Soho Rep Receives $200,000 Grant, Postpones ORANGE, HAT & GRACE

Off-Broadway's eleven-time Obie Award-winning Soho Rep (46 Walker Street) is the recipient of a grant in the amount of $200,000 from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to help support the work of the company over the next several seasons; it has been announced by Soho Rep Artistic Director Sarah Benson.

"We are so thrilled and grateful to have the amazing partnership of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. This support will go directly to furthering and strengthening Soho Rep's work for many seasons to come," said Artistic Director, Sarah Benson.

In additional news, the previously announced World-Premiere of ORANGE, HAT &GRACE by Gregory Moss, will be postponed until next season due to creative team availability with new dates in the early fall. Soho Rep. opened its 2009-2010 season with the much-talked-about, twice extended production of Young Jean Lee's LEAR, which ended its extended run Sunday, February 14. Later this season comes the U.S. Premiere of THE TRUTH: A TRAGEDY written and performed by Cynthia Hopkins, and directed by DJ Mendel from May 6 through May 30. This is Hopkins' first production since her recently completed trilogy at St Ann's Warehouse. Soho Rep's Writer/Director Lab, now in its twelfth season will begin in April with weekly presentations at the theater of new plays. Next season will bring the World-Premiere of Gregory Moss' ORANGE, HAT &GRACE, which will be directed by Soho Rep Artistic Director Sarah Benson. Announcement of additional productions for next season is forthcoming.

Soho Rep. also recently announced the creation of FEED, its new humanities program to accompany all main stage productions. Through this exciting new initiative, audiences are treated to provocative and informative events, dialogues, discussions and panels to illuminate and inspire. The aim of FEED is to make the experience of seeing a play at Soho Rep. all-the-more engaging by pairing wonderful artists with exciting thinkers. All FEED events are free.

Now in its 34th year, Soho Rep.'s 2009-10 season is the third under the leadership of Artistic Director, Sarah Benson, and the second for Executive Director, Tania Camargo. Soho Rep. is dedicated to cultivating and producing visionary, uncompromising, and exuberant new plays. They perform to one of the youngest adult audiences in New York City, with over three-quarters of its audience aged 18-40.

Critics continue to herald Soho Rep as the go-to theatre destination for new and original works. New York Magazine states, "this indispensable theater offers more excitement per chair than any space in town," Time Out New York says, "Soho Rep is the best theater in NYC (official)," Variety exclaims "[Soho Rep] has claimed an increasingly vital spot...the venue has suddenly become one to watch for Manhattan theatergoers starved for new work," and the New York Times declares Soho Rep to be "the downtown powerhouse."

Over the last decade, Soho Rep productions have garnered eleven OBIE Awards -- most recently for Sarah Benson (director) and Louisa Thompson (set designer) for last season's critically acclaimed New York premiere of Sarah Kane's BLASTED; six Drama Desk nominations, two for BLASTED (Outstanding Director of a Play - Sarah Benson and Outstanding Actor in a Play - Reed Birney) and four for their critically acclaimed production of FRANKENSTEIN, the Oppenheimer Award for EVERYTHING WILL BE DIFFERENT, and two Kesselring Awards for Melissa James Gibson and Mark Schultz. In recent years, Soho Rep has presented plays by established and emerging theatre artists such as Richard Maxwell, Mac Wellman, Young Jean Lee and The Flying Machine.

The mission of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation is to award grants in six core program areas: Higher Education and Scholarship; Scholarly Communications; Research in Information Technology; Museums and Art Conservation; Performing Arts; and Conservation and the Environment. Within each of these core programs, the Foundation concentrates most of its grantmaking in a few areas. Institutions and programs receiving support are often leaders in fields of Foundation activity, but they may also be promising newcomers, or in a position to demonstrate new ways of overcoming obstacles to achieve program goals. The Foundation's grantmaking philosophy is to build, strengthen and sustain institutions and their core capacities, rather than be a source for narrowly defined projects. The theater program within the Foundation currently seeks to fund leading theaters of all sizes that contribute to the advancement or preservation of theater as an art form and which are characterized by distinctive and ambitious artistic programming, a commitment to artists, intellectual relevance, and the capacity to engage audiences.

For additional information about Soho Rep., call 212-941-8632 or visit www.sohorep.org.