SoHo Playhouse Announces Launch of $10,000 in Grants to Fund Las Vegas Theatre Artists

Just how far off Broadway is Las Vegas? It's closer than you think. SoHo Playhouse has announced the launching of $10,000 in grants to fund four dynamic Las Vegas theatre artists. They will distribute the Martin Bergman and Rita Rudner Grant, the Kaufman Family Grant, the Karen Camp Grant, and the Victoria and David Bradshaw Family Foundation Grant as they review applications in the coming months.

They provide these opportunities as they explore the prospect of opening a row of Off-Broadway theaters in the Arts District of Downtown Las Vegas. They think these grants will be vital in connecting New York's rich theatrical legacy with the artistic community of Sin City.

Vegas is cutting-edge; Off-Broadway is too. Off-Broadway emerged in the twentieth century to give prominent NY theater artists a chance to shed the artifice of Broadway-to wipe off the grease paint, and create intimate and vanguard art. While Broadway is the commercial front of New York theater, it's only the tip of the iceberg. Off-Broadway is the true home to artistic progress and cultural development, to theatrical experimentation and provocative discussion.

Off-Broadway has also originated most of the theater productions they now regard as Broadway classics, including Little Shop of Horrors, Rent, Steel Magnolias, Hamilton, and Dear Evan Hansen.

Practically every major theater artist has roots in Off-Broadway performance. Actors in the ranks of Al Pacino, Meryl Streep, and Denzel Washington are known to pursue this more unadulterated kind of theater, regularly returning to New York's Off-Broadway stages-like SoHo Playhouse.

Since our foundation in 1926, SoHo Playhouse has demonstrated a fierce commitment to generating new works. In fact, legendary playwright Edward Albee used the profits from his play Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf to purchase the SoHo Playhouse in 1961 and establish the Playwright's Unit-a kind of theatrical testing kitchen for unestablished playwrights. Yes- the same SoHo Playhouse that will be coming to Vegas.

As such, they have premiered works by the likes of Pulitzer Prize winners Sam Shepherd, Terrance McNally, Lanford Wilson, Tracy Letts, and more. However, these playwrights were not always household names-they had to hone their craft somewhere.

That's why they are so passionate about new works, and regularly give burgeoning theatre-makers a platform to share their art. SoHo Playhouse's ongoing commitment to new works unsurprisingly manifests in their engagement with global Fringe Festivals. With their Fringe Encore Series, Artistic Director Darren Lee Cole selects twenty of the top shows from global Fringes (Edinburgh, Adelaide, Orlando, and Capetown, amongst others) to showcase at our flagship theater in downtown New York City.

Both Fringe productions and theater-goers in New York benefit from their Fringe Encore Series. International theater-makers get to extend the shelf-life of their productions, as many of these shows are consequently launched to Off-Broadway and global success. New Yorkers also get the opportunity to become familiar with theater forms and ideas from across the world.

Recently, we've served as NYC's premiere stage for world-renowned artists with Fringe roots. In the last eighteen months: Phoebe Waller-Bridge performed Fleabag; Hannah Gadsby performed her dynamic one-woman show, Nanette; and Daniel Sloss performed "X" and New Work at their flagship theater. All of these productions are also now major hits on streaming platforms like Netflix, Showtime, and Amazon Prime.

Interested artists should visit sohoplayhouselv.com to apply for the grants.

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