NNPN Awards Actor's Express with Producer Residency for Clifton Guterman

At its 2015 Annual Conference, the National New Play Network (NNPN) announced its 2015-2016 grant recipients with over $125,000 in awards, including awarding Atlanta theater maker Clifton Guterman a Producer Residency at Actor's Express.

NNPN is the country's alliance of nonprofit theaters that champions the development, production, and continued life, of new plays of which Actor's Express is a founding core member. The Producer in Residence program aims to revolutionize the way theaters support new plays by educating new leaders about collaboration, training early-career producers about successful models, and providing connections to alternative networks.

According to AE Artistic Director Freddie Ashley, "Clifton is the perfect person to join AE in this capacity. He has a long history with the theatre and is deeply invested, but is increasingly interested in producing and creating theatre in different ways. Given that AE played an influential role in Clifton's early acting career, we are delighted to do so again with his more recent interest in producing and administration."

Clifton Guterman is an Atlanta performer, casting director, instructor and theatre administration devotee. He has acted off-Broadway, at numerous regional and local theatres and in numerous films, television shows and commercials. Clifton formerly served as the Alliance Theatre's Artistic Assistant and was Casting Director at Actor's Express, where he currently is an Associate Artist, teaching artist and advocate. Currently, he holds the position of Executive Associate, Casting Director and Artistic Associate at Theatrical Outfit, Atlanta's second oldest continually operating professional theatre company. Clifton's auditioning and industry workshops have been featured at American College Theatre Festival, Southeastern Theatre Conference and Georgia Thespian Conference. He is a proud member of Actors' Equity Association, a member of the Atlanta Actors' Equity Liaison Committee and holds a BA in Drama from the University of Georgia and an MFA in Performing Arts from the Savannah College of Art and Design. Clifton is originally from tiny Iron City, GA. He and his husband, Chad, live in Atlanta's Grant Park and are obsessed with their two Schnauzers.

National New Play Network (NNPN) is the country's alliance of non-profit professional theaters that champions the development, production, and continued life of new plays. Since its founding in 1998, NNPN supported over 150 productions nationwide through its innovative NNPN Rolling World Premieres program. In addition to The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, NNPN receives support from individuals and the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, the Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust, the Shubert Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, Venturous Theater Fund of the Tides Foundation, and The Community Foundation for the National Capital Region. The Network is comprised of 29 Core Members, who pioneer and implement collaborative new play strategies, and a growing group of Associate Members, who disseminate the Network's programs and strategies nationwide. nnpn.org

Since Actor's Express' founding in 1988, we have sought to nurture the next generation of playwrights through workshops, readings, and full productions of new plays; to develop and nurture Atlanta's artistic community through theatre training; to catalyze the dialogue essential to the vitality of our neighborhood and our city; and to enhance Atlanta's reputation nationally as a thriving center for live performance.

Actor's Express is located on the west side of Atlanta in the King Plow Arts Center at 887 W. Marietta Street, Suite J-107, Atlanta, Georgia 30318.