NEA New Play Development Program Round Two Application Period Is Now Open

Following the success of the inaugural round, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) has renewed its New Play Development Program (NPDP) for a second round and the application period is now open. Arena Stage will continue to serve as the NEA NPDP program administrator through the Arena Stage American Voices New Play Institute. The application and guidelines are available at www.arenastage.org/npdp. The intent to apply deadline is Friday December 18, 2009. Completed applications must be submitted by Friday, January 29, 2010.

Though guidelines for application have undergone some changes since round one, benefits for the selected plays remain the same. Two projects chosen as NEA Outstanding New American Plays will each receive $90,000 to support the final stages of development and a world premiere of the selected play. Five NEA Distinguished New Play Development Projects will each receive $20,000 to support the early stages of development of a new play.

The NEA and Arena Stage expect to announce the selected round two projects in June 2010.

The NEA NPDP is open to project submissions from nonprofit, professional organizations, or a consortium of organizations, who apply in collaboration with a playwright. Applications are reviewed by a peer panel of experts and judged based on criteria of artistic excellence and artistic merit. The program was originally announced in December 2007, and is designed to help the nation's nonprofit theaters promote the development and production of new work and to raise public awareness surrounding new play development.
The continuing success of the two inaugural selected NEA Outstanding New American Plays Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo and The Brother/Sister Plays demonstrate the quality of the selection process and potential outcome of the program:

The premiere of Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo by Rajiv Joseph and directed by Moisés Kaufman was such a success in Center Theater Group's Kirk Douglas Theatre that the company is producing it again in its larger Mark Taper Forum venue this spring. Charles McNulty of The Los Angeles Times wrote of the production: "GROUNDBREAKING... I'm tempted to call it the most original drama written so far about the Iraq war, but why sell the work short? The imagination behind it is way too thrillingly genre-busting to be confined within such a limiting category."

The second selected project, McCarter Theater Center's premiere of Tarrell Alvin McCraney's trilogy The Brother/Sister Plays traveled to New York this fall for an off-Broadway run as a co-production with The Public Theater. Ben Brantley of The New York Times called these productions of the trilogy "pumped full of a senses-heightening oxygen that leaves you tingling...Mr. McCraney leaves us feeling like story-fed children at bedtime, eager to hear the next chapter and likely to continue the tale ourselves in our dreams."

The NEA NPDP also supports artistic excellence in the theater field by encouraging dialogue around existing and new models for new play development. In partnership with the NEA, Arena Stage provides a forum that not only encourages this discussion but actively supports the dissemination of any findings throughout the field. Further Information on the NEA NPDP, including updates on all of the round one selections can be found on the New Play Blog at http://npdp.arenastage.org.

The National Endowment for the Arts is a public agency dedicated to supporting excellence in the arts, both new and established, bringing the arts to all Americans, and providing leadership in arts education. Established by Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government, the Arts Endowment is the nation's largest annual funder of the arts, bringing great art to all 50 states, including rural areas, inner cities, and military bases. For more information, please visit www.arts.gov.

Under the leadership of Artistic Director Molly Smith and Managing Director Edgar Dobie, Arena Stage has become the largest theater in the country dedicated to American plays and playwrights. Founded in 1950 by Zelda Fichandler, Thomas Fichandler and Edward Mangum, Arena Stage was one of the nation's original resident theaters, and has a distinguished record of leadership and innovation in the field. With the opening of the new Mead Center for American Theater in 2010, Arena Stage will be a leading center for the production, presentation, development and study of the American theater. Now in its sixth decade, Arena Stage serves a diverse annual audience of more than 200,000. For more information please visit www.arenastage.org.

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