The American Theatre Wing (ATW) will bring back its National Theatre Company Grants program. A national nonprofit, ATW champions theater through a variety of initiatives, programs and grants that support creative growth, new work development, arts education and more. This particular grants initiative aims to further cement the role of regional theater companies —balancing regional, Off-Broadway and Broadway theater — in the industry’s national ecosystem.
ATW will award five grants of $100,000 each to select regional theater companies whose programming spotlights the new work of living American playwrights. Theaters can also be eligible for the grants if they present the work of deceased playwrights whose work remains unknown or under-presented.
“On the heels of the Regional Tony Award announcement, which annually honors a pioneering and exceptional theater company, we are thrilled to relaunch our American Theatre Wing National Theatre Company Grants program,” ATW’s president and CEO Heather Hitchens said in a statement. “The work that regional theaters do is vital to the communities around them and to the theater ecosystem as a whole. With this program, we want to help regional theaters tell compelling new stories that reflect the world and times we are living in, to build, diversify and expand audiences and the American theater canon.”
“Most of my plays and musicals began their lives at regional theaters, whose health and vitality have always been critical for both playwrights and our field,” added ATW trustee and Tony Award-winning playwright David Henry Hwang. “These grants will support new and rediscovered plays as the lifeblood of the American theater, while helping these companies during this challenging time to innovate, experiment and transform."
While the grants will go to support new works at nonprofit organizations, the eligibility requirements are otherwise flexible. Funds can go to support co-productions (with a commercial producing entity) of world premieres, audience development initiatives, community outreach and low-cost ticket programs.
Applications will open in August, with a September submission deadline. Grant recipients will be announced in November.
Additional information, including how to apply, can be found here.
