The Prince Fellowship Reveals 2023 Fellows

The Prince Fellowship, in association with Columbia University School of the Arts, has revealed that Maxwell Beer has received The Prince Fellowship and Amy Marie Haven has received the Prince/TTLP Fellowship. The late Broadway producer and director Harold Prince created the program, originally known as the T. Fellowship, to usher in the next generation of creative producers. Selected fellows receive a stipend and a 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.

 

“Max’s experience in the business has been dynamic and comprehensive and we look forward to seeing how that experience translates to the theatrical community,” said Prince Fellowship mentor Kristin Caskey. “His enthusiasm and focused ambition will make him a great Fellow and help him build a long career as a creative producer”.

               

"We are excited to welcome Amy Marie Haven into our Creative Producer program,” said TTLP founders Barbara Broccoli, Lia Vollack, Travis Ballenger, Patrick Daly and Alecia Parker. “Amy Marie is a multi-faceted theater artist with a depth of experience across producing, directing, and nonprofit management. Her experience coupled with her enthusiasm and passion for creative producing will add immense value to our field for years to come.  As we celebrate another year in partnership with The Prince Fellowship, we are proud that over the last three years we've been able to collectively put our resources behind three Black female Creative Producers. We hope this is just the beginning of change we envision for our entire field.” 

 

Additional support for The Prince Fellowship is generously provided by The John Gore Organization.

 

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.

 

The Prince Fellowship also utilizes an expanded advisory group of industry specialists who serve as additional resources for the fellows, by sharing their expertise and perspective and complementing the existing mentorship and academic curriculum. 

 

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

 

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.

 

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).

 

The Prince/TTLP Fellow is funded through its partnership with The Theatre Leadership Project (TTLP), a nonprofit working to install Black leadership in commercial theatre through three-year, paid fellowships. TTLP founding members are producers Barbara Broccoli, Lia Vollack, Alecia Parker, Patrick Daly and Travis Ballenger.

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.

 

Maxwell Beer (Prince Fellow)

Maxwell Beer is currently the Associate Producer at Hendel Productions. In 2021, Max co-executive produced the GRAMMY-nominated world premiere cast recording of Burt Bacharach and Steven Sater's Some Lovers and served as the Producing Associate and Writer's Assistant on the Off-Broadway musical A Commercial Jingle for Regina Comet. Some of Max's upcoming producing projects include Cellino v. Barnes and Marcel on the Train. Max is also a composer in the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop and holds a BS in Theatre from Northwestern University. 

 

AMY MARIE HAVEN (Prince/TTLP Fellow)

Acclaimed producer and director Amy Marie Haven (she/her) currently serves as Creative Development Manager for global producer Michael Cassel Group after being awarded the Black Theatre Coalition's Producing Fellowship on Broadway's The Music Man sponsored by Hugh Jackman and Deborra-Lee Furness. Amy Marie is a member of the Shubert Artistic Circle, co-founded and serves as board president forTomorrow Youth Repertory, has held artistic leadership positions at Throckmorton Theatre, Oakland School for the Arts, and African-American Shakespeare, holding international experience spanning Australia, Mexico and Honduras. amymariehaven.com. IG: @werenotstrangersseries

 

ABOUT THE THEATRE PROGRAM AT COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF THE ARTS

 

The MFA Theatre Program at Columbia University School of the Arts is international, collaborative and interdisciplinary. Named in honor of Oscar Hammerstein II, it is defined by its location in New York City, a global capital of theatre, and by the extensive network of Columbia alumni and faculty who run prestigious Broadway, Off‐Broadway and regional theatres; direct and perform in Tony‐ and other award‐winning productions; work in every level of the professional theatre world; and teach, mentor and engage with students on an ongoing basis. 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 acquire disciplines rooted deeply in the classics while branching out into new forms and exploring the cutting edge of theatrical art. The best theatre in every culture and in all eras has not only reflected its time but also shaped its society and often helped point it toward the future. The 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, Victoria Bailey, Anne Bogart, James Calleri, Steven Chaikelson, Peter Jay Fernandez, David Henry Hwang, Brian Kulick, Lynn Nottage, Christian Parker, and Michael Passaro.   Visit arts.columbia.edu/theatre 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 and maintains a strong commitment to undergraduate education in the arts by offering majors in Creative Writing, Film and Media Studies, and Visual Arts that lead to Bachelor of the Arts, awarded by Columbia College and the School of General Studies. The School is a thriving, diverse community of talented, visionary and Committed Artists from around the world and a faculty comprised of acclaimed and internationally renowned artists, film and theatre directors, writers of poetry, fiction and nonfiction, playwrights, producers, critics and scholars. 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 Black 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 Black 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. For more information about TTLP, visit www.theatreleadershipproject.org

 

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.

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