founder and Artistic Director of SoulFLY Theatre Society. She also is an arts educator who was nominated for an Excellence in Theater Education Tony Award. In addition, Cynthia is an award-winning writer, actor, director, producer and filmmaker. It is Cynthia's goal as an artist to liberate silenced stories from the page and create more opportunities for creatives of color. Cynthia continues to fight for her rightful place in the sky.

ABOUT THE PRINCE FELLOWSHIP

The goal of the Fellowship is to support the development of gifted emerging creative theatrical producers. The Prince Fellowship is committed to sustaining the finest traditions of producing by exposing new talent to the producing process in a manner that supports creative involvement. Although the environment in which theatre is produced continues to change, many of the underlying challenges and principles remain and must be understood and adapted if the art form is to thrive.

The Fellowship is a project-based program that supports the development of the chosen fellow and their project over the course of one year. Each fellow is given access to a selection of courses in the MFA Theatre Management & Producing Program at Columbia University School of the Arts. The specific courses are chosen to best support the fellow's growth. In addition, each fellow receives structured mentorship from a handful of industry leaders who specialize in creative producing and related fields. The goal is to provide consistent mentorship tailored to the needs of the individual fellow. Through these academic and professional support systems, the program aims to empower the fellows as they begin exercising their new skills in all the creative and business areas of development.

The philosophy is that which is good for the art form is good for business. The Fellowship emphasizes that the creative producer's role is to be the instigator, the collaborator, and the leader who gets art on the stage and to the public. The program neither wishes to turn back the clock to 1950 nor settle for the status quo. The Prince Fellowship is looking to empower new producers to reinvent the wheel themselves, on their own terms.

HISTORY

The original T. Fellowship grew out of an idea that T. Edward Hambleton first had in the mid-1990s. He imagined a program that would help foster a new generation of creative theatrical producers who would stand apart from those who were strictly financiers. He worked with Harold Prince, the late Geraldine Stutz, Ed Wilson and the Theater Development Fund and the idea for the fellowship took shape.

The Founders believed the program would be best served under the umbrella of one of New York's top level educational institutions and approached Columbia University. The University, through Gregory Mosher at the Columbia Arts Initiative and Steven Chaikelson in the Theatre Program at Columbia University School of the Arts, who further developed the vision and structure for the fellowship, provides the Fellows access to the extraordinary academic and cross-disciplinary strengths that Columbia University offers.

MENTORS AND ADVISORS

The Prince Fellowship resides in the Theatre Program at Columbia University School of the Arts. A Committee of Mentors and Advisors, including working theater professionals and members of the Theatre Management & Producing faculty, guide the activities of the Fellowship. The committee members select the Fellows and make themselves available to the Fellows on a one‐on‐one basis; additionally, they are a resource to the broader Columbia student population through participation in seminars and panel discussions.

ABOUT THE THEATRE PROGRAM AT COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF THE ARTS

The MFA Theatre Program at Columbia University School of the Arts is international, collaborative and interdisciplinary. Named in honor of Oscar Hammerstein II, it is defined by its location in New York City, a global capital of theatre, and by the extensive network of Columbia alumni and faculty who run prestigious Broadway, Off‐Broadway and regional theatres; direct and perform in Tony‐ and other award‐winning productions; work in every level of the professional theatre world; and teach, mentor and engage with students on an ongoing basis. The Theatre MFA programs in acting, directing, playwriting, dramaturgy, stage management, and theatre management & producing seek students who have the talent, vision, and commitment to become exceptional artists. At the School of the Arts, students acquire disciplines rooted deeply in the classics while branching out into new forms and exploring the cutting edge of theatrical art. The best theatre in every culture and in all eras has not only reflected its time but also shaped its society and often helped point it toward the future. The Theatre Program aims to train theatre artists to fulfill that important role in today's society. Among the program's leading faculty are Anne Bogart, James Calleri, Steven Chaikelson, Peter Jay Fernandez, David Henry Hwang, Brian Kulick, Chuck Mee, Lynn Nottage, Christian Parker, Michael Passaro, and Ron Van Lieu. Visit arts.columbia.edu/theatre for more information.

ABOUT COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF THE ARTS

Columbia University School of the Arts awards the Master of Fine Arts degree in Film, Theatre, Visual Arts and Writing and the Master of Arts degree in Film and Media Studies; it also offers an interdisciplinary program in Sound Art. The School is a thriving, diverse community of talented, visionary and Committed Artists from around the world and a faculty comprised of acclaimed and internationally renowned artists, film and theatre directors, writers of poetry, fiction and nonfiction, playwrights, producers, critics and scholars. In 2015, the School marked the 50th Anniversary of its founding. In 2017, the School opened the Lenfest Center for the Arts, a multi-arts venue designed as a hub for the presentation and creation of art across disciplines on the University's new Manhattanville campus. The Lenfest hosts exhibitions, performances, screenings, symposia, readings, and lectures that present new, global voices and perspectives, as well as an exciting, publicly accessible home for Columbia's Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Art Gallery. For more information, visit arts.columbia.edu.

ABOUT THE THEATRE LEADERSHIP PROJECT

Founded in 2020, The Theatre Leadership Project works to counteract the systematic exclusion of Black professionals in the theatre industry by creating pathways to employment at the highest levels. TTLP partners with entertainment and key organizations to fund and manage fellowship programs working to advance Black commercial theatre leaders. The TTLP advisory council includes Whoopi Goldberg, John Gore, Kamilah Forbes, Whitney White, Aaliytha Stevens, Brian Moreland, Robert Fried, Stefan Schick and Olivier Sultan. For more information about TTLP, visit www.theatreleadershipproject.org

The Theatre Leadership Project is a fund of the Entertainment Industry Foundation (EIF), a Charity Navigator 4 Star Charity that meets all 20 Better Business Bureau charity standards and carries the GuideStar Platinum Seal of Transparency.

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