BEDLAM Wins 2016 National Theatre Company Grant from American Theatre Wing

BEDLAM is pleased to announce that the American Theatre Wing, best known as the creator of the Antoinette Perry "Tony" Awards, is awarding the Company with one of the 2016 National Theatre Company grants.

Created by American Theatre Wing to recognize and support the most promising emerging theatre companies, the 2016 grants for Initial Support are being presented to seven companies from around the country. Companies chosen to receive the grants have articulated a distinctive mission, cultivated an audience, and nurtured a community of artists in ways that strengthen and demonstrate the quality, diversity, and dynamism of American theatre.

This year marked the implementation of new guidelines, creating Second-Time Support grants which are being presented to 5 companies. These grants for the 2016 will be distributed for general operating support to companies who have already received the National Theatre Company Grant in grant cycles occurring between 2010 and 2015. It is the American Theatre Wing's hope to provide additional support for companies who plan to advance their work in a significant way and have a strategic goal to build the organization's capacity to continue to innovate and create a more dynamic American Theatre and have described an actionable plan to achieve that goal.

More information about the National Theatre Company grants can be found at americantheatrewing.org/program/national-theatre-co-grants.

BEDLAM's is currently represented by the sold-out, award-winning and critically acclaimed production of SENSE & SENSIBILITY which has played more than 200 performance at The Gym At Judson, where it began previews on January 24, 2016. BEDLAM's past critically acclaimed productions are enjoying runs across the country. Houston's Stark Naked Theatre presented the BEDLAM production of SAINT JOAN, directed by Eric Tucker from June 3 through June 18, 2016. The production was named Best Visiting Production at the Houston Theater Awards. BEDLAM returned to Boston's Central Square Theater following last season's SAINT JOAN, with director Eric Tucker's TWELFTH NIGHT and What You Will, one play, two completely different ways, with the same five actors from the original New York production, which ran from June 9 through July 10, 2016. The McCarter Theater Center in Princeton, NJ has announced they will be presenting BEDLAM's HAMLET and SAINT JOAN in repertory from January 13, 2017 through February 12, 2017.

Committed to the immediacy of the relationship between the actor and the audience, BEDLAM creates works of theatre that reinvigorate traditional forms in a flexible, raw space, collapsing aesthetic distance and bringing its viewers into direct contact with the dangers and delicacies of life. In this new, fresh, active environment storytelling becomes paramount and the result is a kinetic experience of shared empathy.

The American Theatre Wing is dedicated to advancing artistic excellence and nurturing theatre's next generation: on the stage, behind the scenes, and in the audience. For nearly a century, the Wing has pursued this mission with programs that span the nation to invest in the growth and evolution of American Theatre. Traditionally, the Wing has encouraged members of the theatre community to share their off-stage time and talent directly with the theatre audience at large--whether it was singing for the troops in the Stage Door Canteen of the 1940s, or sharing their stories on a podcast today. As the founders of The Tony Awards, the American Theatre Wing has developed the foremost national platform for the recognition of theatrical achievement on Broadway. Yet the Wing's reach extends beyond Broadway and beyond New York. The American Theatre Wing is now in a long-term partnership with The Village Voice to co-present The Obie Awards, off-Broadway's Highest Honor. The Wing also develops the next generation of theatre professionals through the SpringboardNYC and Theatre Intern Network programs, incubates innovative theatre across the country through the National Theatre Company Grants, fosters the song of American theatre through the Jonathan Larson Grants, honors the best in New York theatrical design with the Henry Hewes Design Award, illuminates the creative process through the "Working in the Theatre" program and media archive. Finally, the Wing supports theatre education opportunities for underserved young people and under-resourced public schools around the United States with the newly launched Andrew Lloyd Webber Initiative. Visitors to AmericanTheatreWing.org can gain inspiration and insight into the artistic process through the Wing's extensive media collection, and learn more about its programming for students, aspiring and working professionals, and audiences.