MELLON FOUNDATION AWARDS $1 MILLION GRANT TO THE PLAYWRIGHTS' CENTER

The Center secures major award from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to support the work of playwrights. 

On September 19, the board of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation approved a 5-year $1 million grant to The Playwrights’ Center as part of a new initiative designed to change the way The Playwrights’ Center develops plays for the American stage.  It is the largest single grant in the Center’s history.   

“This investment is a huge validation–of the value we bring to playwrights, and of the new work those playwrights are creating,” states Polly Carl, Producing Artistic Director of The Playwrights’ Center.  Adds Managing Director Craig Harris, “More than 80 cents of every dollar of our funding goes directly into programming and support to member playwrights, fellows and residents.  This grant will enable us to deepen that support.”  

The grant made by the Mellon Foundation will help grow the Center’s operating revenues from $1.1 million to $1.4 million this year.  The Center will use the additional resources to enhance its services to all members, and especially to its Core Writers, playwrights of local and national distinction. These writers include Lee Blessing, Jeffrey Hatcher, Barbara Field, Dominic Orlando, Susan Miller, John Olive, Lonnie Carter, Ed Bok Lee and Rosanna Staffa, among others.   (For a complete listing and biographies of Core Writers, please see “The Lab” page of our website.)

The grant will allow The Playwrights’ Center to double its workshop hours for writers, deepen the workshop experience, and increase pay rates for theater artists (including actors, directors, designers and technical staff) involved in workshops and readings.  Member playwrights will also benefit from a number of social networking tools built by the Center into its new website that will help them promote their own work and connect with other writers, artists and potential collaborators.  Ultimately, the funding will assist the Center in achieving its mission to “champion playwrights and plays to build upon a living theater that demands new and innovative works,” helping the Center open doors for new work with producing theaters.  For example, an innovative online “trailer” project is in the works that will preview new plays the way the film industry previews new movies, and funding will increase travel to and from the Center.  Producers are now regularly flown to Minneapolis to see readings in the Center’s Waring Jones Theater; the frequency of these flights will dramatically increase.  

“In the end, the play’s the thing,” says Carl.  “Workshops, readings—these are invaluable parts of the development process. We do this work very well.  But stopping there is a bit like creating a play with no climax or conclusion.  Our aim is to see that good work—work that merits staging—reaches audiences through full productions. New work is crucial to the future of the art form — the only way to keep the theater vibrant.”