The National Endowment for the Arts has unveiled the 1,187 grants it will provide in the first round of its 2020 fiscal year funding. The grants, totaling $27.3 million, will go to organizations across all 50 states, as well as Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico. Of the thousand-plus grants, 274 are directed at New York-based organizations, including dozens of New York City theatre companies.
Among the NYC recipients are Manhattan Theatre Club ($25,000 toward the upcoming production of Poor Yella Rednecks), MCC ($20,000 toward All the Natalie Portmans), Atlantic Theater Company ($15,000 toward the world premiere of Sarah Silverman’s musical adaptation of her memoir The Bedwetter), New York Theatre Workshop ($20,000 toward the world premiere of Martyna Majok’s Sanctuary City), Playwrights Horizons ($30,000 toward Michael Friedman and Daniel Goldstein’s Unknown Soldier), Roundabout Theatre Company ($20,000 toward Hilary Bettis’ 72 Miles to Go), Signature Theatre Company ($45,000 toward Katori Hall’s The Hot Wing King), Lincoln Center Theater ($30,000 toward its opera adaptation of Lynn Nottage’s Intimate Apparel), and Brooklyn’s St. Ann’s Warehouse ($40,000 toward Hamlet, starring Ruth Negga).
Theatre companies across the country that received funding as well include the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center in Waterford, Connecticut, Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Huntington Theatre Company in Boston, Houston's Alley Theatre, Berkeley Repertory Theatre in California, and Signature Theatre in Arlington, Virginia.The full breakdown also notes grants for projects and productions not yet formally announced, including $80,000 toward the Metropolitan Opera’s The Fiery Angel in the 2020–2021 season, $35,000 in support of a new work by Bess Wohl at Second Stage, and $25,000 to Vineyard Theatre for the development of the new musical White Girl in Danger by Michael R. Jackson.
For the full list of grantees, which also includes classical music and dance companies, film forums, public park installations, museums, and non-profit publishing firms, visit Arts.gov.
The NEA has routinely faced elimination in President Trump's budget proposals, prompting artistic leaders to speak out. In the video below from 2017, the late Harold Prince delivers to Playbill a plea to protect the federal agency.
