NEA Grants $10K for 1993 MELANCHOLY EXPERIENCE at Keen Company

National Endowment for the Arts Chairman Jane Chu has approved more than $82 million to fund local arts projects across the country in the NEA's second major funding announcement for fiscal year 2017. Included is an Art Works award of $10,000 to Keen Company to further develop Kenny's Finkle's 1993 Melancholy Experience, a play that was developed in Keen's Playwrights Lab.

The Grant will support Keen Company's development and mounting of a new innovative play The 1993 Melancholy Experience by Kenny Finkle. The play is conceived as an audio movie with music, for audiences to listen to with their eyes closed. Performed live like an old-fashioned radio play, the story is a series of inter-connected episodes with original songs taking place in and around the East Village neighborhood or New York City in the year 1993. Part coming of age, part pulp, part Genet, part mystery, part true crime - each story explores the many ways America was on the verge of massive change. The 1993 Melancholy Experience was developed as part of the 2015 Keen Playwrights Lab. Support from the NEA will allow for further development of the new play culminating in a fully mounted World Premiere production as part of Keen Company's mainstage season.

"I am so proud the NEA has granted us funding for Kenny Finkle's ambitious, timely and beautiful play, The 1993 Melancholy Experience. This is only Keen's second NEA grant in our 17-year history, but our first for a new play and we are so honored to see our dedication to new work being recognized in this way. Kenny has been a part of Keen family for many years, starting with his work in Keen Teens and continuing with his participation in our Playwrights Lab in 2014, where 1993 was born. 1993 is a big departure for Keen, both in form and content so this recognition is appreciated even more," said Jonathan Silverstein.

The 1993 Melancholy Experience has been developed as part of Keen Company's Playwrights Lab. Portions of the Experience have been presented at Judson Church, Dixon Place, the Orchard Project and Keen Company.

The NEA received 1,728 Art Works applications and will make 1,029 grants ranging from $10,000 to $100,000. "The arts reflect the vision, energy, and talent of America's artists and arts organizations," said NEA Chairman Jane Chu. "The National Endowment for the Arts is proud to support organizations such as Keen, in serving their communities by providing excellent and accessible arts experiences."

Kenny Finkle's plays include Indoor/Outdoor (Off-Broadway @ DR2, SPF, Trinity Rep, Portland Stage, Hangar Theatre, among others - over 20 productions nationally); Alive and Well (Old Globe, Virginia Stage Company); Penelope of Ithaca (Hangar Theatre); Transatlantica (Flea Theatre, Operating Theatre Company); A Thousand Years (FIU Theatre Festival); Josh Keenan Comes Out to the World (high school tour - Hangar Theatre); Syd Arthur (Keen Company/Keen Teens). Indoor/Outdoor, Penelope of Ithaca, A Thousand Years and Alive and Well are published by Broadway Play Publishing. Indoor/Outdoor is also published in Smith and Kraus' Best Plays of 2006 anthology. Syd Arthur is published by Samuel French. Over the last five years, Finkle has been developing a series of non-traditional theatrical works with music and visual art entitled Heart Must Race. He is a recipient of a NYFA fellowship, a NYSCA grant, was awarded University of Illinois' Inner Voices prize and has received commissions from Ford's Theatre, Virginia Stage Company, Theatreworks, USA, Canton Theatricals, Matt Murphy Productions, Keen Company and the Hangar Theatre, among others. He is an Adjunct Professor of Theatre at Marymount Manhattan College. In addition Kenny has been a Teaching Artist for the DreamYard Project since 1999, working in public schools (every age from kindergarten through 12th grade) on year-long arts integration projects that focus on issues of social justice.

For more information on projects included in the 2017 NEA grant announcement, go to arts.gov. For more information about Keen Company, visit www.keencompany.org.

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