2007 Grant Awards: Access to Artistic Excellence

[ March 13, 2006 deadline ]

Dance | Design | Folk & Traditional Arts | Literature | Local Arts Agencies
Media Arts | Museum | Music | Musical Theater | Opera | Presenting
Theater | Visual Arts

Some details of the projects listed below are subject to change, contingent upon prior Endowment approval.

Musical Theater

Barter Foundation, Incorporated State Theatre of Virginia (aka Barter Theatre)
Abingdon, VA
$20,000
To support the creation and tour of a musical theater work celebrating Appalachian music and culture. The Father of Country Music: The Jimmie Rodgers Story by playwright Dr. Douglas Pote will be directed by producing artistic director Richard Rose and tour with accompanying educational and outreach activities.

Berkeley Repertory Theatre (aka Berkeley Rep)
Berkeley, CA
$30,000
To support the development and production of a musical adapted from Virginia Woolf's 1927 novel To The Lighthouse. Playwright Adele Edling Shank, composer Paul Dresher, and associate artistic director Les Waters will collaborate on the stage adaptation.

Birmingham Summerfest, Inc. (aka Summerfest Musical Theatre)
Birmingham, AL
$20,000
To support the creation of a new musical about the Civil Rights movement with accompanying educational activities. Executive director Keith Cromwell and Priscilla Hancock Cooper, writer/performance artist and partnership coordinator of the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, will create Back to the Dream.

City Theatre Company, Inc. (aka City Theatre)
Pittsburgh, PA
$20,000
To support the development and production of a new musical adaptation of a play. Composer Brendan Milburn's musical An Infinite Ache will be adapted from playwright David Schulner's romantic comedy play of the same name.

Collaborative Arts Project 21, Inc. (aka CAP21)
New York, NY
$10,000
To support The New Works Development Program. The program will include in-house readings, dramaturgical sessions, Monday night readings, and fully-produced developmental workshops of new musicals.

Connecticut Players Foundation, Inc. (aka Long Wharf Theatre)
New Haven, CT
$25,000
To support the production of Man of La Mancha with accompanying educational activities. Artistic director of Court Theater, Charles Newell, will adapt and direct the classical musical theater work, with book by Dale Wasserman, music by Mitch Leigh, and lyrics by Joe Darion.

Coterie, Inc. (aka Coterie Theatre)
Kansas City, MO
$25,000
To support the premiere of a musical adapted from two literary works. Artistic director Jeff Church will direct Twice Upon a Time: The Lorax and The Emperor adapted by lyricist Lynn Ahrens and composer Stephen Flaherty from the writings of Dr. Seuss and Hans Christian Anderson.

Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati
Cincinnati, OH
$20,000
To support the development, workshop, and production of a new musical. Producing artistic director D. Lynn Meyers will direct Orphan Train by Obie and Outer Critics' Circle award-winning playwright and composer Mary Murfitt.

Goshen Community Theatre, Inc. (aka Goshen Community Theatre)
Torrington, WY
$8,000
To support the production of a classical musical with accompanying outreach activities. The Music Man (1957) with book, music, and lyrics by Meredith Wilson will be performed at the Eastern Wyoming College of Fine Arts Auditorium.

National Alliance for Musical Theatre, Inc.
New York, NY
$40,000
To support the 19th annual Festival of New Musicals. The festival will showcase approximately 15 to 20 new musicals for an invited audience of producers and musical theater professionals in conjunction with the national membership conference in September 2007.

National Music Theater Network, Inc. (aka New York Musical Theatre Festival)
New York, NY
$15,000
To support The New York Musical Theatre Festival. The project provides an annual launching pad for emerging composers, lyricists, producers, and performers with commissions, productions, artistic collaborations, educational seminars, and a master class series. 

North Shore Community Arts Foundation, Inc. (aka North Shore Music Theatre)
Beverly, MA
$40,000
To support the production of Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. Al Kasha and Joel Hirschhorn will create new songs for the 1982 musical with book by Lawrence Kasha and David Landay, lyrics by Johnny Mercer, and music by Gene de Paul.  

Paper Mill Playhouse
Millburn, NJ
$15,000
To support the revision and workshop production of a musical. Stafford Arima will direct Bar Mitzvah Boy, a musical based on Jack Rosenthal's award-winning teleplay and musical by librettist/lyricist Don Black and composer Jule Styne.

Penumbra Theatre Company, Inc.
St. Paul, MN
$25,000
To support the production of a musical with accompanying educational and outreach activities. Artistic director Lou Bellamy will direct Get Ready by Jaye T. Stewart and Joe Plummer.  The musical portrays the lives of six musicians who step back into the limelight after having battled racism and poverty during their long musical careers. 

Pittsburgh Public Theater Corporation (aka Pittsburgh Public Theater)
Pittsburgh, PA
$25,000
To support the development and world premiere of The Glorious Ones with text by Lynn Ahrens and music by Stephen Flaherty.  This new musical is adapted from the Francine Prose novel about a roving troupe of Italian commedia dell'arte actors.

Primary Stages Company, Inc. (aka Primary Stages)
New York, NY
$15,000
To support the New York premiere of a new musical, Adrift in Macao with book and lyrics by Christopher Durang and music by Peter Melnick. A musical parody of the film noir genre, the musical follows the story of six characters stranded in a Casablanca-like locale in the Far East.

Roundabout Theatre Company, Inc.
New York, NY
$50,000
To support the revival of a classic American musical, 110 in the Shade by composer Harvey Schmidt and lyricist Tom Jones.  The musical is adapted from Richard Nash's play The Rainmaker and will be directed by Lonny Price.

San Francisco Mime Troupe, Inc.
San Francisco, CA
$20,000
To support the creation and tour of a new musical theater work. Melt Down (working title) will tour in Bay Area parks and to rural communities in northern and central California.

San Jose Children's Musical Theater (aka Children's Musical Theater San Jose)
San Jose, CA
$15,000
To support the training of young artists, workshops, and the production of a musical. Young performers will receive introductory training with professional theater artists and perform in a presentation of the musical Evita with lyrics by Tim Rice and music by Andrew Lloyd Webber.

Signature Theatre, Inc.
Arlington, VA
$40,000
To support the world premiere production of a contemporary musical with outreach and educational activities. Saving Aimee, by composers David Pomeranz and David Friedman and librettist/lyricist Kathie Lee Gifford with orchestrations by Jonathan Tunick, depicts the life of the controversial preacher Aimee Semple McPherson.

Southern Utah University
Cedar City, UT
$10,000
To support the production of a new musical adapted from a play with accompanying outreach activities. Lyricist Peter Sham and composer Brad Carroll's Lend Me a Tenor: The Musical was adapted from acclaimed playwright Ken Ludwig's play Lend Me A Tenor.

Thalia Spanish Theatre Inc.
Sunnyside, NY
$15,000
To support the world premiere of The Four Tango Seasons/Las Cuatro Tango Estaciones. Artistic director Angel Gil Orrios will direct with original music composed and performed by Raul Jaurena to be performed with Argentinean pianist Octavio Brunetti and Quinteto Sinopus, a string quartet from Uruguay.

TheatreWorks
Palo Alto, CA
$25,000
To support the 6th annual New Works Festival. Director Kent Nicholson will produce the cornerstone program of the New Works Initiative with two weeks of readings, workshops, and performances.

Unicorn Theatre
Kansas City, MO
$15,000
To support the development, residency workshop, staged readings, and full production of a contemporary musical. Playwright Greg Coffin will collaborate with producing artistic director Cynthia Levin and resident music director Anthony Edwards to develop the book, music, and lyrics for 360 Degrees (working title), a work about the course of human relationships in a culture of isolation.

Unity Theatre Ensemble
Florissant, MO
$10,000
Artistic director/dramaturge Ralph E. Greene and composer/arranger John Selders will create a musical adapted from books in the Sweet Pickles series by Jacquelyn Reinach and Richart Hefter.  The series taught lessons about character-building through examples of constructive and destructive personality traits.

Village Theatre
Issaquah, WA
$10,000
To support a new musical festival with accompanying panels, forums, staged readings of new musicals, and audience talk-backs. The 2007 Festival of New Musicals will include a full week of performances, exploration, and celebration of the creative process.

Washington Drama Society, Inc. (aka Arena Stage)
Washington, DC
$40,000
To support the production of a new musical adapted from a literary work with accompanying educational and outreach activities.  Arena Stage artistic director Molly Smith will direct The Women of Brewster Place adapted from Gloria Naylor's novel of the same name by playwright and composer Tim Acito.

Western Stage Auxiliary Corporation (aka The Western Stage)
Salinas, CA
$20,000
To support the development and production of a new musical. Artistic director Jon Patrick Selover will direct La Llorona/The Weeping Woman-a Mexican Musical Novela by composer/lyricist/author Hector Armienta.

York Theatre Company, Inc.
New York, NY
$15,000
To support the development of new musicals. The annual Developmental Reading series will feature more than 40 readings of new musicals offered free of charge to composers, lyricists, and the general public.

Young at Heart Chorus, Incorporated (aka Young at Heart Chorus)
Northampton, MA
$28,000
To support the development, residencies, and production of a new musical work with accompanying educational and outreach activities. The Mighty Methuselahs are Alive and Well explores the resilience of elders, and will be performed by an ensemble of senior artists.

National Endowment for the Arts · an independent federal agency
1100 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20506