Applications Now Open for 2023 Prince Fellowship

The Prince Fellowship, in association with Columbia University School of the Arts, announced that applications are now open for the 2023 Fellowship program. The Prince Fellowship, formerly known as The T. Fellowship, was renamed in 2021 to honor the extraordinary work of producer, director and T. Fellowship founder Harold Prince. Prince created the program to usher in the next generation of creative producers. Selected fellows receive a stipend of $10,000, a $20,000 budget for the development of a new theatrical production, access to courses in Columbia's MFA Theatre Management & Producing Program, and mentorship from prominent producers and industry specialists.

Applications are open April 10 through May 21 . Prospective applicants are encouraged to join for an informational Webinar at 6PM EST on Monday, May 1.

The Prince Fellowship expects to award two fellowships this year, one of which will be funded through its continued partnership with The Theatre Leadership Project (TTLP), a nonprofit working to support BIPOC leadership in commercial theatre through paid fellowships.

The current Prince Fellowship Mentors are Kristin Caskey, Sue Frost, Tom Schumacher, Jeffrey Seller and David Stone. The program is managed by Columbia University School of the Arts.

Fellows also have access to an advisory group of industry specialists who share their expertise and perspective and complement the mentorship and academic curriculum. The Advisors group includes Victoria Bailey, Christopher Burney, Lisa Dawn Cave, Nina Essman, Kamilah Forbes, Robert Fried, Colleen Jennings-Roggensack, Brian Moreland, Julio Peterson, Natasha Sinha, Donna Walker-Kuhne, Schele Williams, and Kumiko Yoshii.

The Fellowship was founded in 2005. Shortly thereafter, Orin Wolf and John Pinkard were awarded the first two T. Fellowships in 2006, followed by Aaron Glick (2013), Jen Hoguet (2015), Christopher Maring (2016), Allison Bressi (2017), Rachel Sussman (2018), Ben Holtzman (2019), Osh Ghanimah (2021), Lawryn LaCroix (2021), Jamila Ponton Bragg (2022) and Cynthia Dorsey (2022).

All past Fellows are currently producing theater at the highest levels and include Tony Award and Olivier Award-winners. Many of their projects will debut around the world this theatrical season and several productions developed by this cohort are currently Broadway bound.

The 2023 Prince Fellowship year will run from September 2023 through August 2024. Prospective applicants can visit https://princefellowship.com/apply/ for more information about the program and the upcoming Webinar. For more information about TTLP, visit www.theatreleadershipproject.org.

The Prince Fellowship is managed by Co-Directors Orin Wolf (President of NETworks Presentations), Steven Chaikelson (Head of the MFA Theatre Management & Producing Program at the Columbia University School of the Arts), and Aaron Glick (Producer, Former T. Fellow).

ABOUT THE PRINCE FELLOWSHIP

The goal of the Fellowship is to support the development of gifted emerging creative theatrical producers. The Prince Fellowship is committed to sustaining the finest traditions of producing by exposing new talent to the producing process in a manner that supports creative involvement. Although the environment in which theatre is produced continues to change, many of the underlying challenges and principles remain and must be understood and adapted if the art form is to thrive.

The Fellowship is a project-based program that supports the development of the chosen fellow and their project over the course of one year. Each fellow is given access to a selection of courses in the MFA Theatre Management & Producing Program at Columbia University School of the Arts. The specific courses are chosen to best support the fellow's growth. In addition, each fellow receives structured mentorship from a handful of industry leaders who specialize in creative producing and related fields. The goal is to provide consistent mentorship tailored to the needs of the individual fellow. Through these academic and professional support systems, the program aims to empower the fellows as they begin exercising their new skills in all the creative and business areas of development.

The philosophy is that which is good for the art form is good for business. The Fellowship emphasizes that the creative producer's role is to be the instigator, the collaborator, and the leader who gets art on the stage and to the public. The program neither wishes to turn back the clock to 1950 nor settle for the status quo. The Prince Fellowship is looking to empower new producers to reinvent the wheel themselves, on their own terms.

HISTORY

The original T. Fellowship grew out of an idea that T. Edward Hambleton first had in the mid-1990s. He imagined a program that would help foster a new generation of creative theatrical producers who would stand apart from those who were strictly financiers. He worked with Harold Prince, the late Geraldine Stutz, Ed Wilson and the Theater Development Fund and the idea for the fellowship took shape.

The Founders believed the program would be best served under the umbrella of one of New York's top level educational institutions and approached Columbia University. The University, through Gregory Mosher at the Columbia Arts Initiative and Steven Chaikelson in the Theatre Program at Columbia University School of the Arts, who further developed the vision and structure for the fellowship, provides the Fellows access to the extraordinary academic and cross-disciplinary strengths that Columbia University offers.

MENTORS AND ADVISORS

The Prince Fellowship resides in the Theatre Program at Columbia University School of the Arts. A Committee of Mentors and Advisors, including working theater professionals and members of the Theatre Management & Producing faculty, guide the activities of the Fellowship. The committee members select the Fellows and make themselves available to the Fellows on a one‐on‐one basis; additionally, they are a resource to the broader Columbia student population through participation in seminars and panel discussions.

ABOUT Harold Prince

Harold Prince directed the original productions of She Loves Me, It's a Bird...Superman, Cabaret, Zorba, Company, Follies, A Little Night Music, Pacific Overtures, On the Twentieth Century, Sweeney Todd, Evita, Merrily We Roll Along, The Phantom of the Opera, Kiss of the Spider Woman, Parade, and LoveMusik. He has also directed acclaimed revivals of Candide and Show Boat. Before becoming a director, Mr. Prince produced the original productions of The Pajama Game, Damn Yankees, New Girl in Town, West Side Story, Fiorello!, Tenderloin, Flora the Red Menace, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, and Fiddler on the Roof. Among the plays he has directed are Hollywood Arms, The Visit, The Great God Brown, End of the World, Play Memory, and his own play, Grandchild of Kings. His opera productions have been seen at Lyric Opera of Chicago, the Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Dallas Opera, Vienna Staatsoper and the Theater Colon in Buenos Aires. His most recent version of Candide was seen at New York City Opera in January of 2017. Prince of Broadway, a musical compendium of Mr. Prince's entire career, opened on Broadway in August of 2017. Mr. Prince was a trustee for the New York Public Library and instrumental in developing the Theatre On Film and Tape collection for the Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center. He previously served on the National Council on the Arts for the NEA. Mr. Prince was an Officier in the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, given to him by the French government in 2008. He is the recipient of 21 Tony Awards, a Kennedy Center Honor, and the Eugene O'Neill Theatre Center's Monte Cristo Award. Mr. Prince was inducted into the Lincoln Center Hall of Fame as a part of their inaugural class and received a National Medal of the Arts from President Clinton for a career in which "he changed the nature of the American musical."

ABOUT T. Edward Hambleton

T. Edward Hambleton founded The Phoenix Theatre with Norris Houghton in 1953, making it an early force in the Off‐Broadway movement. After 29 consecutive New York seasons and 164 productions as managing director, T. Edward continued the Phoenix commitment by presenting challenging new productions of high artistic quality and assisting emerging playwrights. During its long and distinguished history, the Phoenix presented new works by Robert Audrey, Frank Gilroy, Arthur Kopit, James Saunders, LaTouche and Moross while at the same time offering fresh productions of Shakespeare, Shaw, Pirandello, Brecht, O'Neill, Ionesco, Fry, O'Casey, Sherwood, Gorky, Marlowe, Kaufman and Hart, Sartre, Molière, Miller and Williams, under such directors as Tyrone Guthrie, John Houseman, Ellis Rabb, Gordon Davidson, Hal Prince and Gene Saks with actors including Helen Hayes, Irene Worth, Cynthia Harris, Meryl Streep, Eva Le Gallienne, Jimmy Stewart, Nancy Walker and Carol Burnett. After 1976, the Phoenix concentrated on new plays and the nurturing of new playwrights through its Commission Program. The fruits of these labors include Wendy Wasserstein's Uncommon Women and Others and Isn't It Romantic; David Berry's G. R. Point; Marsha Norman's Getting Out; Ron Hutchinson's Says I, Says He; Peter Handke's A Sorrow Beyond Dreams; and Mustapha Matura's Meetings. Hambleton served as a member of the Board of Directors of Center Stage in Baltimore, Maryland, and as a member of the Board of Governors of the League of American Theatres and Producers. He received a Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre in 2000. In 2001, he was added to the Theatre Hall of Fame.

About the Theatre MFA Program at Columbia University School of the Arts

Columbia University's MFA Theatre Program is collaborative, international, and interdisciplinary. It defines itself by its location in New York City and thrives on the extensive network of Columbia alumni and faculty who work in prestigious theatres at every level, who direct and perform in award-winning productions, and who engage with our students far beyond the classroom. The Theatre MFA programs in Acting, Directing, Playwriting, Dramaturgy, Stage Management, and Theatre Management & Producing seek students who have the talent, vision, and commitment to become exceptional artists. At the School of the Arts, students interact with the leading creators, practitioners, producers, and analysts of today's theatre, acquiring rigorous training rooted deeply in the classics, while exploring new forms and the cutting edge of theatrical art. The best theatre across all times and cultures has not only reflected, but has also shaped its society. At its best, theatre helps point society to its best future. Columbia's MFA Theatre Program aims to train theatre artists to fulfill that important role in today's society. Among the program's leading faculty are Leslie Ayvazian, Anne Bogart, James Calleri, Steven Chaikelson, Peter Jay Fernandez, Liz Hayes, David Henry Hwang, Maria José Contreras Lorenzini, Brian Kulick, David Klass, Sita Mani, Lynn Nottage, Christian Parker, Michael Passaro, Blair Singer, Lance Weiler, Scott Whitehurst, and W.B. Worthen. Visit arts.columbia.edu/theatre-arts for more information.

About Columbia University School of the Arts

Columbia University School of the Arts awards the Master of Fine Arts degree in Film, Theatre, Visual Arts, and Writing and the Master of Arts degree in Film and Media Studies; it also offers an interdisciplinary program in Sound Art. The School is a thriving, diverse community of talented artists from around the world and a faculty composed of internationally acclaimed artists, film and theatre directors, writers of poetry, fiction and nonfiction, playwrights, producers, critics, and scholars. In 2015, the School marked the 50th Anniversary of its founding. For more information, visit arts.columbia.edu.

ABOUT THE THEATRE LEADERSHIP PROJECT

Founded in 2020, The Theatre Leadership Project works to counteract the systematic exclusion of BIPOC professionals in the theatre industry by creating pathways to employment at the highest levels. TTLP partners with entertainment and key organizations to fund and manage fellowship programs working to advance BIPOC commercial theatre leaders. The TTLP advisory council includes Whoopi Goldberg, John Gore, Kamilah Forbes, Whitney White, Aaliytha Stevens, Brian Moreland, Robert Fried, Stefan Schick and Olivier Sultan.

The Theatre Leadership Project is a fund of the Entertainment Industry Foundation (EIF), a Charity Navigator 4 Star Charity that meets all 20 Better Business Bureau charity standards and carries the GuideStar Platinum Seal of Transparency.