Theatre Development Fund News

The Broadway League has awarded coveted New York Education Grants to the Broadway productions of Manhattan Theatre Club?s The American Plan, by Richard Greenberg, and to 9 to 5: The Musical. Each production receives a $5,000 grant towards its 2009 educational initiatives. The grants are important to the growth and development of theatre education and audience development in the city as they encourage theatres to create more opportunities for young people and to exchange ideas about live performance.

This one day seminar focuses on prodviding a practical approach to developing new work through readings, workshops and showcases.

March will be yet another great month on Broadway for theatre-loving kids as KIDS' NIGHT ON BROADWAY (KidsNightonBroadway.com) continues its year-round program where kids ages 6-18 can see a participating Broadway show for free when accompanied by a full-paying adult on the first Tuesday and Wednesday of every month.

Playwrights Horizons (Tim Sanford, Artistic Director; Leslie Marcus, Managing Director) begins 2009 with the New York premiere of THE SAVANNAH DISPUTATION, a new play by Evan Smith (Psych and The Uneasy Chair at Playwrights Horizons, Remedial English for the Young Playwrights Festival at Playwrights Horizons, Servicemen at The New Group). This will be Mr. Smith's fourth collaboration with the theater company.

TDF's Accessibility Programs (TAP), which have been instrumental in expanding open captioning on and Off Broadway, and regionally across the United States, announce the schedule of performances which will feature the service on Broadway this spring.Open captioning, which TDF introduced on Broadway in 1997, is more inclusive of all hard-of-hearing audiences than traditional sign language interpretation. Through open captioning, an electronic text display, placed on the side of the stage, shows what the actors are saying or singing and describes sound effects on stage in real time.To date, TAP has organized more than 350 open-captioned performances of more than 250 different Broadway, Off Broadway and regional productions.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg's effort to reduce traffic congestion in Midtown will be taking another big step as he plans to close several blocks of Broadway to vehicle traffic through Times Square and Herald Square, a project that would turn sections of the Great White Way into wide reaching pedestrian malls.

The enlarged and enhanced Father Duffy Square, featuring Theatre Development Fund's striking new TKTS booth under glowing glass steps, has just won two prestigious awards: Travel + Leisure Magazine's 2009 Design Award as 'Best Public Space,' which was announced in their March issue and just last night won a 2009 Design Award by the New York Chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIANY).

Theater News from Broadway and the Baltimore/Washington Area

This one day seminar focuses on prodviding a practical approach to developing new work through readings, workshops and showcases.

The Broadway League's 11th annual demographics report, The Demographics of the Broadway Audience 2007-2008, reveals who attends theatre in New York City. It includes highlights on the demographics of the audience and their ticket purchasing habits. The report is part of an ongoing series that profiles Broadway theatergoers each season. The comparison of current theatergoing habits to previous seasons aids in predicting trends for the future. The analysis is based on extensive survey data gleaned from audience questionnaires distributed throughout the 2007-2008 Broadway season in New York City.

Travel and Leisure Magazine just anounced their 2009 Design Awards. Among them, Theatre Development Fund's new TKTS Booth in Times Square has received the award for 'Best Public Space.' Michel Bierut, a member of the award jury stated that 'The TKTS booth invents public space where there was none before.' Perkins Eastman created an icon for the city of New York-the sculptural centerpiece of a major urban renewal project transforming Times Square. The design, based on a competition-winning concept drawing by Choi Ropiha, raises the profile of the Theatre Development Fund (TDF), which operates the booth to provide a discount outlet for tickets to Broadway and Off-Broadway shows.

Playwrights Horizons (Tim Sanford, Artistic Director; Leslie Marcus, Managing Director) continues its 2008/2009 Season with the New York premiere of THE SAVANNAH DISPUTATION, a new play by Evan Smith (Psych and The Uneasy Chair at Playwrights Horizons, Remedial English for the Young Playwrights Festival at Playwrights Horizons, Servicemen at The New Group). This will be Mr. Smith's fourth collaboration with the theater company. Directed by Tony Award winner Walter Bobbie (Chicago, New Jerusalem), in his Playwrights Horizons debut, the production will began previews on Friday, February 6, 2009 with an Opening Night set for Tuesday, March 3 at 7PM. The limited engagement will run through Sunday, March 15 at Playwrights Horizons' Mainstage Theater (416 West 42nd Street).

Dori Berinstein, three-time Tony? award-winning Broadway producer and award-winning producer, director, and writer of film and television, will be presented The Commercial Theater Institute?s Robert Whitehead Award for ?outstanding achievement in commercial theatre producing? at a reception at Sardi's Restaurant on Tuesday, March 10th.

Playwrights Horizons (Tim Sanford, Artistic Director; Leslie Marcus, Managing Director) continues its 2008/2009 Season with the New York premiere of THE SAVANNAH DISPUTATION, a new play by Evan Smith (Psych and The Uneasy Chair at Playwrights Horizons, Remedial English for the Young Playwrights Festival at Playwrights Horizons, Servicemen at The New Group). This will be Mr. Smith's fourth collaboration with the theater company.

Legendary designers WILLIAM IVEY LONG and BOB CROWLEY are among the four recipients of the 2009 TDF/Irene Sharaff Awards. Five-time Tony Award winning costume designer William Ivey Long will receive the 2009 TDF/Irene Sharaff Lifetime Achievement Award for theatrical costume design, and, for his achievements as both a costume and scenic designer, Bob Crowley (also a five-time Tony Award winner) will receive the TDF/Irene Sharaff Awards' special Robert L. B. Tobin Award for Lifetime Achievement in Theatrical Design at a ceremony on Friday, March 27, at the Hudson Theatre in New York City.

Terence Erkkila, head of Theatre Development Fund, has announced via the Tdf website that the travel arm of the organization will close in the coming weeks, Mr. Erkkila cited the current economic climate as the cause for the closure. He began the statement as such, 'We deeply regret to inform our tdf membership and our many tdf Travelers that we are closing our travel department in the next few weeks'.

March will be yet another great month on Broadway for theatre-loving kids as KIDS' NIGHT ON BROADWAY (KidsNightonBroadway.com) continues its year-round program where kids ages 6-18 can see a participating Broadway show for free when accompanied by a full-paying adult on the first Tuesday and Wednesday of every month. Tickets for March 3rd and 4th go on sale at noon today, and each event thereafter will go on sale two months prior to the event dates. Tickets for February's program are still available.

Playwrights Horizons (Tim Sanford, Artistic Director; Leslie Marcus, Managing Director) begins 2009 with the New York premiere of THE SAVANNAH DISPUTATION, a new play by Evan Smith (Psych and The Uneasy Chair at Playwrights Horizons, Remedial English for the Young Playwrights Festival at Playwrights Horizons, Servicemen at The New Group). This will be Mr. Smith's fourth collaboration with the theater company.

Playwrights Horizons (Tim Sanford, Artistic Director; Leslie Marcus, Managing Director) continues its 2008/2009 Season with the New York premiere of THE SAVANNAH DISPUTATION, a new play by Evan Smith (Psych and The Uneasy Chair at Playwrights Horizons, Remedial English for the Young Playwrights Festival at Playwrights Horizons, Servicemen at The New Group). This will be Mr. Smith's fourth collaboration with the theater company.

DON'T QUIT YOUR NIGHT JOB, featuring a revolving cast of Broadway's brightest performing without a net, returns to The Zipper Factory Theater (336 West 37th Street, between 8th and 9th Avenues) on Thursday, December 18th at 11:30pm. Tickets are $20 and proceeds go to benefit the Theatre Development Fund's Open Doors.