The Prince Fellowship Announces New Fellows

The Prince Fellowship, in association with Columbia University School of the Arts, announced that Osh Ghanimah has received The Prince Fellowship and Lawryn LaCroix has received the Prince/TTLP Fellowship, formerly known as The T. Fellowship. The late Broadway producer and director Harold Prince created the program 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.

The Prince Fellowship selected two fellows this year, one of which will be funded through its new partnership with The Theatre Leadership Project (TTLP), a new 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.

"TTLP is thrilled to be supporting Lawryn's journey over the next three years," said Leah Harris, TTLP program manager. "Lawyrn is a multi-talented artist who will add immense value to our field as a Creative Producer for years to come!"

"Osh brings a fantastic energy and vibrant creativity to the work of theatrical producing," said Prince Fellowship mentor Sue Frost. "I am so looking forward to his contributions to our community.

Current Prince Fellowship Mentors are Kristin Caskey, Sue Frost, Tom Schumacher, Jeffrey Seller and David Stone. The program is managed by Columbia University School of the Arts.

The Prince Fellowship recently announced the formation of an expanded advisory group of industry specialists who will serve as additional resources for the fellows, by sharing their expertise and perspective and complementing the existing mentorship and academic curriculum. The Advisors group includes 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 Fellowship was founded in 2005. Shortly thereafter, Orin Wolf and John Pinkard 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).

The 2021 Prince Fellowship year will run from September 2021 through August 2022. Prospective applicants can visit https://princefellowship.com/apply/ for more information about the program and the upcoming Webinar. For more information about TTLP, visit www.theatreleadershipproject.org.

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).

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.

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