NNPN Announces $60,000 in Playwright Commissions and Residencies

The NATIONAL NEW PLAY NETWORK (NNPN), the country's alliance of non-profit theaters that champions the development, production, and continued life of new plays, will award grants of more than $60,000 to playwrights for Commissions and Residencies in 2012-13. The Awards were announced at the organization's Annual Conference on June 6 in Kansas City, MO, hosted by member Unicorn Theatre Company.

PLAYWRIGHTS IN RESIDENCE

NNPN's Playwright Residencies were established in 2007 to support playwrights graduating from qualified MFA programs for season-long residencies at NNPN member theaters. Playwrights selected for the program receive stipends of $10,000 plus almost $4,000 in travel funds to learn from and engage with each other, and with NNPN members throughout the year. To date, NNPN has supported nineteen Playwright Residencies. 2012-13 recipient theaters and playwrights are:

InterAct Theatre (Philadelphia, PA) / A. Zell Williams (NYU '12)
Marin Theatre Company (Mill Valley, CA) / J.C. Lee (Juilliard '12)
New Jersey Rep (Long Branch, NJ) / Martyna Majok (Yale '12)

PRODUCER IN RESIDENCE

The Producer in Residence program was launched in 2011 to provide early-career producers with hands-on experience in mid-sized new-play theaters across the country. Like their playwright counterparts, Producers in Residence receive stipends of $10,000 plus nearly $4,000 in travel funds to learn from engage with NNPN members through the year. The Network has added a second-year grant, at half the amount, for producers and their mentors to continue their relationship. 2012-13 recipient theaters and producers are:

Actor's Express (Atlanta, GA) / Keven Becerra
Mixed Blood Theater (Minneapolis, MN) / Jamil Jude (second-year grant)

COMMISSION AWARDED TO PLAYWRIGHT-IN-RESIDENCE ALUMNUS SEAN LEWIS

NNPN's oldest initiative is its Commissioning Program, which has awarded twenty commissions since the Network's founding in 1998. The 2012 Commission, which carries an Award of $10,000, has been awarded to Horizon Theatre in Atlanta for Sean Lewis' play A-Plus, an investigation of the American public education system created from interviews to be conducted next year. Commission proposals are nominated by member theaters and voted annually by the Network's artistic directors and literary managers. The Network has awarded seventeen commissions since the program's inception; current commissions in process are out to Laura Jacqmin, Carson Kreitzer, Peter Sinn Nachtrieb, and Jen Silverman.

ABOUT NNPN

The National New Play Network (NNPN) is the country's alliance of non-profit professional theaters that champions the development, production, and continued life of new plays. Since its founding in 1998, NNPN has commissioned twenty playwrights, provided nineteen MFA graduates with paid residencies, and supported 100 productions nationwide through its innovative Continued Life of New Plays Fund, which creates "rolling world premieres" of new plays. Through these activities and others, NNPN has granted a half million dollars to theaters and playwrights in the past ten years. Hundreds of artists have gained employment through these efforts in the 24 regions of the country where NNPN member theaters are located. NNPN receives substantial support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Boeing Company, the Steinberg Charitable Trust, the Shubert Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

NNPN's 25 member theaters are: Actor's Express Theatre (Atlanta), Actor's Theatre of Charlotte (Charlotte, NC), Borderlands Theater (Tucson), Curious Theatre Company (Denver), Florida Studio Theatre (Sarasota), Fountain Theatre (LA), Horizon Theatre Company (Atlanta), InterAct Theatre Company (Philadelphia), Kitchen Dog Theater (Dallas), Magic Theatre (San Francisco), Marin Theatre Company (Mill Valley, CA), Mixed Blood Theatre Company (Minneapolis), New Jersey Repertory Company (Long Branch), New Repertory Theatre (Watertown, MA), New Theatre (Coral Gables, FL), Orlando Shakespeare Theater (Orlando), Performance Network Theatre (Ann Arbor, MI), Phoenix Theatre (Indianapolis), Playwright's Theatre of New Jersey (Madison), Prop Thtr Group (Chicago), Riverside Theatre (Iowa City, IA), Salt Lake Acting Company (Salt Lake City), Southern Rep (New Orleans), Unicorn Theatre (Kansas City, MO), and Woolly Mammoth Theater Company (Washington, DC).

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