New York's Manhattan Theatre Club, Atlantic Theater Company, Lincoln Center Theater, The Public Theater, Second Stage Theater, and Signature Theatre commemorate the recent passing of Judith Champion with various initiatives that will enable the creation of new work by up-and-coming writers.
Champion, an architect, violinist, and dedicated supporter of the theatre, passed away July 28 after a long battle with breast cancer. In the final years of her life, she made major gifts to various theatre companies to help foster the production of original plays.
As Champion made these gifts, she said, "Support what is most important to you, and one thing that is important to me is to nurture playwriting talent so that theatre flourishes for future generations.”
Initiatives include Atlantic Theater Company's The Judith Champion Launch Commissioning Program, Lincoln Center Theater's The Judith Champion Playwrights’ Vision Fund at LCT3, Manhattan Theatre Club's Judith Champion Playwrighting Fellowship, Second Stage Theater's Judith Champion New Voices Reading Series, and Signature Theatre's newest residency program, LaunchPad. Champion’s legacy of supporting the future of new play development at The Public Theater will be announced at a later date.
“Judith Champion’s important contribution to each of our theatres is already having a profound impact on our shared goals to support living playwrights’ work, and her legacy will continue to grow in the future. We mourn her loss and express our collective gratitude for her belief in and support of the values and goals to which we have been dedicated for all of our careers,” said André Bishop, Oskar Eustis, Paige Evans, Lynne Meadow, Neil Pepe, and Carole Rothman in a joint statement.
