2012 Grant Awards: Art Works

[ March 10, 2011 deadline ]

Artists Communities | Arts Education | Dance | Design | Folk & Traditional Arts | Literature | Local Arts Agencies | Media Arts | Museums | 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

Amas Musical Theatre
New York, NY
$40,000
To support the premiere of A Good Man, a new musical about an African American sharecropper in post-WWII Mississippi, with music by Ray Leslee, book and lyrics by Philip S. Goodman, and direction by Ruben Santiago-Hudson. Based on the novel by Jefferson Young, the production will be a part of the theatre's Lens on Live Theatre high school matinee program.

American Repertory Theatre (aka A.R.T.)
Cambridge, MA
$40,000
To support the world premiere production of Futurity: A Musical by The Lisps, an interdisciplinary musical theater project by indie rock band The Lisps, co-written by playwright Molly Rice, and directed by Sarah Benson. The piece will fuse traditional American folk music, Brechtian choral elements, and The Lisps' eccentric indie-rock to tell the story of a young Union Soldier in the Civil War who is an aspiring inventor and science fiction visionary.

Arden Theatre Company
Philadelphia, PA
$40,000
To support the world premiere of Tulipomania, a new musical by Michael Ogborn about the Dutch tulip craze of 1636, directed by Terrence J. Nolen. Inspired by an actual historical event and set in the present day, Tulipomania is a modern twist on the traditional morality play that exposes the danger of obsession and greed, featuring a contemporary score with harmonic underpinnings of 17th-century music and folk ballad forms.

City Theatre Company, Inc.
Pittsburgh, PA
$20,000
To support the development and production of POP!, a new musical about the shooting of Andy Warhol, with book and lyrics by Maggie-Kate Coleman and music by Anna K. Jacobs. The piece is a fictional rock opera murder mystery that takes place as a ""fever dream"" in which Warhol contemplates which members of his entourage could be responsible for his demise.

Civilians, Inc.
Brooklyn, NY
$25,000
To support the world premiere and touring of Paris Commune, a new play with music co-written by Steve Cosson and Michael Friedman. The piece will employ the cabaret style of 19th-century Paris to tell the story of a spontaneous popular uprising of working-class Parisians in 1871, featuring text and songs drawn from research into the cultural aspects of the revolution.

Cygnet Theatre Company
San Diego, CA
$10,000
To support a production of Parade, by Jason Robert Brown and Alfred Uhry. The musical recounts the 1913 Atlanta trial of Leo Frank in which sensational journalism obscured Frank's innocence, and explores issues of bigotry and anti-Semitism through community partnerships and forums, film screenings, book readings, and student matinees.

Georgia Shakespeare Festival, Inc.
Atlanta, GA
$10,000
To support the creation of blind.Ed, a musical retelling of the Oedipus story with hip hop, rap, and soul influences, co-created by Neal A. Ghant, Jahi Kearse, Eugene H. Russell, IV, and producing artistic director Richard Garner. Created as part of the theater's Icarus Lab Project, the piece will deconstruct the Oedipus character, and use rhythms, rap, and hip hop to explore the story in a contemporary setting.

Jubilee Players Inc. (aka Jubilee Theatre)
Fort Worth, TX
$15,000
To support the creation and performances of Black Spurs by playwright Celeste Bedford Walker and composer Ron Hasley, with direction by artistic director Tre Garrett. The new musical recounts the historical adventures of African American cowboys in Texas.

Kansas City Repertory Theatre, Inc.
Kansas City, MO
$25,000
To support the world premiere production of The Great Immensity, written and directed by Steve Cosson, with music and lyrics by Michael Friedman. The piece explores the issue of global climate change and its impact on the environment, as well as the social, political, and economic dimensions of the phenomenon.

Lookingglass Theatre Company
Chicago, IL
$70,000
To support the world premiere of Eastland, written by artistic director Andrew White, with music by Andre Pluess and Ben Sussman, and directed by Amanda Dehnert. Based on the 1915 Chicago River sinking of the Eastland excursion ship, Eastland will portray a deadly event in Chicago's history in which hundreds lost their lives, many of whom were immigrants and employees of Western Electric Company.

Milwaukee Repertory Theater, Inc. (aka The Rep)
Milwaukee, WI
$20,000
To support a musical production of Next to Normal, composed by Tom Kitt, with libretto and lyrics by Brian Yorkey, and directed by artistic director Mark Clements with accompanying community and student educational programming. The award-winning contemporary musical portrays a family grappling with depression and mental illness.

Naked Angels
New York, NY
$15,000
To support the development and world premiere of The Madam C.J. Walker Project (working title), a new musical with book by Kara Lee Corthron and music and lyrics by Justin Levine. The musical will explore the life of Madam C.J. Walker, America's first African American and first female self-made millionaire, through music with roots in blues, gospel, and R&B.

National Alliance for Musical Theatre, Inc.
New York, NY
$60,000
To support the 24th annual Festival of New Musicals and the Fall Conference. These activities bring together musical theater writers and industry professionals for staged readings, a songwriter showcase, and panels.

Northwestern University
Evanston, IL
$20,000
To support the American Music Theatre Project's In The Works initiative, a new program of workshop residencies for new musicals in development by professional creative teams. Three developmental projects will be identified by an advisory committee to receive workshop support, and will be cast with Northwestern University students and professional guest artists.

Ripe Time, Inc.
Brooklyn, NY
$15,000
To support the creation and production of The World is Round, an original piece directed by Rachel Dickstein and composed by Heather Christian, based on Gertrude Stein's little-known children's book. The piece tells the story of a young girl on a quest to climb a mountain and discover her own sense of self, and will be accompanied by live musicians playing an alternative rock score.

San Francisco Mime Troupe, Inc.
San Francisco, CA
$20,000
To support the creation, production, and Bay Area parks tour of The Last Election. The musical will tell the story of a group of corporate power brokers on Capitol Hill that plots to postpone an election to make an assault on democracy.

Seven Stages, Inc. (aka 7 Stages)
Atlanta, GA
$45,000
To support an original adaptation of Bram Stoker's 1897 novel Dracula, made accessible to modern audiences in the form of a rock opera by composer/lyricist Rob Thompson of the Little 5 Points Rockstar Orchestra and directed by artistic director Del Hamilton. The work will remain true to the structure and characters of the original novel and will incorporate pre-recorded and live video projections integrated with puppets to create Dracula's dark and magical world.

Signature Theatre, Inc.
Arlington, VA
$20,000
To support the rehearsal of a new musical, Brother Russia, by the award-winning team of Dana P. Rowe and John Dempsey, and directed by artistic director Eric Schaeffer. A Russian theater troupe performs its ramshackle adaptations of Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky for local farmers, and one night, its star, the seemingly immortal Brother Russia, enlists his fellow actors to help dramatize his own life story, the mystical saga of Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin.

SU Theatre Corporation (aka Syracuse Stage)
Syracuse, NY
$20,000
To support a production of Tony Kushner's Caroline, or Change, directed by Marcela Lorca. Set in 1963, the musical recounts a time in American history when Martin Luther King, Jr. led The March on Washington, DC, and delivered his "I have a Dream" sermon, and when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated.

Theatre of the Emerging American Moment, Inc. (aka The TEAM)
Brooklyn, NY
$20,000
To support a two-week run of Mission Drift at the Nevada Conservatory Theatre, University of Nevada-Las Vegas, a musical that uses the mythology and history of the frontier to examine American capitalism. Stories collected from a wide array of individuals working in Las Vegas recount the unsustainable growth of one of the nation's fastest-growing cities in 2000 that is now a fabled center of the housing collapse.

TheatreWorks
Palo Alto, CA
$50,000
To support the New Works Initiative for the development of new plays and musicals. Through readings, workshops, a writer's retreat, an annual "New Works Festival," and full productions of world premieres, the program supports the artistry of composers and writers and enables them to explore and create new forms of musical theater.

Vineyard Theatre & Workshop Center, Inc. (aka Vineyard Theatre)
New York, NY
$40,000
To support a developmental production of The Landing, an original piece with music by John Kander, and book and lyrics by Greg Pierce. The work will be made up of three interwoven one-acts: Andra, the story of a young boy who acquires a telescope through which he views the eponymous constellation; and The Brick, in which a film noir enthusiast becomes obsessed with owning a piece of the St. Valentine's Day Massacre.

VORTEX Repertory Company
Austin, TX
$15,000
To support the creation and presentation of The Elementals: Water, an original theatrical work with music and dance, conceived and directed by Bonnie Cullum, an original score by Chad Salvata, and choreography by Toni Bravo. Performed in a large pool of water, the new work will integrate dance and original electronic music to convey stories of water from diverse global mythologies, celebrate its beauty, and heighten awareness, reverence, and protection of this precious resource.

Youth Performance Company
Minneapolis, MN
$10,000
To support the creation and production of Echoes of Rondo, written and directed by artistic director Jacalyn Knight, composed and choreographed by Kahlil Queen, and performed by teen artists. The musical will portray young people during the 1960s' obliteration of the African American Rondo neighborhood due to the construction of Interstate 94, and the current dissemination of people in St. Paul, Minnesota, due to the construction of the Central Corridor light rail transit line.

Z Space Studio
San Francisco, CA
$30,000
To support a collaboration with composer/jazz musician Marcus Shelby and actor/director/singer Margo Hall to create Miss Black World (Michigan). The new musical performance piece, directed by Ellen Sebastian Chang, will explore the journey of a young black woman growing up in Detroit in the 60s, and will incorporate oratorio, original songs, chorals, instruments, storytelling, and movement.

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