2024 Advance Gender Equity in the Arts Legacy Playwright $10K Grant Recipients Announced

Advance Gender Equity in the Arts has announced Lava Alapai, Joslyn Housley, and Myung Jin (MJ) Kang as the recipients of the third annual AGE Legacy Playwright (ALP) grants. Alapai is the first ALP recipient from AGE's home city of Portland, joined by Housley from Chicago and Kang from Los Angeles. The ALP grant program annually awards three recipients each a $10,000 unrestricted grant. 

The ALP awards were created by in 2022 AGE Founder Jane Vogel Mantiri to invest in emerging writers who have historically been underrepresented and underserved because of their gender, race, and age. The deNovo Initiative, a private foundation, underwrites the awards to further their mission supporting storytellers who challenge our values, opinions, and beliefs.

AGE has awarded close to $110,000 to ALP recipients and finalists over its three annual cycles. The ALP process begins in March when AGE invites BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People Of Color) playwrights of marginalized gender* over age 40 to apply. This cycle, AGE closed the submission portal early after receiving a record number of more than 80 completed applications, which speaks to the urgent need for this program. Applicants submit a full-length play or musical for consideration along with a resume and bio. They are also asked to describe career triumphs and challenges. A national panel of BIPOC theatre artists, the majority based in Oregon, anonymously adjudicates the submissions before coming together for deliberations designed to reach consensus to choose the $10,000 grant recipients. 

Alapai, Housley, and Kang are mature, experienced theatremakers who have received many accolades but for whom more than one professional production of their writing has been elusive. Alapai and Housley are multi-hyphenate theatre artists, with decades of experience ranging from acting and directing to puppeteering. Kang first voiced aloud her desire to be a playwright at age 12 and says she aims to challenge her audiences to “see the world differently.” Past ALP winners have characterized this award as “a game-changer” (Marlow Wyatt) and working with AGE as “more than empowering. It's validating. It's motivating” (Reneé Flemings).

AGE will amplify the grant recipients and finalists via newsletters and social media platforms. “I have fallen in love with these playwrights' work and I cannot wait to share it with the Portland community and beyond,” says AGE Program Director Andréa Morales. Mantiri, a former child trauma psychologist and professional actor, explains, “We wish to be curative and healing… respecting our recipients' dignity and judgment... We are giving fully and freely, knowing that our recipients will make the world a better place. Together, we are doing something that seldom happens in a world still struggling to find pathways to equity.”