Dana Gioia News

The USC Annenberg School for Communication and the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) announced today that applications are now being accepted for the fifth annual Arts Journalism Institute in Theater and Musical Theater. The institute, which will take place April 14-24, 2009, is an 11-day intensive workshop in theater and musical theater for writers, editors, and broadcast and online producers from the 50 states and Puerto Rico. Institute applications are due January 23, 2009. 'In good times and bad, theater is an art form that has always been important to Americans,' said Geneva Overholser, director of USC Annenberg's School of Journalism. 'For journalists, theater provides a view of people's social, political, economic, and psychological concerns that can sometimes be more truthful and illuminating than real stories and hard news. Arts journalism is vital to the whole picture.' 'Arts journalists are facing challenging times as are newspapers nationwide,' said NEA Chairman Dana Gioia. 'Our theater journalism institute offers these writers a chance to step away from their newsrooms and busy freelancing lives to focus on the reasons they originally became arts journalists. That is, a love for writing and a passionate commitment to the arts.'

There has always been a lopsided balance when it comes to attendance regarding muscials versus straight plays, but in recent times the scale has dipped even sharper in favor of the musical production. At many of Broadway's most glowingly reviewed plays you'll find many an empty seat. A new report on the state of non-profit theatres nationwide sheds a bit of light on the topic while giving a very detailed report on the industry as well.

The Lark Play Development Center was one of five theaters selected for the first-ever NEA Distinguished New Play Development Project. Each theater receives $20,000 to support early development activities for a new play which the Lark will be using to implement a national, multi-theater development strategy for Aditi Brennan Kapil's AGNES UNDER THE BIG TOP, A FAIRY TALE.

The Lark Play Development Center was one of five theaters selected for the first-ever NEA Distinguished New Play Development Project. Each theater receives $20,000 to support early development activities for a new play which the Lark will be using to implement a national, multi-theater development strategy for Aditi Brennan Kapil's AGNES UNDER THE BIG TOP, A FAIRY TALE.

Center Theatre Group announced today that one of its new plays has been chosen by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) as one of the inaugural selections in the NEA New Play Development Program.

The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) has announced that The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey's acclaimed educational touring company, Shakespeare Live!, has been selected, for the third consecutive year, to participate in their acclaimed initiative Shakespeare in American Communities: Shakespeare For a New Generation

On November 21st, Steve Ross, Maude Maggart and others will be featured in Funny Money, the latest edition of the Thalia Follies

John Lithgow and Cynthia Nixon will join luminaries from other arts fields in The Book That Changed My Life, an October 22nd 12-hour marathon at Symphony Space

VERSE THEATER MANHATTAN, RICHARD RYAN, Executive Director, is please to announce the 20th Anniversary production of 'VKTMS' by Beat poet MICHAEL McCLURE.

A contemporary rendering of the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice

Performances begin Thursday, March 10th at 8:00 pm with an opening scheduled for Saturday, March 12th at 8:00 pm.