NEW YORK CITY: Theatre Communications Group (TCG) has announced the first round of recipients for the 2019 Edgerton Foundation New Play Awards. The awards, totaling $509,000, will allow 13 productions to receive extra time for the development and rehearsal of new plays with the entire creative team. These awards aim is to extend the life of the play after its world-premiere productions.
“As the Edgerton Foundation’s support of new plays crosses the 400 production mark, it’s an opportunity to take stock of the sheer breadth of their impact on our field,” said Teresa Eyring, executive director of TCG, in a statement. “It’s reflected not only in the number of awards and second productions, but also in the affirmations of theatres and playwrights on the transformative impact of longer rehearsal processes.”
This round of recipients comprises:
- Becoming Nancy, music by George Stiles, lyrics by Anthony Drewe, book by Elliot Davis at Alliance Theatre
- Testmatch, Kate Attwell, American Conservatory Theater
- Dig, Theresa Rebeck, Dorset Theatre Festival
- The Coast Starlight, Keith Bunin, La Jolla Playhouse
- Her Honor Jane Byrne, J. Nicole Brooks, Lookingglass Theatre Company
- The Refuge Plays, Nathan Alan Davis, McCarter Theatre Center
- Hansard, Simon Woods, National Theatre
- The Michaels, Richard Nelson, the Public Theater
- The end of history…,Jack Thorne, Royal Court Theatre
- Selling Kabul, Sylvia Khoury, Williamstown Theatre Festival
- Tell Me I’m Not Crazy, Sharyn Rothstein, Williamstown Theatre Festival
- Grand Horizons, Bess Wohl, Williamstown Theatre Festival
- Before the Meeting, Adam Bock, Williamstown Theatre Festival
“Support from the Edgerton Foundation will extend Becoming Nancy’s rehearsal period from a budgeted three to four weeks,” said Susan V. Booth, Jennings Hertz artistic director of Alliance Theatre, in a statement. “This additional week of rehearsal will enable the creative team to adjust the script and give them time to go down creative roads, see results, and make changes.”
The Edgerton Foundation New Plays Program, directed by Brad and Louise Edgerton, was piloted in 2006 with Center Theatre Group in Los Angeles by offering two musicals in development an extended rehearsal period for the entire creative team, including the playwrights. The Edgertons launched the program nationally in 2007 and have supported 406 plays to date at over 50 different Art Theatres across the country.
