Arena Stage & National Endowment for the Arts Partner in New Play Development Project

The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) announced a new program today, the NEA New Play Development Project (NPDP), to help the nation's nonprofit theaters bring more new plays to full production. The national program will be hosted by Arena Stage's American Voices New Play Program. Selecting and providing support for exceptional new plays and new play development models will be a key component of the program. The NEA New Play Development Project will support the development of seven new plays at theaters from across the country. Two projects selected as NEA Outstanding New American Plays will receive up to $90,000 each to support advanced development, including at least one full production. Five projects selected as NEA Distinguished New Play Development Projects will receive up to $20,000 each to support the early stages of development for a new play with strong potential to merit a full production. In both cases, the selected plays will be developed in close collaboration with the playwrights.

The NEA New Play Development Project will further support artistic excellence in the theater field by actively encouraging the study of and dialogue around existing and new models for new play development. The seven new plays supported by the program also will be studied as part of that ongoing dialogue. In partnership with the NEA, Arena Stage will provide a forum that will not only encourage this discussion but will actively support the dissemination of any findings throughout the field.

Already a recognized leader in the theater field, Arena Stage is one of the nation's oldest nonprofit theaters with a focus on American work. Arena's new partnership with the Arts Endowment will fall under the leadership of Producing Artistic Associate David Dower. Dower, the founding Artistic Director of San Francisco's Z Space Studio, one of the nation's leading laboratories for the development of new work, also created the Western Presenters Commissioning Initiative, through which ten West Coast presenters jointly commissioned a dozen new works specifically for touring.

The NEA has previously supported new play development through a separate initiative administered by the Theater Communications Group, the NEA/TCG Theatre Residency Program for Playwrights, which will conclude in 2009. That program fosters relationship building and information sharing between institutions and resident playwrights. The NEA New Play Development Project will respond to current challenges and opportunities that exist in the field. It will also add a formal component for the dissemination, study, and discussion of various models for new play development.

The Arts Endowment expects that the application guidelines for the new program will be available by late spring 2008 and that the inaugural round of projects will be announced in fall 2008.

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