Touchstone Theatre Receives MAP Fund Grant in Support of Civil War Project

In support of their celebrated community-based original theatre, Touchstone Theatre was recently approved to receive a $31,294 grant from the Multi-Arts Production (MAP) Fund, an initiative that supports new projects spanning all disciplines of the performing arts. The grant will be put toward Touchstone's next community-based work, a commemorative play celebrating the sesquicentennial of the American Civil War currently titled "The Civil War/Cemetery Project," with a portion of the grant directed toward general operating.

MAP was established by the Rockefeller Foundation in 1989. In 2001, Creative Capital began administering the program, and in 2008, the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation became the primary funder, with additional support by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. MAP Fund seeks especially to support work that brings insight to the issue of cultural difference or the concept of "other," whether by class, gender, generation, ethnicity, or formal consideration, celebrating the notion that we learn as much from contrast as we do from likeness.

This year, the MAP Fund will award a total of $1,000,000 to 40 grantees, selected by a panel of peers from more than 800 applicants. "To be included as one of 40 awardees from across the country is extremely gratifying," says Touchstone Producing Director Lisa Jordan, "and it's a testament to the creation of new work and community-based theatre that Touchstone is known for."

As the second largest annual open submission grant for contemporary performance in the United States, MAP has enabled some of the most groundbreaking performers of the last two generations. Ben Cameron, Program Director for the Arts at the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation notes, "The MAP Fund has a long track record of support for the nation's most innovative and insightful performing artists."

Touchstone Theatre's "The Civil War/Cemetery Project" (Working Title), written by Alison Cary of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, is a new community-based dramatic work premiering in April 2012, which commemorates the 150th anniversary of the American Civil War. The production draws from a wealth of resources, including biographies of individuals who lived during those years and are buried in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania; the year-long project will include site-specific performances, workshops, and lectures, along with a documentary, souvenir book, and accompanying website.

"The Civil War/Cemetery Project" will explore themes of race, class, gender, and ethnicity, studying the effects of the country's first "total war" on this heterogeneous Pennsylvanian city. The purpose of the work is to better understand and appreciate who we are and what unites us, with the aim of telling a story for all people regarding war and peace; Union and States Rights; and slavery and freedom.

This project will be produced as part of the Historic Bethlehem Partnership's Civil War Commemoration, a Lehigh Valley collaborative recognizing and commemorating the Civil War through art, discussions, music, and drama. Further funding for "The Civil War/Cemetery Project" has been pledged by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Pennsylvania Humanities Council.

"The Civil War/Cemetery Project" marks the third time that Touchstone has been honored with a MAP Fund grant. In 1991, MAP supported "The Chile Project" which led to the creation and premiere production of Daedalus in the Belly of the Beast at Touchstone; and in 2006 , MAP funded a Touchstone-guided cultural exchange that sent members of Bethlehem's Latino community to Apache reservations in Arizona and New Mexico.

Celebrating thirty years, Touchstone Theatre produces and presents both original and classic productions, with a dedication to the renewal of theatre as a vital art form. Touchstone works to foster collaboration on a local and national level through educational and youth empowerment programs, using theatre as a community-building tool. Visit us on the web at www.touchstone.org

 

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