Writers Theatre Receives NEA Grant

The National Endowment for the Arts today announced awards totaling more than $27.6 million in its first funding round of fiscal year 2016, including an Art Works award of $20,000 to Writers Theatre to sponsor Tom Stoppard's Arcadia, the inaugural production in the new theatre center designed by internationally renowned Studio Gang Architects led by Founder and Design Principal Jeanne Gang,

The Art Works category supports the creation of work and presentation of both new and existing work, lifelong learning in the arts, and public engagement with the arts through 13 arts disciplines or fields. In its first 50 years, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) awarded more than $5 billion in grants to recipients in every state and U.S. jurisdiction, the only arts funder in the nation to do so.

NEA Chairman Jane Chu said, "The arts are part of our everyday lives - no matter who you are or where you live - they have the power to transform individuals, spark economic vibrancy in communities, and transcend the boundaries across diverse sectors of society. Supporting projects like the one from Writers Theatre offers more opportunities to engage in the arts every day."

"I cannot think of a more appropriate way to celebrate our history and herald our future at this critical moment, as we launch the first production in our stunning new theatre center than with Tom Stoppard's magnificent play, Arcadia," said Writers Theatre Artistic Director Michael Halberstam. "Drawing a breathtaking parallel between past and present, the play demonstrates how one event can lead to another, and, yet, by unfolding the events of two time periods almost simultaneously, it articulates, in poetic breadth and scientific depth, how unavoidably connected we are to our history and each other. We are honored to receive an Art Works Grant in support of Arcadia, and thank the NEA for its recognition of the seminal moment that this thrilling opening production represents for Writers Theatre."

Arcadia by Tom Stoppard, directed by Michael Halberstam, will play March 16-April 24, 2016 in the Alexandra C. and John D. Nichols Theatre in the new theatre center, 325 Tudor Court in Glencoe. Part detective story and part comedy of manners, Tom Stoppard's elegant, time-jumping masterpiece forges a complex comedy of wit, romance, poetry, sex and scientific theory, introducing characters whose lives and passions intersect across the centuries.

Directed by Artistic Director Michael Halberstam, who previously helmed WT's hit productions of Stoppard's The Real Thing and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Arcadia serves as an ideal first production in Writers Theatre's new home.

To join the Twitter conversation about this announcement, please use #NEAFall15. For more information on projects included in the NEA grant announcement, go to arts.gov