NEW YORK CITY: Theatre Communications Group (TCG) has announced the first round of recipients for the 2018 Edgerton Foundation New Play Awards. The awards, totaling $263,000, will grant nine new-play productions extra time for development and rehearsal with the entire creative team, with the aim of extending the life of the world premiere play after its first run.
“With Cost of Living recently becoming the fifth play supported by the Edgerton Foundation to win a Pulitzer Prize, the indelible mark of their impact on the canon of new dramatic work is clearer than ever,” said Teresa Eyring, executive director of TCG, in a statement. “Because new work requires risk and experimentation, the foundation’s support of the initial rehearsal process is critical, and raises the chance that groundbreaking new plays may receive many subsequent productions.”
The first round of the 2018 Edgerton Foundation New Play Awards are presented to Quack by Eliza Clark at Center Theatre Group; The Engagement Party by Samuel Baum at Hartford Stage; The Wickhams: Christmas at Pemberley by Lauren Gunderson and Margot Melcon at Marin Theatre Company; Landladies by Sharyn Rothstein at Northlight Theatre; Gertrude and Claudius by Mark St. Germain, adapted from a novel by John Updike, at Orlando Shakespeare Theater; Rightlynd by Ike Holter at Victory Gardens Theater; Lempicka, book and lyrics by Carson Kreitzer, music by Matt Gould, at Williamstown Theatre Festival; The Sound Inside by Adam Rapp at Williamstown Theatre Festival; and Artney Jackson by James Anthony Tyler at Williamstown Theatre Festival.
“The Edgerton Foundation New Play Awards shape the best work being made in the American theatre, and there is no greater evidence than the national and international impact their support is having,” said Mandy Greenfield, artistic director of Williamstown Theatre Festival, in a statement. “We can draw a hard, strong line from the support Edgerton gave us at Williamstown Theatre Festival for the world premiere of Martyna’s Majok’s Cost of Living to the Pulitzer Prize for Drama it was awarded this year. We are profoundly grateful for their continued support this season and are honored to have three of our world premiere productions—by brilliant, unique, and wildly diverse storytellers—making their way into the world with greater artistic resources as a result of Edgerton’s visionary leadership in the field of new work.”
Directed by Brad and Louise Edgerton, the Edgerton Foundation New Plays Program was piloted in 2006 offering two musicals in development at the Center Theater Group an extended rehearsal period for the creative team and playwrights. The program was launched nationally in 2007, and has supported 393 plays to date at more than 50 different theatres across the country.
