New Works by Danai Gurira, Tom Jacobson, Emily Mann, et al. Receive NEA Distinguished Play Grants

The 2010 NEA New Play Development Program’s Distinguished New Play grants have been announced. Five theaters will each receive a grant of $20,000 to support the early stages of development for a new play with strong potential to merit a full production.

The projects that have been awarded NEA funds include Tanya Saracho’s The Albert Cashier Project (About Face Theatre, Chicago); Larissa FastHorse’s Fancy Dancer (Children’s Theatre Company, Minneapolis); Tom Jacobson’s West Hollywood Musical (Cornerstone Theater Company, Los Angeles); Emily Mann’s Hoodwinked (McCarter Theatre Center, Princeton); and Danai Gurira’s Zimbabwe Project (Woolly Mammoth Theater Company, Washington, DC).

The NEA grants will help to underwrite such development activities as dramaturgy, design workshops and consultations, read-throughs, public readings, workshop productions, and open rehearsals.