Edgerton Foundation New Play Awards Announce First Round Of 2019 Recipients

Theatre Communications Group (TCG), the national organization for theatre, announces the recipients of the first round of the 2019 Edgerton Foundation New Play Awards. The awards, totaling $509,000, allow 13 productions extra time for the development and rehearsal of new plays with the entire creative team, hoping to extend the life of the world premiere play after its first run.

Over the last 13 years, the Edgerton Foundation has awarded over $12,315,000 to 406 productions, enabling many plays to schedule subsequent productions following their world premieres. Thirty have made it to Broadway, including: Curtains, 13, Next to Normal, 33 Variations, In the Next Room (or The Vibrator Play), Time Stands Still, Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, A Free Man of Color, Good People, Chinglish, Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, Bronx Bombers, Casa Valentina, Outside Mullingar, All the Way, Eclipsed, Bright Star, Hamilton, The Columnist, In Transit, A Doll's House Part 2, Indecent, Dear Evan Hansen, Oslo, Escape to Margaritaville, The Prom, JUNK: The Golden Age of Debt, SUMMER: The Donna Summer Musical, and Head Over Heels. Sixteen plays were nominated for Tony Awards, with All the Way, Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, Hamilton, Dear Evan Hansen, and Oslo winning the best play or musical awards. Ten plays were nominated for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, with wins for Cost of Living (2018), Hamilton (2016), The Flick (2014), Water by the Spoonful (2012), and Next to Normal (2010).

"As the Edgerton Foundation's support of new plays crosses the 400 production mark, it's an opportunity to take stock of the sheer breadth of their impact on our field," said Teresa Eyring, executive director, TCG. "It's reflected not only in the number of awards and second productions, but also in the affirmations of theatres and playwrights on the transformative impact of longer rehearsal processes."

The first round of the 2019 Edgerton Foundation New Play Awards were presented to:

Becoming Nancy
music by George Stiles
lyrics by Anthony Drewe
book by Elliot Davis
based on the novel Becoming Nancy by Terry Ronald
at Alliance Theatre

Testmatch
by Kate Attwell
at American Conservatory Theater

Dig
by Theresa Rebeck
at Dorset Theatre Festival

The Coast Starlight
by Keith Bunin
at La Jolla Playhouse

Her Honor Jane Byrne
by J. Nicole Brooks
at Lookingglass Theatre Company

The Refuge Plays
by Nathan Alan Davis
at McCarter Theatre Center

Hansard
by Simon Woods
at National Theatre

The Michaels
by Richard Nelson
at The Public Theater

the end of history...
by Jack Thorne
at Royal Court Theatre

Selling Kabul
by Sylvia Khoury
at Williamstown Theatre Festival

Tell Me I'm Not Crazy
by Sharyn Rothstein
at Williamstown Theatre Festival

Grand Horizons
by Bess Wohl
at Williamstown Theatre Festival

Before the Meeting
by Adam Bock
at Williamstown Theatre Festival

"Because of the Edgerton Foundation, we can extend the rehearsal process for this play, which is always so important when producing something for the first time," said Dina Janis, artistic director, Dorset Theatre Festival. "It will be a deeper, more rigorous creative process. Bringing a play to life with designers directly involved in the process from the beginning is extremely important to us and one of the reasons that we are excited to support Theresa in the direction of her own play. Her vision for the world of the play is always influenced by the contributions of designers by whom she is inspired and challenged."

"Support from the Edgerton Foundation will extend Becoming Nancy's rehearsal period from a budgeted three to four weeks," said Susan V. Booth, Jennings Hertz Artistic Director, Alliance Theatre. "This additional week of rehearsal will enable the creative team to adjust the script and give them time to go down creative roads, see results, and make changes."

The Edgerton Foundation New Plays Program, directed by Brad and Louise Edgerton, was piloted in 2006 with Center Theatre Group in Los Angeles by offering two musicals in development an extended rehearsal period for the entire creative team, including the playwrights. The Edgertons launched the program nationally in 2007 and have supported 406 plays to date at over 50 different Art Theatres across the country.

Theatre Communications Group (TCG) exists to strengthen, nurture, and promote professional theatre in the U.S. and globally. Since its founding in 1961, TCG's constituency has grown from a handful of groundbreaking theatres to over 700 Member Theatres and affiliate organizations and nearly 10,000 Individual Members. Through its Core Values of Activism, Artistry, Diversity, and Global Citizenship, TCG advances a better world for theatre and a better world because of theatre. TCG offers its members networking and knowledge-building opportunities through research, communications, and events, including the annual TCG National Conference, one of the largest nationwide gatherings of theatre people; awards grants and scholarships, approximately $2 million per year, to theatre companies and individual artists; advocates on the federal level; and through the Global Theater Initiative, TCG's partnership with the Laboratory for Global Performance and Politics, serves as the U.S. Center of the International Theatre Institute. TCG is North America's largest independent trade publisher of dramatic literature, with 17 Pulitzer Prizes for Drama on the TCG booklist. It also publishes the award-winning American Theatre magazine and ARTSEARCH, the essential source for a career in the arts. In all of its endeavors, TCG seeks to increase the organizational efficiency of its Member Theatres, cultivate and celebrate the artistic talent and achievements of the field, and promote a larger public understanding of, and appreciation for, the theatre.www.tcg.org.

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