Eugene O'Neill Theatre Center Wins Grant from National Endowment for the Arts

Preston Whiteway, Executive Director of the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center, today announced that the National Endowment for the Arts has awarded a grant of $20,000 to support new play development at the O'Neill's National Playwrights and National Music Theater Conferences. The Eugene O'Neill Theater Center is one of 1,057 not-for-profit organizations recommended for a grant as part of the federal agency's first round of fiscal year 2011 grants. In total, the Arts Endowment will distribute $26.68 million to support projects nationwide.
 
An independent agency of the federal government, the National Endowment for the Arts advances artistic excellence, creativity, and innovation for the benefit of individuals and communities. NEA Chairman Rocco Landesman said, "I continue to be impressed with the creative, innovative, and excellent projects brought forward by arts organizations across the country. Our grantees are not only furthering their art forms but also enhancing their neighborhoods by making them more vibrant, livable, and fun." 
"I am most grateful to the National Endowment for the Arts for its vital support," remarked Mr. Whiteway, "This grant will be used to help underwrite the National Playwrights and National Music Theater Conferences, continuing to create a supportive environment for the development of major new plays and musicals by emerging artists, who will go on to make important contributions to the American theater canon."
 
The National Playwrights Conference was established in 1964.  Through an open submissions process, playwrights are selected for a month-long residency, during which they develop their newest work in collaboration with outstanding theater professionals.  The writers are encouraged to take risk while allowing their creative sensibilities to emerge in a collaborative process that responds to the individual needs of each artist.  The O'Neill is home to both emerging and established artists.  Notable alumni include August Wilson; John Patrick Shanley; Nilo Cruz; Wendy Wasserstein; Adam Rapp; Gina Gionfriddo; John Guare; David Henry Hwang Adam Bock and hundreds more.
 
The National Music Theater Conference was established in 1978 and offers a residency to selected composers, librettists, and lyricists, chosen through the open submission process.  The National Music Theater Conference runs concurrently with the National Playwrights Conference allowing artists the opportunity to share work and learn from each other's creative process.  Notable works developed at the National Music Theater Conference include: Nine (1979, Winner 1981 Best Musical Tony Award and now a major motion picture); Avenue Q (2002, Winner 2004 Best Musical Tony Award); In the Heights (2005, Winner 2008 Best Musical Tony Award).   
 
The Eugene O'Neill Theater Center, founded in 1964 in honor of Eugene O'Neill, four-time Pulitzer Prize Winner and America's only playwright to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, is the recipient of two Tony Awards, in 2010 for Regional Theatre, and in 1979 for Theatrical Excellence.
 
The O'Neill is the country's preeminent organization dedicated to the development of new works and new voices for the American theater.  It has been home to more than 1,000 new works for the stage and to more than 2,500 emerging artists. Scores of projects developed at the O'Neill have gone on to full production at other theaters around the world, including Broadway, Off-Broadway, and major regional theaters.
 
O'Neill programs include the National Playwrights Conference, National Music Theater Conference, National Critics Institute, National Puppetry Conference, Cabaret & Performance Conference, and National Theater Institute which conducts semester-long intensive theater training programs and Theatermakers, a six-week summer program; academic credits are awarded for all NTI programs.
 
In addition, the O'Neill owns and operates the Monte Cristo Cottage as a museum open to the public. Childhood summer home of Eugene O'Neill, the Cottage is a National Historic Landmark.
 
It addition to its Tony recognition, the O'Neill has received the National Opera Award, the Jujamcyn Award for Theatre Excellence, and the Arts and Business Council Encore Award. For more information, visit www.theoneill.org or email theaterlives@theoneill.org
 
The National Endowment for the Arts was established by Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government that has awarded more than $4 billion on projects of artistic excellence, creativity, and innovation for the benefit of individuals and communities. The NEA extends its work through partnerships with state arts agencies, local leaders, other federal agencies, and the philanthropic sector.  To join the discussion on how art works, visit the National Endowment for the Arts at arts.gov.
 

 

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