LA NEW PLAY PROJECT Announces New Grant Opportunities For Playwrights & Los Angeles Area Theaters

LA NEW PLAY PROJECT has announced new support for original work to be presented on the Los Angeles stage. LANPP has initiated a two-tiered grant program offering opportunities for $20,000 grants to playwrights, and an additional grant up to $20,000 to producing entities helping support productions.

By establishing these awards, LANPP hopes to contribute to exciting, high-quality original work on the small and mid-size stages of Los Angeles County. LANPP grants are intended to attract excellence in playwriting to the Los Angeles theater community, and to encourage the production of new and untried plays.

Producers in partnership with playwrights are invited to submit new plays under consideration for production in their upcoming season. Through a distinguished peer panel review process LANPP will identify and reward the strongest works submitted. The goal is to help stabilize the new productions that originate here, works that it is hoped will resonate beyond Los Angeles.

The Los Angeles New Play Project grant is the brainchild of producers Paula Holt and Nathan Birnbaum. The project is administered in partnership with the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television and the UCLA Foundation, and is funded by a generous benefactor who has asked to remain anonymous.

"We are launching this funding support at a time when theaters, large and small, remain closed. However, we are passionately invested in the fact that live theater will not just come back, but will come roaring back and flourish as we process what we've been missing - shared experiences, physical proximity, and stories that shape our lives," says Director Paula Holt. "We will accept original writing submissions this spring, and plan to announce the first writing awards in fall of 2021."

Paula Holt, Director, has worked in the Los Angeles theater community for three decades, having created, managed, and produced at the storied Tiffany Theaters, one of the pre-eminent intimate theaters in Los Angeles. She chaired the boards for both LA Stage Alliance and Rogue Machine Theatre, and served on the boards of The Antaeus Company and USC's School of Dramatic Arts. Paula served the City of Los Angeles as a Cultural Affairs Commissioner for both Mayors Hahn and Villaraigosa.

Nathan Birnbaum, Associate Director, served on the staff of Audrey Skirball-Kenis Theater Projects as a producer of new work development programs and has worked on about 100 new play productions and workshops at the Mark Taper Forum, South Coast Rep, La Jolla Rep, Trinity Rep, Seattle Rep, Harold Prince Music Theater Workshop, and other groups. He currently serves as Administrator for Santa Monica Cultural Affairs, and is a produced playwright and lyricist.

The UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television, ranked as one of the top entertainment and performing arts institutions in the world, offers an innovative curriculum leading to both undergraduate and graduate degrees. Brian Kite, Interim Dean.

More information on grant guidelines for submissions: http://lanpp.org/grant-guidelines-and-application/

LA New Play Project: http://lanpp.org/.

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