Off-Broadway's Ensemble Studio Theatre, in collaboration with The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, has announced the recipients of the EST/Sloan commissions for the upcoming season. Since 1998, the EST/Sloan Project has commissioned playwrights to create new works exploring the worlds of science and technology, and to challenge existing stereotypes of scientists and engineers.
The 2020–2021 Sloan Commission recipients and plays are Bonnie Antosh (Lemuria); Jake Brasch (What?); Noah Brody and Marshall Hagins (Love Antics and Dances); AJ Clauss (Henry Makes a Bible); Nelson Diaz-Marcano (Las Boqinqueñas); Gracie Gardner (Poison); Krista Knight (UrbanXx); Jacob Marx-Rice (Binding Energy); Charissa Menefee (Iowa Enemy); Julian Mesri (A Heart in Pieces (Corazón Despedezado)); Amanda Quaid (Weathergirl); Phaedra Michelle Scott (Good Hair) and Ken Urban and Steve Cosson (The Moderate).
READ: Mia Chung, Noah Diaz, and More Among MTC's 2020 Sloan Commissions
The EST/Sloan Project also offers grants to regional theaters through the EST/Sloan Project's National Partnership for New Plays, which supports theatres who wish to sponsor a local project focused on science and technology, either by commissioning a new script or developing an existent piece.
For the upcoming season, grants were awarded to Boulder Ensemble Theatre Company for Backwards Forwards Back by Jacqueline Goldfinger; TheHangar Theatre for The Nature of Things by Michael Barakiva; Media Art Xploration (MAX) for We Are Your Robots by Ethan Lipton; and Syracuse Stage for Commanding Space: The Rise of Annie Easley and the Centaur Rocket by Stephanie Leary.