In June of 2007 the National Endowment for the Arts issued a request for proposal solicitation for a “Cooperator” for their new Leadership Initiative for New Play Development. The goal of the New Play Development Project is:
“To advance the American nonprofit theater’s ability to provide meaningful support for new work. This project will provide support to theater institutions for the development of new plays of substantial merit. …This initiative will also identify, organize, and disseminate widely in the theater field information on effective collaborative models for the sustained development of outstanding new American plays.”
Arena Stage was selected to partner with the NEA on the New Play Development Project as a result of a national competition.
The vision of Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater is to function as a full-on center for the development, production, presentation, and study of American Theater. Arena Stage is dedicated to American voices and we will have expanded capacity with the opening of the new building, capacity that we intend to deploy in service of the field. The NEA project presented an opportunity for Arena to dive into the support role that we envision as a core part of the revivified mission of the organization in the new building. We envisioned the New Play Development Project as a core activity of the American Voices New Play Program, through which we commission, develop, produce and present new plays by American writers. We saw in it the chance to formalize a commitment to understanding and advancing best practice in new play development. And we saw in it an opportunity to repurpose Arena as a ‘national theater in the nation’s capital’, by hosting and managing a field-curated selection program that identified and resourced outstanding new work at both early and late stages of development and disseminated documentation of the processes through which these works developed to the field. Finally, we envisioned the program as an opportunity to showcase the selected projects in a works-in-progress festival all under the roof of The Mead Center. This festival was not a required component of the NPDP and it will have to be supported through additional fundraising. But it will give us all a chance to see the scope of the effort in one place.
The process of applying afforded Arena’s staff a focused opportunity to explore and imagine the American Voices New Play Program and the NEA New Play Development Project to became a central element of the vision when Arena was selected by the NEA to take on the Cooperator role.
Under the rubric of the NEA New Play Development
Project, Arena will:
- Develop and manage a selection process for five early-stage development works (called The NEA Distinguished New Play Development Projects) and two works on their way to premiere (called The NEA Outstanding New American Play Selections).
- The panel process will be conform with the policies of the NEA regarding composition and process. No Arena Stage staff or Board members will serve on the panel.
- The projects will be proposed by
theater institutions eligible for NEA
support. Visit www.nea.gov/grants/apply/Theater.html > for those guidelines.
- The playwrights in each of the selected projects will receive $10,000. This is support for their work on the proposed project and cannot be used as an advance against future royalties.
- The institutions receiving the Distinguished New Play Development support will receive $10,000 each to support the development path of the selected work.
- The institutions receiving the
Outstanding New American Play support
will receive $80,000 to support the
development of the world premiere
production.
- Provide Technical Assistance and
Artistic Mentorship as requested by the
selected projects.
- Maintain an active website for
disseminating progress reports on the
selected projects and documenting practice
and outcomes of the work.
- Produce a festival in Washington, DC
where the selected works are presented in
workshops or readings for the general public
over a two-week period.
The calendar is currently being developed in
conjunction with NEA staff. At present, it looks
like this:
- April 2008
Guidelines Available.
- July 31, 2008
Postmark Deadline for Applications
- September 2008
Projects Selected by the Panel.
- October 2008
Period of support begins,
documentation begins.
- Summer 2010
First Festival of the NEA NPDP
projects anticipated.
For questions or more information,
e-mail npdpinfo@arenastage.org.
