Industry Theatre Newsroom Page 58

After reviewing nearly two hundred submissions, Stage Rights and the Southeastern Theatre Conference is pleased to announce Steven Strafford's devasting new dark comedy Small Jokes About Monsters the recipient of the 2022 SETC/Stage Rights Ready to Publish Award. 

 Theatre Producers of Color (TPOC), a newly formed organization committed to supporting the next generation of BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) producers by providing access to education, training, and mentorship, announced today its second-annual educational program – “Commercial Theatre Producing 101.”

Sargent Aborn, long-serving CEO of Tams-Witmark, will retire at the end of this month to spend more time with his family. He has spent over 40 years with the company.

Tri-M Foundation is currently accepting applications for the 2022-2023 cycle of the Performing Arts Grant program. Launched in 2020, the Performing Arts Grant program supports the development and presentation of innovative, high-quality performing arts projects, events, and festivals by regional non-profit arts organizations.

Over the past 12 years, Actors Pro Expo has welcomed thousands of actors in the UK and USA. After successful virtual events in 2020 & 2021, Actors Pro Expo is going global with a hybrid event that will get Actors involved in-person and online!

This program will be dedicated to fostering and preserving a culture of equity, diversity, access and inclusion while providing an invaluable, in-depth education in the business of commercial theater.

The application has opened for the New York Theatre Workshop's 2050 Artistic Fellowship.

News of more closings - and planned reopenings - highlighted the Broadway news last week, and Broadway and many regions also announced an extension of mask mandates and vaccination requirements for audiences into the spring, serving as a reminder that the path to that final “new normal” will likely have a few more twists and turns before we arrive.

Wake Forest University (WFU) has received $250,000 from the Henry Luce Foundation to commission and produce two original plays to be presented at the 2024 National Black Theatre Festival (NBTF).

Be An #ArtsHero / Arts Workers United is proud to announce its co-founder Carson Elrod will testify in a Congressional House Hearing before the Small Business Committee (SBC) chaired by Congresswoman Nydia M. Velázquez (NY-07) on the Arts and Culture Sector titled “The Power, Peril, and Promise of the Creative Economy.” 

The company has promoted Lisa Cecchini and Jeremy Kraus to Managing Partners. Stephanie Sciandra Smith, Senior Creative Group Director, will oversee the agency's evolving multi-platform creative strategy. They will be joined by Managing Director Leslie Barrett.

Founded in 1999, TAP-Plus awards grants of up to $5,000 for open captioning services to eligible cultural organizations throughout New York State. Any institution that currently receives NYSCA funding is eligible to apply for a TAP-Plus grant.

Kathy Evans, Founding Executive Director of Rhinebeck Writers Retreat, announced that applications are open to all musical theatre writers to participate in weeklong residencies in the Hudson Valley between June 26 and August 28.

Two-time Tony Award-winning producer Jennifer Isaacson has joined Broadway Licensing as the new Director of Amateur Play Licensing. Jennifer Isaacson will oversee all amateur licensing for the Playscripts and DPS imprints under the parent company of Broadway Licensing.

 Jen Namoff, the industry veteran with more than 15 years of experience, today announced the formation of Namoff & Company, a bi-coastal, full-service Talent Management & Production Company representing clients across television, film, music, and theater. 

The Broadway Advocacy Coalition (BAC) announces the class of fellows selected to participate in the second annual BAC Artivism Fellowship, created to support artist-activists using their tools to have an impact on the world around them. 

The Hermitage Artist Retreat (Andy Sandberg, Artistic Director and CEO), in collaboration with the Philadelphia-based Greenfield Foundation, has selected innovative composer and multi-instrumentalist Angélica Negrón as the winner of the 2022 Hermitage Greenfield Prize (HGP), awarded this year in the artistic discipline of music.

On January 22, Irondale's Young Company and SheNYC Arts' Create Her  programs bring local New York City teens together for The 24 (ish) Hour Plays, a digital festival of original short 1-act plays written and produced following a day-long virtual workshop process. 

The Educational Theatre Association (EdTA) has announced that productions from seven high schools from across the country have been selected to perform on the main stage at the 2022 International Thespian Festival (ITF).

You'll look at the virtual tools that can still serve us going forward, and how they can contribute to our future success in theater, from livestreaming as a supplementary revenue stream to online fundraising to new way to approach marketing and increase awareness of our product.

As the industry works to both emerge from the pandemic and deal with the ongoing impacts of the pandemic, responses are starting to differ based on region. Some Broadway producers are prioritizing their ongoing tours, others are pulling people from the tour to keep running on Broadway. In Chicago, no food and drink are allowed in the theatre.

C2EC, created by diversity strategist and former ballet dancer Theresa Ruth Howard, aims to create a learning community with the support, education, and advocacy that organizations and their leaders need to reimagine and reshape the culture and standards of the classical arts.

Recognizing chaotic schedules heading into 2022, President Lauren Class Schneider announced On-Demand classes for Theatre Production & Live Performance and Patron Safety.

Theatre Communications Group has announced the appointment of Joshua Henry Jenkins as its new director of marketing. Jenkins will be responsible for creating, implementing, and measuring the success of a comprehensive marketing plan that advances TCG’s mission to lead for a just and thriving theatre ecology.

This free networking event offers stage managers of color the unique opportunity to connect directly with industry professionals who are in positions to share advice and personalized counsel and – crucially – to hire.