NEW YORK CITY: The City of New York Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment today announced the recipients of its inaugural grants from the Women’s Film, TV and Theatre Fund. The funds, totaling $1.5 million, were given to 63 women-led projects in theatre, film, and web projects. Fourteen of the recipients were theatre projects. The recipients were announced in a ceremony at the Daryl Roth Theatre.
In remarks at the theatre, NYC acting commissioner Anne del Castillo said, “This is the first municipal fund in the country for female-identified creators in film, television, and theatre.”
According to deputy mayor Alicia Glen, the diversity of mediums represented in the grantees “epitomizes the type of diverse industry that’s here. This is what makes New York truly the center of cultural innovation.”
The list of the 15 female-led theatrical projects, which received grants ranging from $20,000 to $50,000, is below:
- Grace McLean and Lee Sunday Evans for In the Green, to be produced by Lincoln Center Theater
- Colette Robert for The Harriet Holland Social Club Presents the 84th Annual Star-Burst Cotillion in the Grand Ballroom of the Renaissance Hotel, to be produced by New Georges and the Movement Theatre Company
- Karen Brown, Karimah, Ntozake Shange, Ifa Bayeza, Karen Brown for the Negro Ensemble Company Celebrates The Art of Women event
- Nia O. Wiherspoon and Mei Ann Teo for Messiah
- Lisa Schlesinger, Marion Schoevaert, and Irina Patkanian for Iphigenia Point Blank
- Antoinette Nwandu and Danya Taymor for Tuvalu: Or the Saddest Song, to be produced by The Vineyard Theatre
- Karen Kandel for The Vicksburg Project, to be produced by Mabou Mines
- Indira Etwaroo and Dominique Morisseau for the “50in50: Letters to Our Daughters” event, to be produced by the Billie Holiday Theater
- Aya Ogawa for The Nosebleed
- DeVante Lewis for Girlz in Da Hood, to be presented at Community Connections for Youth
- Zoey Martinson for The Black History Museum According to the United States of America, to be produced by HERE Arts Center
- Kayran Irani and Rania Lee Kahlil for There is a Portal
- Andrea Stolowitz and Portia Krieger for The Berlin Diaries
- Robin Frohardt for The Plastic Bag Store
The judges for the theatrical recipients are Emilya Cachapero (director of artistic & international programs at TCG, which publishes American Theatre), actor Kathleen Chalfant, Williamstown Theatre Festival artistic director Mandy Greenfield, playwright Caridad Svich, and performer Daphne Rubin-Vega. This is the first round of a three-year program administered by the New York Foundation for the Arts.
